benroethig-

The USMC has Harriers to escort their Ospreys, an issue the FAA/RAF won’t have to sweat. From what I’ve read the Osprey really isn’t an improvement over the system it will displace.

Some would argue that the Osprey isn’t working yet because they had to rewrite the rules of how to fly it and outright discard the tests it could never pass. Has it even achieved any milestones that warrant bringing it up as a positive for keeping the Harrier?

Data from the NOTAMs system on the timeframe…

A2832/10 NOTAMN
A) KZLA
B) 1011092000
C) 1011100100
E) THE FOLLOWING RESTRICTIONS ARE REQUIRED DUE TO NAVAL AIR
WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION ACTIVATION OF W537.
IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY, ALL NON-PARTICIPATING PILOTS
ARE ADVISED TO AVOID W537. IFR TRAFFIC UNDER ATC JURISDICTION
SHOULD ANTICIPATE CLEARANCE AROUND W537 AND CAE 1176.
CAE 1155 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION.
CAE 1316 & CAE 1318 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION.
CAE 1177 WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION.
W537 ACTIVE, CAE 1176 CLOSED.
F) SURFACE
G) FL390

NOTAM = notice to airmen

B-29’s were never easy pickings for MiG’s, they simply could not defend themselves at a high enough exchange rate to justify the mission. The B-29’s could fly higher once they discarded the defensive armament that the centrifugal engines in the MiG’s had trouble coping. The B-29’s up-engined into B-50’s to make themselves even more difficult to catch. You have to remember that bombers up at the interceptor’s level flight ceiling were at the advantage until the introduction of better jet engines and the dawn of the missile age.

Maybe we’re aiming a wee bit too high for the ‘interceptor’ that the ANG needs right now. Apparently low & slow is what role they need to fill. Helicopters just do not have the closing speed to disperse them in so few of locations to make these low & slow intercepts. The A-37 would have fit the role pretty decently, but its out of production. Maybe they’ll come up with some kind of short, light corporate jet derivative?

Links all over the place to similar thoughts:
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2010/09/low-and-slow.html
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2010/November/Pages/ProposedLightFighterAircraftCouldFaceBudgetHurdles.aspx
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3A27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3Aab2da192-b9b0-482a-9f2f-8895739953f8&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest

When they said ‘light’ I naturally assumed a trainer jet. In the past the coast guard has used helicopters to help out. Trying to use helicopters to defend the national border hasn’t always worked so well. It sounds like drug runners are more the target audience. They probably need something with a stall speed below 90 mph, a maximum air speed upwards of 500 mph, and a range in the couple of thousand miles range. A good set of electronic eyes for searching the volume of airspace around it, a small radar for tracking airborne targets, and a couple of underwing hard points for a minigun and stingers would probably be overkill in this context.

The other way round. Though diameter was merely the same.

You may be right. I was under the impression that the inlet on the EJ200 was 33″, but according to most sources it is the same as the RB.199 at 29″. The length of the EJ200 appears to be nearly a foot longer than the RB.199. While that might seem like the Tornado would need to be altered to use the EJ200, apparently the EJ200 was designed as the RB.199 replacement IN the Tornado before it made its way into the Eurofighter. If that is the case then it must not take too much to fit these longer engines in the Tornado.

You cannot recapitalize your money already spent. At this stage the Rafale is more expensive in the operational timeframe. Your government needs to stick to the new decision or it won’t save a single quid from it’s current plan.

Much finer granularity in your scan with the sidescan array than a globular array.