Just figure they are aiming for towed target rigs that emit an infrared signature that is similar to a jet plume. Its unlikely they got to shoot at something real. They can blow up things in the simulators for much less cost. But combat simulators don’t give the same look and feel of the real deal, so I can only imagine live firings (usually with non-armed warheads you have to figure) allow the pilots better opportunity to see, hear, and feel what its like to carry out a mission from beginning to end.

I still light off amusements on independence day even though I’ve seen the same fireworks over and over the past thirty years. Even though they probably are built the same, explode the same, and look the exact same over these years I just never seem know what to expect when that fuse is burning.

haha, no but are they tracking the same IR signature? or can the pilots and their missles pick out the target they want?

Yes. Why not?

Is the F-117 really Sidewinder capable? I think in a Tom Clancy story it uses its Sidewinder to down AWACS or something like that, but I didnt give it much credibility. 🙂
Regardless, the F-117 certainly a classic.

I’ve only seen claims it was tested as was the Maverick, but none of the claims come with details. If it had agm-88 compatibility then it had pretty much everything it needed for aim-9, because to do first one you have what it takes to do the latter. Its not always true in reverse.

Its nice we have MiG-23MLD here to explain in great detail and obsfucate everyone. It really provides a crystal clear picture for the rest of us to appreciate.

crobato-

I’m pretty sure high AoA was not such a problem with the F-15, especially from the F-15C forward. The lerx is a low tech way of achieving what the F-15’s complicated air intake was designed. The real key of the F-15’s arrival was its brutish turning ability that was itself eclipsed by the F-16 and pretty much every air superiority and light fighter since. Few modern aircraft still match the F-15 in raw altitude performance, certainly not any of the light fighters, and the ones that do are even more specialized.

As for Harpoons and Maverick, the F-15 wasn’t tasked with those for a reason. It was much cheaper and more effective logistically to put them on the true maritime and ground support aircraft, respectively. Its only after the dawn of the multi-role fighter that one would even consider it on an F-15, which both options are available on today’s F-15E if the consumer wants it integrated in. The F-15 was really only an air superiority fighter up until the F-15E.

SAM kill and SAM test are two different animals, true, but the technology has been successfully proven on accidnet with the S-200 over the Black Sea out to a range almost equal to the Talos kill of the MiG-21. What was it, 200 innocent passengers dead?

If Tejas used the same engine as the F-18E/F would India be more inclined to use the latter?

The lightweight maffia has been around for a long, long time, and just can’t be crushed. The Tejas and J-10 are definately offspring from this line of thought, and by no means ‘new’. Even more so, for embryonic national industries, there simply are less risks involved in developing a satisfactory lightweight then there are in a weight-ain’t-an-issue-let’s-get-ambitious project like the F-111 or F-22/F-23 were, for example.

LWF programs are cost worthy for less-than-top performers. If you aren’t king of the hill then why waste your money on fewer inferior types? You want to maximize the number of airframes in the air. You would see the F-22’s become ineffective if they faced 15:1 to 20:1 numbers against inferior opponents that could sustain enough airframes to overwhelm the F-22 airbases. They have much less of a threat for their money if the numbers drop to 4:1 or 5:1 numbers. This is why I think the Chinese are going for short-term leaps in logistical improvements for their air force versus huge leaps in expensive technologies they cannot afford.

The future is swarms of inexpensive, stealth, lightweight air-superiority capable drones that double as bomb trollies. Once they gain air superiority then they can lug external loads over the enemy.