LokeBoeing will bid the aircract they can best compete with , and as of now the market economics , performance nad COST of the F-18E/F program is far more competitive then that of the F-15E , even in australia boeing came out with the F-18E/F and not the F-15E , there is a reason behind this !!
Could it not also be related to the fact that Australia already operated the Hornet and the SH has some commonality with it? (I don’t know, just asking :))
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LokeThank you for reminding him of that.
“Gripen Gets A Grip”, pp 104-105, by Craig Hoyle. 9-15th June 2009 issue. May be online, but I haven’t looked.
Perhaps this one?
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/06/07/327209/paris-air-show-gripping-gripen.html
🙂
LokeCan’t pilots still look around through the canopy to see where they’re going? As for locating friendly aircraft, datalinks can provide the necessary information. In a controlled airspace, generally the aircraft will “squawk” to the tower, telling the controllers who and where it is (radar is not the primary source of data in such situations).
AFAIK, 3 of the 15 Norwegian F16s lost, have been due to mid-air collisions, presumably during training.
When not in “stealth mode” the risk of colliding will of course not be higher than for e.g. F-16, however I would guess that sometimes they would like to train in stealth mode, and I would think that the probability of mid-air collision would increase. Or can they use the datalink when they are in “stealth mode”?
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LokeAs for the scenario of F-22A vs F-22A with full stealth, a Raptor’s pilot declared that USAF had played such games a few years ago, but the results are usually boring: Both sides are usually unable to find out each other during the whole exercise……
If that’s the case then:
1. in the future one serious concern could be Accidents: If you cannot detect another a/c how can you avoid collisions?
2. The dog fight may return, since you may not detect eachother until you are really really close. F-35 fanboys will of course point out that with HOBS the dog fight will consist of pushing a button, and the winner will be the one with the best IRST and the best missiles. I wonder?
3. Air superiority may become impossible to achieve if both sides have roughly same stealth levels — your opponent can always be lurking around as long as he still has some stealth a/c left… Unless the Swedes finalise their promising VLO-detection system of course… then all VLO a/c will become food for SAM.
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LokeOnly 120 F135 in 2016
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2009/06/is-pws-f135-crystal-ball-half-.html
Pratt & Whitney is building capacity to produce a maximum of 120 F135 engines in 2016 to support the Lockheed Martin F-35 programme, Pratt & Whitney military executive Tom Farmer told my colleague John Croft last week.
I think that’s an interesting data point as Congress debates the future of the F136, the General Electric and Rolls-Royce team’s alternate engine.
We know that Lockheed plans to build about 240 F-35s in 2016.
This means P&W would need to dramatically increase production capacity if the F136 is canceled. This is a perhaps hidden cost if Congress fails to restore funding for the alternate engine.
On the other hand, if the F136 survives, P&W’s projected output means the company is anticipating a 50-50 split at peak production levels. To me, that does not sound like a ringing endorsement of the competition strategy.
Another explanation could be that LM expects delays…?
What do you think? 120 F136 in 2016 or reduced production of F-35?
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LokeGovt to put off F-X fighter plan / Lack of information on favored models forces postponement
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Defense Ministry likely will not include the cost of purchasing next-generation F-X fighters for the Air Self-Defense Force in its budgetary request for fiscal 2010.
The article refers to six models but mentions only F-22 and F-35; for sure Typhoon is among the six, which are the last three, does anybody know?
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LokeHen fall victim to Gripen
http://www.thelocal.se/19938/20090608/
The Swedish armed forces has agreed to compensate a poultry farmer in northern Sweden after an air force exercise caused the death of 31 chickens.
The hens were crushed to death in a panicked mêlée when the Jas Gripen fighter aircraft flew at an altitude of 50-100 metres above their coop at the farm in Jörn near Skellefteå in the far north of Sweden.
Farmer Ã…sa Karlsson, in her complaint to the armed forces, confirmed that the hens were scared out of their wits by the roar of the low flying fighter jets overhead. The brood ran towards a wall of their enclosure and 31 birds fell victim in the surge.
The sum was agreed between the parties based on a calculation that the hens had a further seven weeks to live and would have been expected to produce a harvest of 14 eggs per week
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LokeWhat do you think the US DOD (not LM, it is the DOD which sets export prices) quoting a F-35A flyaway cost of $58.7 million (FY2008 dollars) for partner nations is?
According to Norwegian DoD this is not a binding quotation. It’s just an estimate. Meaning that the price can go up if the assumptions change.
Furthermore I am still puzzled by the 70million USD fly-away estimate given to Norway — Since they used the January 2008 exchange rate I wonder if this was FY08 dollars and not estimate for 2016?
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LokeOtherwise, here’s a tactic. Have a bunch of F4E Phantoms following at distance your first line fighters. Integrate a HOB missile to the F4E and carry full load. As soon as they are in range of the merge between the front line fighters and the F22s, start shooting all your HOBs. All F22s shot down with 1970 era aircrafts. 😀
This tactic would probably not work against the F-22 — with it’s very low RCS and high supercruise speed it will be out of reach.
For F-35 however perhaps the following tactic might work?
Send up some 4.gen fighters with good supercruise capabilities, perhaps together with lots of UAVs simulating fighters.
Count the number of shots from the each F-35… Once they have fired their 4 (or 6, depending on the block number) AMRAAMs, use supercruise to chase the fleeing F-35s… then you treat them like baby seals… :diablo:
Gripen NG, Typhoon, Rafale(?), SU-35 would all be capable of doing this. Gripen NG however is cheaper than the others and would therefore be the perfect F-35 killerl 😀 (SU-35 may have lower fly-away(?) but for sure the LCC would be lower for the Gripen)…
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LokeWould you like to provide a source to support that argument……….
I’ve have seen nothing from the USAF to support such a claim of 60%…..:confused:
Funny, the USAF is and has been forward deploying Raptor all over the World. Including to Okinawa at this very moment. Funny, I don’t see or hear of 60%
Scooter, you are very good at asking others for sources but you hardly ever provides sources yourself for the statements you are making. Now, why don’t you for once provide a source demonstrating the high MTBF and high availability of F-22? Preferrably a reliable, recent source… :rolleyes:
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LokeThis “News” is from a British newspaper…………..Say no more. :rolleyes:
In Norway it is common that people experienced in dealing with media ask to read the article before it’s printed.
Anyway if the info is wrong then presumably there will be a statement from RAF stating that the info was wrong?
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LokeHe also revealed for the first time that the Typhoon force will consist of around 123 jets and not the 232 as originally planned.
…
The RAF will only receive just over half the original number of the 232 Typhoons which were originally ordered, the rest will be sold to foreign allies to help pay for the cost of the aircraft.
They sold 72 to Saudi but I thought they were not allowed to deduct those from the total number? Perhaps that has now changed? And even so, they still need to sell another 37. Perhaps Switzerland can get a very good price? It seems the UK would be desperate to get rid of the a/c. And I think Italy also want to sell some T1 planes.
Anyway, not good news for Eurofighter, but good news for countries that want to buy from the UK and can squeeze the brits really hard on the price :diablo:
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LokeInstead of developing a stealthy tanker:
What about using the F-35 and do buddy-fueling?
Imagine you modify some F-35 by replacing the internal bomb bays with two huge fuel tanks.
One could perhaps use F-35C for this role, it seems to have significantly longer range than the As.
How much fuel could you fit into the bomb bays of an F-35?
Don’t they use SH for buddy fueling, how would a modded F-35 compare to an SH in terms of fuel capacity?
Edit: Wiki says SH can take 29000 pounds (13,000 kg) of fuel.
Edit2: F-35 bomb bay mockup:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F-35_weapons_bay.jpeg
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LokeBut the US has already signalled to partner nations that it will take the risk even to the point of basically selling LRIP aircraft to them at the expected price of full rate production aircraft so that they don’t need to wait for full rate production to get.
Do you have a source for this?
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LokeThe Norwegian Parliament will now debate this with a decision expected within weeks.
They will not debate, they will “debate”. And the decision has been made already (F35).
Only extremely unlikely events can change this now (like cancellation of the F-35 program; armed revolution in the US followed by dissolution of NATO; asteriods hitting LM, etc.)
L
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