I dont know about the other misilles, but NSM you can program to hit where ever u like on the Iowa Class, and if it doesnet have a CIWS, then the misille would not need to manouver and can proberly hit very precise on the ship.

“Naval Strike Missile has target hit point selectability, meaning it can be programmed to strike a certain part of a certain enemy ship, such as the bridge. On impact it delivers a 276-pound high-explosive warhead. The warhead has a programmable fuse, allowing it to detonate on contact with an enemy ship or deep within an enemy ship’s interior. The missile is described as having a titanium warhead, which is likely to help penetrate enemy hulls.”

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-norway-building-one-the-worlds-most-lethal-missiles-it-18696

So even if it cant sink the ship with only one missile, I bet it can do “something” to the Iowa so that the Iowa would have to abort is mission and go for repairs

No, a clean Gripen NG needs only 500m takeoff, and 600 meter for landing
https://saab.com/globalassets/commercial/air/gripen-fighter-system/gripen-for-brazil/pdf-gripen-ng/gripen-ng-brochure.pdf

Finland used it up to the 80’s, and I most smile :highly_amused: of why they bought it, and how they used it 🙂

“Finland also obtained five Il-28Rs and one Il-28 in the 1960s, with three of these converted to target tugs. Ironically, the Finns used their Il-28Rs to spy on the neighboring “Bear” to the east, skirting the border and then drifting over when the coast seemed clear to inspect any suspicious activity on the eastern side of the fence. The local Soviet air defense command found the Finnish Beagles a persistent nuisance, but never managed to shoot one down. It is interesting to wonder if the Soviets ever thought, when they sold the Il-28Rs to Finland, who besides the USSR the Finns felt they really needed to keep an eye on.”
Link 😀
http://www.airvectors.net/avil28.html

The “gun is essential” view of CAS is an archaic throwback to the time when biplanes ruled the skies over the trenches during WWI – spraying projectiles across the countryside (most missing their targets). The A-10 carries 1350 rounds and might kill 5 targets. The remaining 1345 rounds miss!

How about a modern view where the CAS asset uses its sensors to ID targets and program a target-specific number of tiny “killer bee” PGMs, which seek out and destroy their assigned targets?
If the “killer bee” loadout weighs the same 1800+kg as the A-10’s GAU-8, and an individual “killer bee” weighs 1 kg, and has a 50% hit rate, then the modern CAS asset can kill 900 targets. That is an 18,000% improvement over the A-10!

My point is to stop re-fighting the last war using archaic technology. M346 as CAS is a losing proposition.

No, the remaining rounds is no miss! Each bullet not hitting target will be noticed by boots on the ground, so they will find cover! And as long as you hear the A10 gun occatinally, you will try to be in hiding. You just dont get the same effect from bombs and rockets.

It’s hard to pick anything over Su-35S.

Nope, not hard at all! Personally I would off course pick SU-34. Its the only fighter with a toilet, and u can even lay down and take an nap on the floor between the seats. And if you get hungry, u can cook dinner in the kitchen. So when we all fly together in formation in our SU, I will laugh of you all when you start complaining about need to go to the bath rom, so hungry and so so tired 😛

So in the end this was exactly what it looked like. A clueless blogger trying to briefly make headlines before being debunked…

An early pre-production aircraft operating without a number of key systems enabled participated in tests intended to refine its flight control system. Not surprisingly, the testers had a variety of recommendations.

This was of course twisted to, “OMG F-35 is doomed… DOOOMED!!!”

What would be a heck of a lot more interesting would be an F-35 flying with its full avionics enabled in an exercise designed to simulate real combat conditions… Red Flag or similar.

Bla, bla, bla! F-16, Mig-29, F-15, Su-27 All of them had prototypes and preproduction planes that was really exellent in dogfighting manuvers without latest software. Testpilots properly knows the limits of their test planes, and because of that have an pretty good idea about the potensial of what the production plane will be like. Better software can proberly tweak manouvring a little bit, but it cant do miracles to the aerodynamic of the plane. Does this test pilot sounds confident in hes belives of his plane?

Sweden and Finland is slowly increasing cooperation, currently it involves common situational awareness and basic preparations to each others airbases.

For several years now, finnish, swedish and norwegian planes have manouvers in the northern scandinavia once a month, or maybe now each second month to train bigger scale, and to meet other fighters with different tacktics.