VF-1 Wolf Pack, of course.

If the US gives one the Okay, it has to the three. My betting would be on Israel getting them first though.

Israel is on the Sierra List on account of the Lavy and a few others. I don’t believe they’ll get the F-22 no matter how much they bitch.

Thats right … a significantly lower RCS … probably the best of the non-stealth aircraft. No matter what they do with the F-15E AESA it will never be as well intergrated or advanced as the Rhinos.

Let me start by saying that I thing the Rhino is a mighty fine warplane. The F model, block II with ASEA and ACS cockpit is a very potent bird.

However, on the matter of RCS, I beg to differ. A clean F/A-18F has a very reduced RCS, yes, I’ll be happy to bet even money in your assumption that it is the lowest of the “non-stealth”. But a clean Rhino has very little military application. When it is loaded for bear, there goes the RCS advantage altogether. Its weapons (AIM-120/9 excluded) are non-stealthy, as are its drop tanks, even more with that bad 4º cant carriage…

Speed? All out, F-14 has top speed no question. What about acceleration? Equal here.

Surely you jest. In what regime does the SH has better acceleration than a GE-engined Tomcat? If there is such a regime it must be narrower than a whisker. On the vast majority of conditions an F-14B/D has far better acceleration than the SH.

The Super Hornet has to be more stealthy than the F-18A/C and the F-14, at least it`s inlet design shows a better Stealthy treatment.
It must also have better AoA handling characteristics and at least as good in agility as the F-18C with those huge LERXes.

It sure has better AoA. And far worse acceleration and end speed. As for stealth, that is a falacious argument at best. Granted, the Super Hornet has a lower RCS than the Tomcat, in clean configuration(!)

Loaded for bear – which is the only time that counts – the conformal bomb carriage of the Tomcat is far superior than the “hanged-under-the-wings-canted-4-degrees-to-the-outside” of the SH. Loaded the SH has no stealth edge over the Tomcat that’s worth a fig.

How about the lovely little Dragonfly sporting a whopping four AIM-9’s!

If I am not mistaken, that is a Tweety (T-37C), not a Dragonfly (A-37A/B).

Some food for thought…

The Portuguese government has expressed the desire to sell 20 of the currently held F-16s after MLU;
The MLU is to be performed by OGMA;
OGMA is nowadays essencialy owned by Embraer.

You may see Vipers in the FAB future yet… we’ll see…

Project Get Out and Walk

That Ukranian Su-27 photo of the infamous crash is the most dramatic I have it to see… begs the question, is it a real photo, or was photoshop involved somewhere? I would expect it to have been everywhere, were it real. Anyone has the goods on that one?