so do any of you know of kurt plummer – someone told me he and kopp both study/work in the same univ ? mr plummer was a air combat theorist and used to be very active in the mil newsgroups. a F22 & hypersonic UCAV devotee. some say he’s a genius, others a madman.
had a wierd style of writing that took hours to decipher. a small
sample :):
If the JSF was survivable on it’s own, they wouldn’t be putting such emphasis
on the the Growler and so /very many/ standoff munitions (JSOW, JDAM-REX,
AARGM, ITALD/MALD, AIM-120C-11/ERAAM/FMRAAM, SLAM-H, JASSM -and- Tomahawk IV
-and- ARRMD). All of which add up to massive rollback for it.
If you go to JSF-externals for primary PTOD droppers, what little carriage mode
options you have for internal ‘self defense cum escort’ (Air Dominance by
another name remains ARM+AAM the same) suddenly seem inadequate for assuring D1
sweeping penetration offense. Especially if the aircraft is not fully (ConDi
nozzle among others) supercruise capable.
At the same time every KPP range value I’ve seen quoted for the SHornet is
_less_ than achieved parameters done by the F-18A and indeed ‘just about the
same’ for the old-bugs final quoted radius spec. The ‘+40%’ figure has already
been debunked as a ‘CAS load’ which to me is the same as beach head assault ala
Tarawa.
I agree that AEGIS has the biggest VLS bunker and probably the hardest ECCM and
counter-ARM protection schemes. BUT, are -any- of the SM.2 or ‘mod’ variants
thereof ARH capable? If not, that means you’ve got to have LOS illumination
for the round and cannot do a _real_ ‘theatre wide’ defense where a drone gives
you horizon line and you aeroballisticate 1,500-2,000lb missiles downrange at
Mach 5-10 for intercepts on enemy air coming out the baselanes.
Shipping interdiction is unimportant at the moment. That may change if we get
into a right of passage or commerce war with China.
No. The Navy is, as usual, completley screwed up in their future strike
warfare plan. First they can’t target without AF permission and tanking. Now
they can’t fly deep without a MAJOR blue suit purchase of the platform. A
platform which is inferior to the ‘other’ unbought option that has become a
sacred cow of immense proportions.
Every time I mention UCAV’s as a multimission alternative sense+destroy
taskable option I get drowned out by the lohing ‘drone’ but I still maintain
that, especially if we want a far-presence, real-fast, there is no other choice
but to put robots to sea, ASAP.
Anybody who thinks we will have all SEVEN of the new-toy interlocking ‘manned
forever’ programs (about half a trillion dollars, before NMD) the Pentagon
wants in Peacetime, raise your hands? I didn’t think so.
Sign In
