Really? Like in Mali? Civilian crew? I’ll tell them they are civilians next time i go to Orléans 😉

Show me the paycheck of all the crew (joke mode). Part Mil. Part Airbus. You know that even better than me.

(Orléans is a city in France south west of Paris, homing a base of the AdlA with squads now dedicated to air mobility:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orl%C3%A9ans_%E2%80%93_Bricy_Air_Base )

Source;
Wiki

Why would they do that?

The combination of highly loaded delta wing and large canards give them a better configuration for a very low level ride as well of a good aero config for a high alt supersonic cruise.

Large delta would prove inferior in both those domains 😉

The X32 config was all abt simplicity. Once Boeing managed all the balancing difficulties and stability at all flight regime, the pure delta was of no needs anymore (hence the taiplane that was added late in the program).

Rectification Swerve: it could be (perhaps] the best on the market.

For the moment it is nothing else than a disastrous program with poor records in its core mission (refueling), astonishing technical glitches and unhappy customer. Then there is the Phoenix, in which I conceit, something good should come out of it.

But for the moment, A330MRT is nada when it comes to being the “best tanker on the market”. Let’s keep our feet on the ground.

Video of the F35C test at sea

Korea Could choose to service its F35 in Australia instead of nearby Japan

“There will never be a case where our fighter jets will be taken to Japan for maintenance,” said an official at South Korea’s arms procurement agency, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

Future engine work in Japan would be done by IHI Corp, which is already building engine components for Japan’s F-35 jets, according to a source familiar with the program.

In Australia, the airframe maintenance work could be done by Britain’s BAE Systems, although the Australian government could opt to compete the work, the source said.

Source:
Reuters

Is this real ??? Usually that guy is quite a reliable poster ?!!! :confused:

hard to say after only 5 min watching it in details but nothing in there to make it genuinely true. cld hve been ps.

@ BiO,

the Growler might have a flat power requirement (curve) when the Laser application is more Gaussian. So what could be achievable for the Growler might not represent the tech involved for the laser.

Also note that a twin turbine aircraft have less torque than a single big engine. Don’t forget that PW & LM have builld the 135 that it has enough power to drive the fan through a shaft (35B). This means inherently that the 135 is a formidable source of electrical power (that need to be cooled accordingly 😉 ) in the contrary of the twin, smaller 404 in the growler.

Regarding my theory for the Meteor, as was explained in details in another thread, I am not theorizing that Laser are going to replace BVR missile, not even WVR IR missiles.

Simply said, long range Rocket-stato missiles like the Met are optimized for longer cruise and will reach their target with some fuel left and a slower speed (at least in average if we compare the geo of engagement – considering same range of course). A laser hit being an energy transfer b/w a source of E and a target, any explosive charge or fuel inboard will be like an Energy sink, absorbing it until detonation occurs (the video in the AFRL vido linked by you shows exactly the same process with a non-dissipative material blasting away under the instant energy input). Hence the theorized needs to enter the defensive sphere of an HELAD equipped aircraft without any of both those components: explosives and fuel.

That’s why H2K and short impusle/relit rocket motor (brief) are, INMHO, the future in term of missiles.

Regards,

Tom

@TooCool12F: I was obviously overdoing it. But as BiO noticed, you are mixing Chemical laser with other tech (electrically mainly). There are same good source accessible via google. I think someone posted a very good link regarding the different tech in Laser some times ago on that forum (BiO ?).

One of the next application for Laser that I see to reach the battlefields would be the Gunship application. Replace the mortar by a side firing laser: it would be ideal to complement a miniguns and hellfire_likes.

Norway does not really have money problems. IIRC the Norwegian “assessment” that artificially boosted projected life cycle cost of Gripen operation was to demonstrate to decision makers that F-35 was the better aircraft on both performance and cost criteria. End of debate in terms of which of the two to choose, wasn’t it?

Re: 37 F-35’s, that was for Netherlands. Haven’t checked ny facts here so shoot me down if I’ve got anything wrong. I think they are down to about 60 active F-16’s now due to having to cannibalise aircraft for spares because the replacement is… how can I put it?… just a tad late. Their replacement with an aircraft that will be a quantum leap more expensive to operate will require cuts elsewhere in the armed forces. Had they chosen F-18 or Gripen, they would not have to be thinking of how much to cut the size of their navy and how many bases to close to find the funds to operate F-35. I believe that the Netherlands is rethinking its entire defence for the coming years in order to fund a first day strike aircraft which is so expensive that only 4 will be available for first day NATO strike operations where the US can easily make 50 times as many available. In other words the contribution of Netherlands to NATO operations involving F-35 will be almost entirely insignificant at the cost of a radical restructuring of defence of the Dutch realm.

Utter stupidity to me. But there we go: I’m not American and I don’t see Europe’s role as having to follow what America does when the electorate of most European countries is not prepared to follow the American electorate in funding a large defence budget.

And there we go again. The Americans…

Can we keep the debate around facts ? It’s a product. A product selected in term of perfs and capabilities.

When your wife go to the supermarket to buy some detergents, do you submit her to such diatribes about the US and how buying bleach and other products increase the US dominion on the Freedom of Eu ?

Well, see it as it is: the 35 promise juts to be a flying bleach jug. Clean your skies from intruder, swap enmy forces from the ground, pinpoint and erase any group of maniac killer wrapping their madness with ideologies where ever they hide.

Oh, and don’t call my post irrational… I am just straying for a minute in your rhetoric…