The main issue with the introduction of the Meteor is the need for that.

1. A stealth fighter with the best technology available is the least platform in need of a very long range non-stealthy missile of that type.
2. the survavibility of a non stealth platform trying to engage a Stealth aircraft with a meteor at long range is controversial
3. There is the issue with the exhaust plume and on-board fuel remaining once the missile close in regarding Laser defense that will be carried by the newer platform*.
4. The flight time itself is an issue. With an update at long range, it’s more a matter of being confident in your tactics than everything else**.

So, I understand that the industry want to see meteor being carried on the thousands of airframes that will be rolled out of the production line. But are the military that will fly the 35 really in need for that capacity ? That is probably dubious***.

The irony out of it is that the Mach something stato missile will probably reach the inventory… too late.

*History have shown us that you don’t carry a panoply of specific AAM for different targets.
**A Mica (like teh AIM9x Blck II) with a slight increase in range makes more sense
***A MeteorLike for the PakFA and meteor being carried by the other indigenous stealth fighters makes more senses

It effectively means you have to incorporate a flaw into the radar.

You shld have read the tech brief of the F35 regarding its cyberwarfare capabilities.

Active and discrete Jamming can talk to your opponent’s radar to infiltrate or corrupt. Man will guess that building yourself the Radar of your opponent’s would help. Noting related to a flaw. It’s plain logic.

The UK would be better off allowing their kit or someone they can influence’s kit in the Saab. Even limited control is some control which is better than no control. The nightmare scenario would be facing Gripen NG sweep over The Falklands that carried both ELTA radar and ECM/eccm gear as well as Python V/U Darter that has a working datalink. That would be bad.

+1

With cyber warfare now a routines in every Industrial country, sending 3 dozen of Radar to the Argentinian shld not rebuke cool minded people. The political cost of holding down that sale is much too great for UK than some “hypothetical” benefits.

Let the Argies get what they want in term of UK radar and be prepared to render them useless if ever needed.

You mean a J31 ?

The 10x refers to the video, not the actual image processing. The EODAS units themselves do not have any optical zoom functions of their own, but the pilot can choose digital zoom as needed. Unlike narrow FOV sensors like EOTS, the EODAS never stops looking at and processing the entire 360 space around the F-35, regardless of any digital zoom the pilot chooses.

To complement:

A digital image processing unit will only count pixels, no matter what the optical magnification is upstream. So that they state “X10” only depicts the huge resolution of the matrix.

And, I am sorry, but at the above mentioned distance (see Lukos post), that’s pretty good for me. Notice also the reacquiring sequence btw one sensor and the other : Impressive

US Airdrops Arms to Kurds in Syrian Town of Kobani

From the above quoted article:

One official said that while the results of the mission are still being assessed, it appeared that “the vast majority” of the supplies reached the intended Kurdish fighters. That official also said the C-130s encountered no resistance from the ground in Syria during their flights in and out of Syrian airspace.

One of the administration officials said the airdrops should be seen as a humanitarian move. […] U.S. officials believe that if Kobani were to fall, the Islamic State militants would massacre Kurds in the town.

[…] “you might see more” U.S. resupply missions to benefit the Kurdish fighters in Kobani in the days ahead.

EDIT:
In response in seems te Turkish gvnt have agreed at least to open its border for the Kurdish fighters to join more easily the fight. It remaisn to be seen if the drops operation are extended

Following the news in early Oct14 that some CW remains in Syrian Government’s force hands (a handful) and the possibility of similar caches in Irak from Saddam Hussein’s regime :

Assistant Defense Secretary Andrew Weber said the Pentagon has determined that the regime of President Bashar Assad has surrendered virtually all of its CW stockpile and that any discrepancies in Syria’s reporting to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were marginal

In a roundtable on Oct. 7, Weber acknowledged that the Assad regime might not have declared all of its CW stockpile. But the official, responsible weapons of mass destruction programs, said any concealment involved small amounts of what was termed tactical stockpiles.

“There are caches of this stuff clearly out there — it would be folly just to assume there aren’t,” an aide to the House Armed Services Committee said, referring to the possibility of the Islamic State seizing chemical materials in Iraq or Syria. “It’s a contingency you have to be prepared for.” The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

http://www.worldtribune.com/