When the Mig-31 uses this “1000km range” radar, won’t it light itself up like a lighthouse in the dark, and if it is flying above 60k ft, looking down on any awacs how good is its ability for look down search, tracking? etc…….

What are the ECM like on the awacs, surely the very large missiles the mig fires can be prone to a large amount of jamming.

The only military radars in Russia with a range of 1000km are on the ground, are made of concrete, are very large and track stuff in space!!! They are not fitted to supersonic fighters.

He is a fanboi what do you expect?

Well he knows ****** all about antenna gain, radio frequncey power absobtion by water vapour for higher frequency’s, pulse lengths or anything about drag curves v engine power at transonic and supersonic speeds (that’s what the engine power in the Foxhound is mainly for, make the thing fly very fast) or the fact that the E-3 had an upgrade a few years back to track low RCS targets…Wouldn’t call the Mig 31 Stealthy by a long shot especially if its tanking in at supersonic speed. Though of course having never seen the difference in size of a Radar return of an aircraft at subsonic speed and the Radar return of the same aircraft when it was supersonic (much, much bigger) he wouldn’t known this. I on the other hand having watched Concorde going supersonic (and vice versa) over the Western Approaches on an old style CRT PPI radar display have seen a big return suddenly become a small one as the Concorde dropped to subsonic speed inbound, and the opposite going the other way (supersonic shockwave will reflect radio energy quite well, and there is ****** all you can do to stop it). Humm, Tomahawk, other cruise missiles and Stealth aircraft may be subsonic for a reason (though the F22 and F35 have to be supersonic to allow them to get from point A to point B in rapid order, but I can never see them entering a fight above Mach 1).

u mean this exercise. It is irrevelant in MIG-31 case. First MIG-31 exchange two way information with ground based radars but also with group of MIG-31. So it has complete air picture. And if it has to attack it will go to speeds and heights where F-16/F-18 are practically hopelss. F-18 top speed is Mach 1.6. It is can barely go supersonic with weopons. when E-3D is painted by MIG-31 radar the fear of unknown missile will turn it away from battlefield.

One big problem with your senario, well a lot actually. Firstly, the Mig 31 will not be fighting F16’s or F18’s but at F-22’s which will be sitting at 65,000ft and shooting at your Foxhounds in the face at missile release range as they will be located well ahead of the E-3. Now why would they be there??? Cause the E-3 will see the Mig long before the Mig will see the E-3. Secondly what ground based radar??? Any war would see them eatting HARM’s or ALARM’s in very short order. Of course thirdly, your Mig 31’s have to get off the ground first. Not easy with a line of Tomahawk craters down the runway, plus the Foxhound is not what I would call a STOL airframe. (I’ve seen what a Anti runway strike by Tomahawks actually looks like from the air over Iraq. Impressive targeting, runway cut in 7 places in a nice zig-zag pattern either side of the centreline, every warhead impacting on the runway). When the E-3 does evade the attack, if it happens, it will be back, which is more than I would say for the Mig 31, which would be Slammer fodder. Give up Fanboy, your just digging a bigger hole for yourself.

Having had the pleasure of actually been on an E3D for 10 hours a few years back, I can say that the coverage of its radar is huge, much bigger than any ground based radar bar the space tracking equipment like BMEWS. As for dealing with threats, Tom Clancy and Larry Bond pretty much well covered how to kill AWACS (Stealth fighter or mass formation attack) and how an AWACS counters attack when it can see it (Turn radar off, full power dive for the deck away from the threat and head for the other side of whatever air defences you have on land, sea (SAM Missile Engagement Zones) or in the air) accuracy in ‘Red Storm Rising’. The E3 does also countermeasures, but I’m not going to describe them on here. If operated correctly, a massive force multiplier and not very easy to kill.

If you compare the overall accident rate, its not much different from other jets of the period. Just got a lot more press coverage. Other air forces had much better accident rates with the aircraft.

and a lot didn’t……

Starfighter loss ratios where known

Spain 0% (didn’t lose one single F-104, though didn’t have many, operated the type as a pure interceptor in good flying weather for not a long period compared to other operators)

Norway 13.6% (6 aircraft)

Japan 15% (36 aircraft)

Denmark 23.5% (12 aircraft)

USA 22.74%+ (63 aircraft minimum, maybe much higher, 49 aircraft lost by 1961, 14 aircraft lost in Vietnam, (8 in combat)).

Germany 31.9% (292 aircraft)

Netherlands 35.8% (43 aircraft)

Belgium 37% (41 aircraft)

Italy 37.5% (137 aircraft)

Canada, a whopping 46% (110 aircraft)

Other operator loss ratios are unknown, however Turkey’s F-104 losses are reckoned to have been quite high.

However, your right about the loss rates of other jet combat aircraft of the time, EE Lightning losses ran at around 30%

Just came into my mind, if you were to chase a flying saucer, what aircraft would you choose for that?

I originally though about Raptor but then an idea came into my mind – do ETs use something as primitive as radars, at all?

EE Lightning, maybe?

Something designed for the job may be a good idea…..

Rupert Murdoc’s finest (same name as a British Sat TV channel, for those non UK Forum members who will say what has Murdoc got to do with Gerry Anderson’s UFO).

The thing I don’t understand is the Sea Harriers went out and they had better radar than the normal Harriers!

No Harrier, bar the AV-8B(Plus) was fitted with any form of Radar, bar a Rad Alt. Sea Harrier was canned, because it couldn’t be modified to fit a more powerful engine to allow it to VL carrying expensive PGM in hot and high conditions. Thus it was only really good for A2A missions, which wasn’t much use as the current enemies do offer an A2A threat of about ZERO. A bit of Politics involved as well though.