cruBlackcat,
Don’t hurry to feel sorry for US because of the national debt.
The sum seems unbelieveble: 7700 billion!
But reported to their GDP the US debt is 62.4% of GDP (2003), France is 68.8% of GDP (2003), Japan is 154.6% of GDP (2003), Germany 64.2% of GDP (2003), Canada 77% of GDP (2003), Egypt debt is 101.8% of GDP (2003), Greece debt is 100.9% of GDP (2003), Austria debt is 67.7% of GDP (2003), Italy debt is 106.4% of GDP (2003), even countries like Switzerland and Sweden have debt over 50% of GDP. The percentage is more important than the actual amounts (which is still quite high for many nations) because it relates directly to the nations ability to rectify the debt. The US has a substantial debt but as a precentage is in a better position to budget itself out of debt when compared to the many nations with debt 70% and the many with debt over 100% of the GDP
cruGo to http://www.afa.org/magazine/May2004/0504structure.pdf. That the 2004 USAF almanac–planes, bases, manpower, major command,you name it.
If the link doesn’t work, just type the address.
cruIt is merely something that will stop Bush from thinking about invading NK or doing to NK what he is doing to Iraq.
As a deterent it is not much good if you have already used it. Having made one then more are likely. Having a few dozen would be enough to stop any SK attack even if it is supported by the US. That will make him feel safer, which is actually a good thing.
First of all, why would US invade NK? Don’t forget that the stand off between US and NK is the result of NK nuclear ambitions.
Second, why would SK invade NK? As far as I know SK is a democracy (a young one,agreed) a rich country, and a victim of 1950 NK invasion. Someone on these forum must have been skiped the history class…
cruKim will probably use it as a blackmail tool, in order to obtain more food and fuel from US,SK and Japan, and more atention from the international media, so internally he would be able to remain in power in this starving country.
Kim is a little prick, but is aware that if ever uses the bomb, NK will be transformed a big smoking hole in matter of hours…
cruFlogger, in on of your previous post (#18 from 14 August) you attached 3 images representing, you said, MiGs 31. I’m not an MiG 25/31 expert, but I believe that the first 2 pictures represent a MiG 25 because the main landing gear has only one pair of wheeles, oposed to 4 in the case of mig 31
cruMan, what a poem about Russian generosity…
The prices of oil and gas are, indeed, not established by Russia, but by demand/supply balance. Due to its “hot” economy, China needs more oil and this, plus a cold winter sent the prices sky high; also, because it is the “cleanest” fuel, natural gas is demanded more and more by W Europeans.
What I meant was that Russia has benefit from these increased fuel prices. Consequently, a drop in these prices will hurt the Russian economy. Don’t forget that in terms of exports, Russia is more like a third world country–it exports mainly oil, gas, raw materials. Oh, yes, some 10-12 Flankers/year :diablo:
About the Russian generosity in providing fuel a ½ of its price, it is just a mean to keep these countries in its sphere of influence…
cruDon’t forget the obscene price level of two most important exports of Russia: oil and natural gas…
cruInterestingly enough, we can choose what to believe about Raptor’s capabilities, as well. I hate to disappoint you, but you got nothing more about F/A-22 than its manufacturer’s claims, as well.
In the case of future Russians IRST we only have manufacturers claims.
In the case of Raptor we have the certitude that it met and exceeded all the USAF requirement. Now it is true that very few people know what there requirement were.
cruSo, if the IDF/AF feels confident it can challenge an S-300 site using F-16’s, tactics using the F-22 really increase the pilot’s chances of survival.
Don’t forget about the F 16 block 60. Its EW internal suite (Falcon Edge) is considered highley effective agaisnt Russian double digit
The reason LPI radars are so difficult to detect is because almost every pulse is of a different frequency and in some cases (like the F-22) a different power level. The result is the signal comes to the RWR as “random” noise or static!
The reason the AESA radar (LPI could be found on mech. scan. radars) are so difficult to detect is that, unlike the classic radar (wich send, with each pulse, an important amount of EM energy in a narrow frequency band), the AESA divide the pulse in dozens of subpulses of different freq.and modulation. So even both radars illuminate the target with the same amount of energy, in the case of AESA each subpulse is to low to trigger the RWR (it is like the AESA radar is, let’s say, 500 km away instead 100km).
cruI wonder why the F-15E shall be supercruise-capable, and F-15C not. IIRC, the F-15C has a lightweight airframe w/o the reinforcements of the F-15E, I don’t see the reason why it should have been slower.
T/W ratio is better for the E (with 229 engines, of course); the weight has increased, but so did the thrust.
I got no info about Russians being able to supercruise in clean config, any details?
None in this moment; they are optimised for subsonic; however with the obscene amount of fuel they can carry :diablo: , a few dozen Nmiles in AB shoud not be a problem
cruIt lacks sharp teeth, as AMRAAM is one generation behind the whole conception of supremacy.
And what operational missile do you consider that would give some “sharp teeth” to the Raptor?
May be Meteor 😉 ? Or the R-77M-PD 😮 !
cruI was specifically mentioning the IDF F-4 Phantoms, IIRC.
In this case, my apologies. However,even IIRAF F 4 shot a few MiG 25 (if the IIRAF claimes could be trust). Anyway the point is that MiG 25 wasn’t quite uniterceptable
What? F-104 matching MiG-25 in terms of SPEED?
In terms of operational speed, yes. However, if a MiG 25 user wanted to go M 2.8, he would be able, but with the cost of a pair of engines 😉
You must love your F-104 very much..
Not at all, it is not one of my favorites.
I prefer women…
Me too…
IMHO, supercruise means capability to achieve supersonic speed w/o using afterburner. Currenly only Raptor and JSF are supercruise-capable. Typhoon is only able to maintain supersonic speed w/o A/B, not to achieve. I am not aware of any other aircraft doing this.
At least, something we agree 😮 . In my even more HO, supercruise is what you describe. However I am not aware of any of the 3 JSF demonstrators built so far (X 35A, X 35B, X 35C) capable of supercruising, nor did I heard that this was a requirement for production F 35s. May be you have some details? EF could supercruise upto 1.2 M, as well as F 16 blk. 50 , F 15E w/o conformals, F 18 C with 404-402 engines. Hoewever, at these planes this capability is more or less is theoretical since it is achieved only in clean configuration.
It lacks sharp teeth, as AMRAAM is one generation behind the whole conception of supremacy.
cruYou respond to this:
You remember how difficult it was and is to bring down an MiG-25.
There is no indication that you or seahawk were talking about a specific conflict.
??? In what way did the F-104 match MiG-25?
I was talking about speed.
Russian aircraft lover? Show me one…
There are none? :p :dev2:
MiG-31 never had supercruise
If by supercuise you understand flying supersonic without AB, you are right, the MiG 31 didn’t supercruise, but neither MiG 25 or F 104. They can go up to 2 Mach, but with AB.
cruHmm, I don’t know whether this is a similar situation. MiG-25s were mostly uninterceptable due to their tremendous speed of M 2.8, or even M 3.0 in extreme regimes
In fact Mig 25 were interceptable. USAF F 15 C shot 2 of them in Gulf war, USAF F 16 shot one (the first kill using AMRAAM) in 1992, and the Iranians claim around 20 kills against MiG 25 (at least some of them are probably true). Their operational speed was indeed tremenduous, albeit it was limmited to 2.2 Mach (over this speed the frame/motor would sustain extensive dammage).
However there is a plane that did the same but 10 years ahead MiG 25. Unfortunatletly :p for Russian aircraft lovers it was the F 104 Starfighter 😀 . This little thing could go 2 Mach at up to an altitude of 21 km, and do this for 1300 km (712 Nm)!
Now what put Raptor aside is not VLO (F 117 and B2 already have this) or supercruise (MiG 25, 31 and F 104 did that), but VLO+supercruise! This combination really shrinks the envelope of aby sol-air or air-air system.
I doubt highly that the AIM-120C/E come even close to an NOE of 30km, given that they are full active radar, I thought 12-15km. One wonders how, for example, Russian Su-30 series Flankers would cope, given they could utilise network datalink to fire Alamo variants at up to 110km, or Adder variants at up to 80km.
Some of the post here are better than a comedy show in making you laugh! So our friend Twilight 2002 is saying is that the last AMRAAM model (by the way never heard of any “E” ) have a NEZ of far less 30 km, while the superpotent Alamo or Adder could 😮 wipe the floor with the F 22 at 80-110km!
Here is a link were you will find the NEZ of various models of Alamo,including a graph (from the original MiG 29 manual; is in Russian but not very hard to understand; the site itself is in Portuguese):
cruNote that in that exercise, USAF did not have JHMCS+9X combination.
Now, there are at least 200 JHMCS users, mainly F 15 and F 18, but the first F 16 unit (the 52d Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem AB, Germany) started to use these.
The JHMCS+9X combo is better than Python IV +DASH. OTOH it is true that USAF will need some time to use these systems at their true potential.
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