Most of the RCS data in public forums are very vague in nature and lack detail (eg golfball, marble, etc).

When have the repeatedly demonstrated anything?

They have been doing it for almost a decade. Just because you or I have not seen it, does not negate the fact that it is working.

So you effectively require another aircraft to assist you to make that kill…

It’s an option, not a requirement.

On a side note, EODAS is being leveraged to be a shipboard system.

http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/solutions/silentwatch/index.html

You hope it will put it to shame. I suspect reality will be very different.

Hardly. Hope has little basis in reality, eg “Hope and Change”. Both the EODAS and AMRAAM systems have repeatedly demonstrated their abilities. Those abilities are not going to somehow disappear when used together.

I expect in service experience will find EODAS gives an advantage less than 5% of the time relative to HMS/HOBS/MAWS. I also expect aircraft kinematic ability will give an advantage significantly more times than that.

EODAS has demonstrated its ability to detect and tract objects far outside what the Mki1 Eyeball can detect. It has also demonstrated the ability to track object in a 360 sphere around the aircraft without loosing track or losing ID, again, far outside the ability of the pilot.

EODAS has demonstrated the ability to passively maintain a weapons quality track, at all times, for fighters in the WVR envelope (not currently possible in any operational fighter today). It can use this data to cue the missile with the precise GPS coordinates of the target, not simply a bearing cue as current HMDs provide. EODAS can update the missile inflight which the HMD cannot do.

This is only daytime combat. Throw in nightime, clouds, etc and a HMD is virtually useless.

Throw all that together and you think that is only a 5% boost which kinematics will somehow overcome?

Now who is resorting to “hope” 😉

Regarding AMRAAM, as LO has already indicated – it will not be good at a hard turn ‘off the rail’ (off the ejection doesn’t quite sound the same). Therefore offsight capability is significantly reduced.

The 9X has to come off the rail and turn quickly due to a short burn time on the motor. The AMRAAM does not have this problem as it has a much longer burn motor. Throw in a larger warhead (2x the Aim-9 size) and double the 9x speed and it is a very formidable WVR missile.

Spud – So now I’m relying on GPS and INS and datalinks and passive IR ranging to cue the radar seeker?

Compared to what, a bouncing reticle in a pilot’s helmet while he tries to find the enemy (which the EODAS already has track of)?

That’s a lot of fusion and potential latency – missile tells airplane where it is, airplanes are sharing complex target imagery and sorting out that Lead’s blob is the same as Two’s blob, while everyone’s moving at 1200 mph crossing speeds, finally airplane works out target location and tells the missile where to go next, and eventually the missile seeker turns on and hopefully the target is the only thing in the scan cone.

You are making it more complex that it has to be.

1. F-35 tracks target (does not need triangulation, but it might be used for targets far away)
2. If triangulation is used, velocity & timecode information in the datalink compensate for lag.
3. The F-35 does not need to track the missile for two reasons, short flight time has little effect on INS drift and GPS backup provides a self-correcting INS ability.
4. F-35 sends target location to AMRAAM.
5. AMRAAM makes any corrections necessary based on it’s own location and the target’s.

How is this different than today’s BVR shots? Since the target is closer to the F-35s, its location can be determined with a higher degree of accuracy.

And nobody thinks it’s worth doing a couple of end-to-end tests with EO-DAS and a guided Amraam?

HWIL labs are already part of the F-35 and AMRAAM programs.

Obviously they are not going to release any specific info about EODAS and AMRAAM to the public, at least not this early in the game. You have to use commons sense and analyze what is known.

1. EODAS has been flying in lab planes for almost 10 years. It’s capabilities to detect, track, and provide weapon cuing are known.

2. EODAS can provide native ranging although the method is not known.

3. Due to automatic datalinks, triangulation using EODAS is a given.

4. Do you have any sources you can share as to the “megapixel” limit of EODAS?

5. The AMRAAM’s FOV is not as critical as the Sidewinder because the AMRAAM has a two-way datalink and a GPS assisted INS. It can also receive updates from any allied asset, not just the F-35 that launched it.

6. All missiles have to come off the rail a bit before starting a turn, it’s a safety thing. Check the 9X YouTube clips and you will see that it does that too.

7. As far as testing outside a simulator, the EODAS has done that in spades and the AMRAAM too. As to AMRAAM’s HOBS capability, that requirement has been an increasing part of the three latest Blk upgrades for AMRAAM and Raytheon would have had to demonstrate that ability to get paid.

The F-35 IMO bets the house on BVR.

Really? You seem to forget that EODAS will likely put any HMS/HOBS combo to shame.

Also, the EODAS’s ability to detect, track, and provide weapons quality guidance for a missile in independent of whatever helmet is being worn.

I have always said that better to have 4x AMRAAM internal than 2 AMRAAM and 2x Sidewinders. Better to have 4 BVR shots with the option to go WVR than to only have 2 and force WVR after that. Besides, the AMRAAM is no slouch in WVR and you do not need TVR to be maneuverable (see ASRAAM).

Are there any B-52’s and Bears?

Not in flight, but on the ramp.

Like the first officialy recognised BFM between the Typhoon and the F-22 Raptor? Oh wait…

The thing to remember is that the USAF controls the F-22 and whom is plays with and how. The same cannot be said of the F-35 as the UK or Italy could (and will) take their own F-35s against their own Typhoons in many engagements of various types.

The F-22 can definitely carry 2 JDAM internally + sidewinders in secondary bays. That is exactly the same as the F-35.

There is even the possibility it can carry 2 JDAM + 2 AIM-120 + sidewinders.

That puts it up on F-35.

The F-22 can carry two 1k JDAMs (or 8 SDB1) , 2 AMRAAMs, and 2 Sidewinders.

No only can the F-35 carry the mentioned 2k JDAM, but the F-35 is also planned to carry the Meteor AAM, ASRAAM, 2k Bunker Buster, CBU, SDB2, Spear3, Brimstone/JAGM, JSOW and numerous LGBs. The key to the F-35’s versatility is its larger bay, a large user-base, open architecture systems, and UAI.