FAS.org is a good source on weapons of all sorts.

What happened to the anti-satellite role of the F-15, will that be reroled to the Raptor. Also does the Mig-31 still perform this role?

After the successful intercept, the project was shelved. The Mig-31 ASAT never got past concept phase although a couple of aircraft were partially modified with a solid nose and winglets.

I don’t think the raptor would be modified into an ASAT carrier, at least not with the ASM-135. A better option would be to use the AL-1 to target satellites with it’s laser.

One thing I found interesting was the picture of the Raptors interceptong Bears with ext. fuel tanks – does this mean the Raptors on alert always have ext tanks – seems strange that an aircraft designed to intercept Russian aircraft using stealth, has to compromise stealth in order to get to the Bears! May as well stuck with F-15s

The Alert F-22’s don’t HAVE to carry the tanks, but they do in order to purposefully compromise their L/O signature. If they were to intercept a bear clean, then it’s possible for them to extrapolate the true RCS of the raptor in different aspects from the tail gun radar. In a shooting war, the raptors would either launch clean or punch the takes to be clean well before they get within range of any of the bear’s sensors.

I remember seeing something in the initial stories about the RAAF superbug deal that it WAS a stopgap measure and they would likely be bought back by the USN once the F-35 was operational. The theory being the USN would be happy to get relatively low hour, few arrested landing block 20 superbugs at about the time the first USN airframes were wearing out. Remember, the RAAF F-35 wasn’t meant to replace the legacy F-18 like the USN plans… it was to replace the F-111 while the legacy hornets were rebuilt and re-used.

Anybody know if the current production Eagles have the kinks worked out on the outer pylons? (They’ve never been used due to flutter IIRC even though they’re there in every Eagle AFAIK.)

That’s the first time I’ve seen those carry anything other than an ECM pod. I’m dying to know too.

Silly question, but weren’t there ideas of the liftfan being replaced with some sorta generator sometime in the future to provide power for some sorta directed energy weapon or laser?

That has been thrown out there a time or 2. Just waiting for solid state lasers to mature.

Thats not an AIM-9. Looks more like a FFAR.

It’s an AIM-9, it just doesn’t have the front fins. FFAR’s don’t leave that much smoke as they are fired. Must have been a test of concept firing of an unguided round.