R-27 (AA-10) has had a medium range and extended range IR guidance package for 20 years now.

IIRC, MICA also has a somewhat long range IR version.

I’m confused about something….

If this aircraft replacing the MH-53 Pave Low? If so, why is it being billed as a CSAR-X. That’s not the primary mission of the Pave Low.

Also, the USAF has a CSAR bird in the MH-60 Pave Hawk.

It’s meant to replace the Pave Hawk, not Pave Low.

The crew died in the fraction of a second between jettison of the hatch and firing of the ejection seats. It seems the turbulent airflow over the forward fuselage scrambled their brains inside their helmets in that fraction of a second.

How could the turbulent airflow scramble their brains if they were fully encapsulated and restrained? Were the individual capsules buffetted that hard? I find it hard to believe that an encapsulated aircrew would suffer worse that an unprotected pilot in a regular ejection seat.

I can agree with your comments on the landing gear. I built a 1/48 scale model of it once and for the life of me could not figure out how the front gear retracted around the nose of the bomb/fuel pod.

Now that BUFFs are starting to get Sniper pods, you can add LGB’s to that somewhat dated list.

I wonder what the viability for using these to re-engine the B-52H fleet is?

I was at Carswell ( B-52Ds-KC-135As ) and Barksdale B-52Gs etc…. didn’t see a lot of snow. I’ll ask a guy I work with who is an ex B-52G crewchief that was in Maine.

When were you at Barksdale? I was there (just as a dependant, but still there and on the flightline every chance I could get) from ’87 through ’94. Dad was a crew chief woth 2nd OMS and later 96th BS.

I can’t say for the northern based BUFFs (Minot, Wurtsmith, Griffiss, possibly Fairchild), but the alert aircraft at the bases I lived (Altus AFB, Oklahoma with KC-135s and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana with 135’s and B-52s) were not de-iced. At Barksdale, there was not that big of a problem, but the alert tankers at Altus, DID get snowed/iced several times a year. I never saw them being de-iced. The one major ice storm at Barksdale, the B-52’s were not de-iced either. I don’t know if the wing king just didn’t think the ice would be on there of very long (it was actually about 10 days where the base was iced over) or what. I do know that the 111’s at Pease and Plattsburg were kept in shelters, so icing wasn’t a problem.

Also, during ORI (Operational Readyness Inspections) once a year, the alert aircraft DID perform their minimum interval takeoffs with their warloads. It wasn’t just an alert start and taxi check.