[color=red]This one has gotten a bit bloated, time to start a new one.[/color]

Watching that one on Blu-ray right now. Great movie, and by far the best of the four Clancy adaptations. Gotta say that it was very well cast, too. Don’t necessarily agree with Alec Baldwin’s politics, but the man was perfect for the role of Ryan. Best line: “Be careful what you shoot at. Most things in here don’t react too well to bullets.”

Yeah, but speed is still a critical factor in a dogfight. I think that’s what he was getting at by saying your remark was misinformed. He who bleeds speed off the fastest will probably get obliterated.

If they’d picked the F-23 though all we’d be hearing from the fanboys is “sux/obsolete cuz it has no 3D TVC and can’t do backflips” 😉

Yeah whatever, all those fancy maneuvers wouldn’t amount for squat against something fast as hell and absurdly hard to locate 😀

I seem to recall hearing about high AOA testing though but can’t remember the details. High AOA maneuvering and all that is great in WVR combat, but it is only a really useful feature if you can manage to do it without bleeding off massive amounts of energy. Then you can point the nose to get a shot off without killing yourself if you miss. The other problem is that a jet with high AOA and excellent maneuver capability is still remarkably easy to kill with an AAM. Current AAMs may be able to be evaded, yes, but all you really need is a WVR AAM with a bigger warhead and longer range proximity fuse, expanding the kill radius of the weapon to compensate for more maneuvering capability.

Russia has offered to work on a joint ABM system before. As for the Arctic and Siberia, not a lot of exploitation has gone on. With American financial and engineering backing, it could potentially be done swifter and cheaper, to the benefit of both sides. Spheres of influence could easily be defined as Asia, Europe, and the Americas for the three “partners”, with the only expectation being that one doesn’t interfere with the others. Instead of idiotic posturing and fantasy dreams of conflict, why not work as one to get what all three want, far better economic conditions at home.

What the hell is that thing?

Tu-160s or Tu-95s seem a bit pointless. If Russia wanted to make things interesting, box up a few BACKFIREs and send them to Cuba. Then they can purposely capitulate to the US’s demand to remove them from the area by selling them to Chavez!