8 Gripen order in ongoing negotiations in Slovakia

Would be great to learn more about IR reduction methods, here are a few factors that I come to think of

1) Surface temperature of skin, –>speed and drag dependent, cooling of surface is probably hard

2) Size of aircraft –> pretty obvious..

3) IR emissions from the skin at a given temp (just check using an IR camera, it can be pretty different from subjects of same surface temp), –>this is no rocket science, new airframes are probably all well adapted.

4) Heat generated from engine and other hot parts vs insulation and cooling, –>again new airframes can theoretically incorporate aerogels and other super insulators and better cooling systems

5) Exhaust, total energy, engine bypass air and exhaust plume behaviors, –>no clue here but a huge engine got to be a big problem to take care of..

6) Engine nozzle, shielding and surface temp –> F35 very good here!

A little Russian paranoia is indeed healthy and it also has significant relevance to requirements of fighters and the role of the airforce. Just a pity that Georgia and Ukraine didn’t have enough of this paranoia.

It also seams that Finland & Poland maintain huge armies to resist what some call “erh, seriously or Russian invasion conspiracies” and the Baltics are indeed freaking out regarding offensive Russian behavior.

I certainly do not expect soviet armored divisions rolling into Poland, Finnmark, Finland, Baltics or an invasion fleet heading for southern Sweden or Denmark. Russian military doctrine is not that binary. The hybrid warfare model is based on disinformation, propaganda, political manipulation, trade sanctions, show of force, IT attacks, physical sabotage and possible swift military action at the end.

Currently we see an extremely offensive spying, probing IT attacks, submarine intrusions, some trade sanctions and show of force.

A future airforce must be able to manage intense “air policing / intercepting during” long campaigns of massive harassments as well as a plan to survive a possible onslaught of an initial bombardment of airbases. How can F35 manage such an operational tempo, is it easy enough to maintain at multiple airbases??

I keep returning to these things like an old parrot, but they are way more important than “Package Q” or an all out assault against S400.

The US will be fine with their great bases and unlimited amount of support and force multipliers, what about smaller airforces in Europe that is operating with limited support and close to a powerful opponent. My concern is how will they manage the jamming, air refueling, airbases, IADS, intercept missions.

Does F35 have any active jamming except the main radar? (except the possibilities of using pods or MALD-J’s)

Great post FBW, I’ll try to make my own version…

Chief of staff-“Thank you for coming, we have selected F35 as a replacement fighter over the F16/18 In this process, we decided to forego the usual criteria and base our choice on “Stealth”
“Instead on basing the decision on holistic combined forces approach we found these really cool brochures, I just say it again its “stealth, DAS and DSI”.

Reporter-How will this fit our defense doctrine and budget constrains?
Chief of staff– Self escorting attack is our new focus, while we know that an aircraft need a massive support structure such as airbases, ground based air defense, army forces for protection, realistic costs to allow training, upgrades and new weapons, tankers, training aircrafts, AEW, you still have to understand that after 30 years in this job I would like a new toy!

Reporter-What about other parts of the airforce, army and navy? Why only one unprotected airbase?
Chief of staff-Old fashioned questions, soon there will be no navy or army, so nobody to complain

One airbase will allow us to reasonably well service these new fancy jets between the US service intervals, we can also launch really cool parties when we are all at the same location

Reporter-Wow, can you get me on the VIP list?

Reporter-Why should we base close to 10% of the jets in USA? They do not contribute to our defense nor economy or local know how!
Chief of staff- Our staff will have a really nice time over there! Where would you like to go, Florida or your neighbouring country?

Reporter-“what about other fighter competitions where F35 was not chosen?”
Chief of staff- Well, they lack of NATO solidarity, they fail to understand that fly overhead of an S300/400 and drop bombs is a remote 2nd/3rd world country is what they really need.

Reporter-What about modern radar technology and IR signatures?
Chief of staff- Solution is off board jamming from our partners if needed, IR signature and AESA S-UHF band is a hype

Reporter-What about speed, supercruise, acceleration and turn rates?
Chief of staff-Well we have decent nose pointing ability and fly really well with a 2 ton load out and 2 aams, and no need to disengage since we always have the upper hand

Reporter-Who are we? USA is thousand of km away and our potential enemy is superior in our theater!
Chief of staff– Next question….your invitation is cancelled btw

Reporter – What other benefits can this project bring to our country?
PM: As prime minister and minister of defense I look forward to a good job at NATO HQ when I leave this office

In this case I was referring to the C vs D or NG in the Swiss experience in TooCool’s post #576

@ JSR, a little reality check for you here

Most innovative countries
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-innovative-countries/

Highest and lowest corruption
http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/the-most-corrupt-countries-in-the-world-ranked-in-order–xJUZ5u9j_x

Most economically competitive countries in the world
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-29/these-are-the-10-most-competitive-countries-in-the-world

List of GDP per person, note what happened in Russian with the more than 50% drop in Ruble vs USD since 2014…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

We appreciate your concern but seems that we do not have to worry too much regarding Norway, Canada and Finland..