Posted on 06/16/2014 6:17:42 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Like a lot of stuff on “War is Boring,” this article is more hype than fact.
First, as the writer correctly observes, the Backfire is a regional weapon without in-flight refueling. And in comparison to the USAF, Russia’s tanker fleet is very modest. So, the TU-22M could cause problems in the Baltic, Norwegian Sea, the eastern Med, the western Pacific and northern Persia Gulf, it would be hard-pressed to launch/sustain attacks against naval and land targets at greater distances.
One more thing: the “new” ASM weapon for the Backfire has a range of roughly 175 nm. But the writer fails to note the combat radius for F/A-18s flying off the deck of the carrier the Backfire is trying to kill. BTW, that distance is 390 NM (and even longer if you include an in-flight refueling, and HI-HI-HI (high-altitude ingress, intercept and egress) profile that would be flown against a TU-22M. In other words, the Hornet and its AIM-120 can kill the Backfire long before it gets in range to launch the new ASM against the carrier.
Additionally, the new generation of SM-2 missiles are much better at intercepting ASMs than older variants. The TU-22M with the new ASM is a threat to be respected, but it’s not a world beater.
Indeed. Sometimes the results are already written. Not the usual practice but does happen.
The hardest part of any simulation is the question: How do you simulate being a camel jockey while flying a modern jet or driving a modern tank? Or, how do you replicate the rigid mind-set of following orders to a ‘T’ of the average Soviet (russian).
Reference Gulf simulations, they are the hardest to do accurately because muslime influences simply can’t be replicated — nothing they do is rational.
“Reference Gulf simulations, they are the hardest to do accurately because muslime influences simply can’t be replicated — nothing they do is rational.”
A former pilot instructor told me he trained Libyan Air Force (so this was a LONG time ago) in how to fly. He’d put the plane in a maneuver, a spin, I think. They’d scream “It’s Allah’s will!” He’d slap them hard, pull the plane out and tell them Allah’s will was for them to do what he did. He’d keep it up until they could pull the plane out of the spin.
The Arab’s I met in college and later in the work environment seemed to believe the world ran on magic with no logic concerning action, reaction. (I do this and that happens.) I would have thought there was logic and I just couldn’t see it if they’d all done the same “that” for any given “this.” But they didn’t.
A few more defense budget bombardments by obama and Hagel and our defenses will be nicely softened for either Putin’s new toys or allah’s angry congregation.
Going way, way back, there were stories in the sub fleet concerning such exercises, where sub kills of carriers were discounted or ruled out, and the stories usually included something colorful like an adversary submarine surfacing right next to the carrier to make their point clear. Of course, these were tales told by submariners.
Going way, way back, there were stories in the sub fleet concerning such exercises, where sub kills of carriers were discounted or ruled out, and the stories usually included something colorful like an adversary submarine surfacing right next to the carrier to make their point clear. Of course, these were tales told by submariners.
I wonder it they will re-install the inflight refueling capability.
The Aardvark beast
The Backfire is quite different from the B-1B Lancer and the TU-160 Blackjack.
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