Posted on 12/13/2015 3:00:52 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
At least the big laser turrets are so stealthy that you can’t see them in the renderings.
The camel is a horse built by committee.
Then there’s the F-35.
I would think it would require the use of a directing nozzle to make the thing handle at all.
But it will employ space Muslims.
Perhaps if the Air Force gave proper attention to CAS, the Marines would not feel as great a need for their "jump jet". Air support is a great thing to have, but when you really, really need it, it needs to be Close and NOW!
"Spooky" is our friend, as was the A-6 used with a RABFAC beacon or the A-10.
The Marines have an institutional mindset of controlling their own CAS destiny that dates back to their real-world experience on Guadalcanal.
Whether the AF would take CAS seriously doesn’t play much of a role - the Marines will fight to the death over an organic CAS capability that operates from the assault ships. You can’t operate an A-10, or anything other than a VSTOL/STOVL from those ships.
In 1949, the Key West Treaty stated that the Army would not arm their aircraft and the Air Force promised to supply all of the CAS needed by the Army.
Then the Air Force went off in search of high-altitude interceptors and heavy, nuclear-armed bombers and basically said, “Ha-Ha, fooled you!” to the Army, until that Army started arming their choppers.
The only reason the Army got the Mohawk is they snuck it in throught the USMC.
And now, the USAF wants to scrap the A-10 to pay for the FF-35.
I think it is because of the limited range of compact “directed energy” weapons. You still need to get the laser weapon platform close to the enemy to destroy him.
This is why there will be a place for C-130 type planes with lasers, but only for shooting down ballistic missiles at their boost phase (with those ballistic missiles belonging to the likes of North Korea and Pakistan). But against true near-peer adversaries, like Russia and China, the USAF/USN will use advanced fighters armed with lasers. This will to avoid the circumstances that led to the U-2 getting shot down. Reliance on only ONE advantage, which in the case of the U-2 was very high flight altitude ...which worked until the Soviets got tired of being photographed with impunity, and developed a missile that could reach out to the altitudes that the U-2 used to fly with impunity previously. Compare the U-2 with the SR-71 for example ...the Blackbird can fly super high as well, but is also super fast (and by some measures, kind of stealthy). Those are layered advantages, and that approach works. Same reason why the F-22 has a high degree of stealth, can fly high, can fly fast (and super cruise), has extremely maneuverability, has an advanced radar that is hard to detect, etc. Why? Layered advantages, meaning that even if one is defeated the others are more than enough to maintain dominance.
The C-130 would have only one real advantage - the ability to smite down ALMOST anything coming at it - and that would work until, like the U-2s invincibility against SAMs, it didn't.
To be truly invincible it requires both invincibility through potence, as well as invincibility through invisibility. Leopards are powerful jungle cats, blessed of tooth and claw, but they still have great camouflage and creep up on their prey like silent shadows.
The C-130 would die over China. Not at first, but eventually it would.
Laser weapons still have to shoot through a glass lens and have to point at the enemy. You cannot magically have the beam emerge from any point on the aircraft skin.
The Airborne Laser test bed turret was pretty ugly...
“Why is that thing carrying a human pilot?”
To feed the dog.
The dog is there to bite the human if he touches anything.
The last few paragraphs discuss why it has a pilot. Lots of people agree that there won’t be pilots in 20 years and this is the last gasp of the dying jet jockey breed. Another suggestion in the article is that this entire aircraft design concept is a feint.
Yeah. Funny, isn’t it?
The Horten brothers did it in the ‘30s.
It would be interesting to know whether or not it would have fooled the crude radar of that time. I think they just built it for the low drag concept though.
Interesting read, but I was dreading coming to this quote, knew it would show up.
Seems likes Deja Vu, all over again.
Best laugh I've had in a long time!
Unfortunately, human G limitations limit the maneuverability of the airframe and in the near future that which maneuvers best, wins.
All human pilots give to the exercise will be to serve as a potential hostage if they survive.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.