Coota0

State your source on this one. Other than the early model P-38s, there was no Allied fighter in the ETO with the range to ecsort the bombers to their destination until the P-51Ds enter service. I'll have to find it, I know a couple of 8th Air Force Generals (Maybe Mitchell) had been qouted as saying that the B-17s were capable of defending themsleves if the bombers flew in a "Box" formation.

You're right the AH-1Z (I referred to at as the Zulu because of the "Z" designation) is to replace the current Cobras

First, I said supplement not reinforce. Second there will be no Comanches. DOD canceled the program. Even if there were wild weasel wouldn't be a primary mission in any way, that's typically left up to the fixed wing aircraft, helicopters don't generally operate in that high threat of an enviroment unless inserting SF troops, becuase choppers generally stay very near the foward edge of the battle area. The Comanche's mission would have been gathering information.

My problems with the longbow, 1) They're not desined as scouts 2)They're expensive if you lose them (scouts get lost) 3)Heavy workload, going from what used to be a 4 man job to a 2 man job without a signifigant technological leap Comanche was never meant to replace the cobra or Apache, it would have suplememnted the Apaches (even replacing some Apache battalions) and to be used as a heavily armed scout much like the Longbow, but the Commanche had the signifigant technologically leap as well as stealth to give the two man crew th ability to do the scout and attack missions as well as giving it more surviability than the Apache. As far as I know it was never even considered as a AH-1 replacement the Corps wanted the Zulu.

Nothing but the JSF... The Navy is either gonna be F/A-18E/F/G or F-35C, while the Corps will be all F-35B, even getting rid of the F/A-18Ds which suprises me a bit. I want to know what the Corps is going to do about the squadron it's tacking on to the carrier air wings when all the fighters go F-35B, on the other hand at least it should spread the deployments around for the MEU(SOC) cruises. 387585[/snapback] The emphasis on multirole is just a bit too scary, and a bit too reminescent of the Phantoms. I would think the navy should at least have one dedicated fighter, and one dedicated heavy attack.... 387591[/snapback] That would be ideal to me too. 1)An intereceptor/fighter with the ability to carry and employ air-to ground ordanance if needed, not necessarily a stealth platform but perhaps with stealthy atributes like the Rafale 2)A multi-role aircraft, jack of all trades, strike-fighter, as capble of carrying bombs as knocking down aircraft, capable of carrying a buddy-pod for tanking 3)A real bomb truck, capable of carrying air-to-air in a pinch, but a dedicated attack jet, WITH a gun, and a pair of sidewinders for self defense (the way an A-10 carries them just to be on the safe side, stealthy, able to be used as tanker with a buddy-pod, and could be used to supplement the helicopters in the anti-submarine role 4)Airborne Radar 5)Cargo aircarft 6)Helicopter- multiple variants or a way to switch quikcly between tasks A)Anti submarine B)Spec-ops/rescue optimized C)Transport/Vertrep 7)Electronic warfare aircraft, I like the E/A-18 and that it carries an organic defensive armament I could see the Navy looking into a couple of V-22 variants- A)Transport/Vertrep B)Spec-ops variant (similar if not Identical to what the USAF wants) 9) Hang on to the C-130s, and go with the upgrade 10)Either upgrade or replace the P-3s, but do not get rid of them completely USMC- 1)Hang on to the CH-53X 2)Go with the V-22, but buy a few of the Spec-ops versions the USAF wants 3)AH-1 and UH-1Z 4)Get rid of the F-35B and go with something designed from the start as a VTOL platfrom possibly in concert with the Army (I'll get to this later) and the Royal Navy and RAF 5)Buy what the Navy is using as it's strike fighter 6)Do as the Navy is doing with it's C-130 fleet (see above) but do it for the KC-130s too 7) Go with the E/A-18 USAF- hi-hi/hi-lo/lo-hi/lo-lo mix 2)F-22 for air superiority 3)Upgraded F-15 because the F-22 is expensive, and the F-15 (especially with an upgrade) could still be very useful 4)F-35A stealth in a multi-role aircarft could be very useful, as could the ability to hang munitions on the wings when stealth is no longer needed 5)F-16, with an software/avionics upgrade their usefulness could be greatly extended 6)Maintain the current Special-ops airframes, incorporating the MV-22 7)Upgrade the C-130s 8)More KC-10s they're more efficiant (much easier for multi-service use) 9) I like the bone, but it's mission is no longer there, between the B-2 and B-52 all of the B-1s missions could be met 10) F/A-23- I like the regional bomber idea and I think the F/A-23 would make an excellent replacement for the F-15E and would throw a stealth into the mix *I would send the F-15Es to the National Guard/Reserve or to special squadrons dedicated to close air support, the addition of stealth to the intrusion mission would in my opinion make the F-15Es quickly obsolete 11) A lightweight point defense fighter, gets airborne fast, optimized for air-to-air USA 1)Hang onto the Apache, but get rid of the Longbow 2)Replace the OH-58 with a small helicopter (Hueys are not small!), put the IR sensor/ Laser Designator on a mast not under the chin, and lightley arm it (gun pod, hellfires, zunnis) 3)Go with the MV-22 to supplement the 160th and a no special-ops version to supplement regular Army aviation 4)New avionics for the CH-47 while looking for a replacement 5)Blackhawks stay 6)I know this is against the Keywest agreement, but I believe the Army deserves it's own fixed wing close air support, a joint program with the USMC would be ideal or until the new aircraft is ready the A-10 could fill the gap, but a forward deployable CAS aircraft under Army control, flown by an Army aviator would in my opinion greatly improve CAS for the Army Sorry, I got carried away (yet still managed to leave some areas out), but that's my U.S. aviation wetdream

VF-0B

Nothing but the JSF... The Navy is either gonna be F/A-18E/F/G or F-35C, while the Corps will be all F-35B, even getting rid of the F/A-18Ds which suprises me a bit. I want to know what the Corps is going to do about the squadron it's tacking on to the carrier air wings when all the fighters go F-35B, on the other hand at least it should spread the deployments around for the MEU(SOC) cruises.

Not quite the F-14s will be long gone before the F-35 comes into service, they will have been replaced by F/A-18E/Fs while the F-35 will replace the F/A-18C

No he didn't. In other words he believes they became obsolete after WWII, not that they were no longer being placed on aircraft. B-17s were being knocked down in droves for multiple reasons: 1) Daylight bombing- more accurate, but it made the bombers easy to attack 2) USAAC generals that believed there was no need to have escorts 3) The Germans had been flying for years in combat when the first USAAC aircraft came to Europe, their air force was badass. 4) Lack of range/ limited ammo for gunners 5) No frontal defensive coverage Solutions used 1) Start sending escorts with bombers 2) P-51 3) Add gun to "chin" of B-17 4) B-29 A)Flew higher than enemy aircraft and AAA B)Better bomb targeting system C)Change of defensive armament and employment

But that is the point of stealth. Stealth is the defense, B-52s (originally) flew highand fast and had a tailgun, B-1s are semi-low observable and fly really low and fast as a defense, B-2s are stealthy and hard to see, that's their defense. If the Stealth fails it's because there was a major screwup, when planning a mission the pilots avoid as many radar sites as possible and to avoid any known fighter CAPs. It's not like stealth is a switch you turn on to lose it you must change the shape of the aircraft, usually that's not going to happen unless bomb doors refuse to clos or the aircraft is dmanaged. The aircraft won't be damaged unless an enemy fighter plows into the B-2. Even if an enemy fighter managed to pick up a B-2 there's a good chance the pilot would thinl it was just a radar ghost without ground radar also having a contact. But just for the sake of argument we'll say a B-2 gets picked up by a couple of MiGs on the first night of Desert Storm...The F-15s had already pushed across the border the B-2 crew would have called in to the E-3 with thier problem, the E-3 would have tasked a couple if Eagles to come to the rescue and you would've had a race to see who could get a firing solution on who first. Wow, this turned out to be longer than I thought it would.

Now I did like that! Play a 3-4 times a week usually, but I've been reading the republic commando novels and decided to play that again, so not as much BF2. Like the Sniper and Medic. Play whicever serve has teh lowest ping and the most people when i log on, but the lag latley is driving me up the wall.

Vietnam-era F-4s had controls in the back and were flown with two pilots, eventually deciding a WSO was more useful than a second pilot. The Navy always used a RIO, not a second pilot. F-15Es have a second set of controls in the rear, the WSO isn't really given any formal flight training, but I'll bet most can fly the plane. The Navy gives their Tacair NFOs some basic flight trianing, but they never solo. The Marines use the F/A-18D for all weather strike, their F/A-18Ds do not have a second set of controls. Aircraft assigned to training squadrons for the Navy or Marine Corps do have controls in the back.

Saw this on another site, figured ya'll would like it....Click Here

Looks a lot like Command and Conquer:Renagade. I have to admit I'm a bit wary of this, remember Battlefield:Vietnam?

I think (correct me if I'm wrong evirus) the idea is to be able to have more than one raffle, perhaps as much as once or twice a month. If you had to wait longer for a custom, and the price would go up I'm not sure it would be worth it.

The box has 1/72 right on it. If that isn't enough for you, the text beneath it displaying product info ALSO says 1/72... 381418[/snapback] Doh!

Do you know what scal it's in?

I *think* as long as the raffle is not for profit, you're ok legally. So a donation for the site would be ok.

Where did you get the $425 price? I know the main numbers going around has been the alleged $700-$900 manufacturing cost for the system. My guess is that the version with the hard drive will be sold at $499 or higher. I just wonder how big of a hit Sony is willing to take during the PS3's first few years of life to get it out to as big of a market possible? 380780[/snapback] I wouldn't think there would be a version without a hardrive. If every game requires a hardrive, a PS3 without a hardrive would be pretty useless.

I'd go in for that. Let's see 200 divided by 5 is 40, so 40 people would have to sign up. I'd change one thing, everytime you donate $5 you get an extra chance at winning, so if you donate $5 four times you get your name put in 4 times for the lottery. But I think it's a great idea.

To update to LGBs would be easy. All you need the aircaft to do is get the bomb to the target, once there the target can be designated from the ground, or I've read accounts of Phantom backseaters designating with hand sets from the air, one aircraft would orbit and designate while the others bombed.

and god help it if it's carrying a load. A Super Hornet can only just barely break Mach 1 when it's carrying stuff under the wings. 379177[/snapback] It doesn't matter what you're flying, you lose an engine you're dropping your load.

Shin have you looked at this sim (it's PC not console) Fighter Ops

Is there such a thing as an American mecha designer? What mecha would they have created? I can only think of the armored frames in MatrixII and the cargo frame in Aliens. 377948[/snapback] Robot Jox!

I believe "Shack" is more of an Air Force term tha Navy/Marine Corps, but I could be wrong. From looking at the picture... I know STBY is Stanby (maybe the BSG version of Alert 5?) I think TAC is either thier Tactical Callsign or the frequency their on From the looks of the stuff along the left side I'd say it's aircraft type and nthe aircraft's number.