Nied

Last I heard the all versions of the Typhoon are to have a gun installed, just not have the software to be able to fire them. Aparently after a lengthy study, it was found that the ballast that best replicated the Mauser 27 in wieght and aerodynaimc properties was the Mauser 27. THus the gun was deleted in order to save money and to maintain the same flying qualities it was replaced by the same gun. And people mock the decision makeing behind the Super Hornet.

Most of us PC sim players shun simplistic stuff like AC5. I think the most recent equivelent would have to be Jet Fighter 5, though that was not recieved well (and not just because of the relaxed realism).

Again that sound exactly like the AFM article and less like the descriptions of the ASF-14 I've heard. I haven't really heard much in the way of officail or semi-official sources describing upgrades as extensive as you descirbe (other than idle message board scuttlebut).

WHile I'm aware of the diferences between the ST-21 and ASF-14 I haven't seen anything describing them as being as extreme as you have. From what I have seen (mainly on MATS) the ASF-14 was to be a new build F-14 incorperating some stealth features (I took this to mean re-designed panels and edge alignment combined with judicous use of RAM like on the Super Hornet, not a new forward fuselage).

EF2000 was what finally convinced me to buy my Thrustmaster FLCS setup (F22 and TQS stick and throttle combo plus a set of CH pro-peddels). In flight re-fueling was just too hard using the keyboard to manually enter throttle settings. For my money though I had the most fun flying the Janes Air Force series (IAF and USAF). The avionics was horribly simplified (and A-10 with a fully functioning air to air radar? Come on!) but the flight models weren't bad and the dogfights were loads of fun. I just got LOMAC for my birthday, but I haven't loaded it yet since I'm still playing through Half Life 2 (put my computer through an extensive upgrade specifically to handle both games).

It looks similar to some of the new Russian trainer designs like the Yak-130, Mig-AT. I don't know if this has to do with Russian assistance, copying of the Russian designs, or the Iranaians just thought along the same lines. Given the secrecey of the iranian aircraft industry all three are equally likely.

What you describe sounds more like something I read in an issue of Air forces monthly once that really took the whole pro-Tomcat/anti-Hornet thing to it's most ridiculous extreme. It advocated completely halting Super hornet production and then pulling every Tomcat out of the boneyard putting F119s with TVC into them, and re-shaping the nose to make it stealthy (how this would be accomplished was never made clear, perhaps several layers of putty). Despite putting an new engine avionics and comletely changing a a good portion of the sructure this was supposed to be cheap. Frankly it was that and another piece about replacing the Super Hornet with Su-33s that made me take most of what I read in Air forces monthly with a mountain sized grain of salt. It was my impression that the ST21 would be more of the Tomcat equivelent of the Super Hornet, externally it would be largely similar but internally it would be quite new (should have made it easier to maintain, though I find MATS claims that it would still be cheaper dubious).

That's exactly what I was talking about doing. I just need a suitable sideview.

I think the stripe is too far back on the nose. The Bounty Hunters' strip bisects the US roundel, and the Diamondbacks' is well ahead of it, that's why they both look better than the one here (where it bumps awkwardly into the LERX). BTW does anyone have a good big sideview schematic of the F/A-18F? I'd like to try my hand at painting the rhino in a more suitable JR scheme.

To boil ewilen's point down further: Planes in the shop can't bomb targets and they can't defend the fleet. You may be able to get better performance with a harder to maintain aircraft, but all that performance doesn't do you squat while your plane is in overhaul.

I'm surprised they went with the tail codes on the outisde of the tail instead of the stylized AA on the inside like they had with the F-14. Then they could have made the skull bigger instead of the little one they have tucked into the lower front corner. I also would have moved the vagabond stripe fruther up the nose so that it bisected the US roundel like on the F-14, Super Hornets just look good with the stripe further up (see the Growler hornet demo bird). The intake and ejection seat warnings in black are a nice touch. All-in all not bad, it could definetly look better but it's definetly not bad. It should look even better with some ordinacne hanging off the wings and an all black centerline tank with its own vagabond stripe.

If I had to guess, I'd say its an F-14B with a new chinpod (from the F-14D) and completely new ECM gear (which is why it has ECM bumps unlike any F-14 variant out there).

That's pretty neat. One of the things that has intrigued me about the Supervision army (and their descendants the Varauta army) is the un-originality of their designs. THe way the Varauta fighters are just re-modeled VF-14s or the way the ASS-1 is layed out exactly like the obsolete Meltrandi gunbaot design. You may want to run with that (you actually have a god start since that design looks alot like a Thuverl Salan cruiser). I've been toying with a theory for a while that the power suits at the begining of Macross Plus might be Supervision army designs (though not necesarily operated by the SA) they do share many design cues with the Varauta mecha.

Old news. Read about it in the original PopSci article. One wonders if, given the ungainly nature of the aircraft presented in the story, the Switchblade was just made up as a diversion from the actual Bird of Prey.

Unfortunetly I do not. I lost my coppy of RA2 long ago, you might be able to find it online somewhere if you google it.

I think Knight26 is right. That sounds like the teaser trailer for Rebel Assault 2. IIRC It featured a patrol of B-wings who get jumped by an unseen attacker (later revealed in the game to be new TIE fighters equiped with a cloaking device) the last B-wing to get shot down does deploy it's S-foils before getting destroyed.

Or the alternative would be this: National Security Advisor: Sir in the last 72 hours we've lost all contact with our ships in the China Sea. Our information is sketchy at this point but we're getting reports from our bases in Korea that the Reagan Task force has been severely mauled and is steaming out of the area, we've lost all contact with the Enterprise task force and we have no idea what it's disposition is at this point. We've already lost two U-2 flights trying to get a clearer picture of things. President: Why can't we get better information, what's going on over there? NSA: Well sir as you remember you ordered a a strike on the Chinese satellite constellations, the Chinese responded in kind, and we are now completely blind in most of the northern hemispehere. Reports are sketchy but it apears that any time our task groups get near the Taiwan straights the Chinese launch a massed anti-ship missile barrage and repell our ships. President: Why haven't we attacked their missile installations? NSA: Well sir the Chinese have jammed our GPS constellations, our fighters are having a tough time making it to the target area, and when they get there thier JDAMs are nothing but expensive dumb bombs, so far our air strikes have been ineffective. President: How could we have lost our satellite network like this? NSA: Well sir you remember that when you withdrew from the UN treaty on space warfare you said "a nation should be able to protect itself from threats in space." Aparently the Chinese took your word for it and decided we were a threat in space. President: Oh.

Dang the Jolly Rogers can't catch any luck lately. First Boeing sends them planes with watered down paint schemes, then their CO gets canned, now this.

Polling places should be open soon so get out and celebrate American representative democracy by going and voting for the guy you like the most/hate the least/is the tallest/is the shortest/ etc. (pick the most aplicable ones), but make sure that you do vote.* *Except if you are not a US citizen, in which case you may watch as an election, which will probably end up affecting you as well, gets decided by us. Sorry.

Oerlikon is working on a type of ammo that explodes a few meters before hitting it's target, showering it with a shotgun like blast of shrapnel. It's called an AHEAD round, aparently Kawamori liked the idea since the compendium lists lists the VF-0 as carrying AHEAD ammo.

So how did the crew handling Du ammo get sickness similar to radiation poisoning ? Ever heard of Gulf war vets having babies with defects due to their exposure. Btw they are no A-10s in use with Kuwait or Saudi. They are operated solely by the USAF. You can't get radiation poisoning from handeling DU rounds since they are not radioactive. Natural Uranium is radioactive because it contains small amounts of U238 (the highly radioactive isotope of Uranium), DU is a byproduct of enriching uranium for weapons or nuclear reactors, all of the radioactive U238 is removed, leaving nothing but the fairly benign U235. THe suposed health problems with DU come when the rounds are actually fired at a target. When a DU round hits it does so with enough velocity to ignite, and a thin layer of the round actually burns off into the atmosphere. In high concentrations the gaseous Uranium can be pretty toxic, but to get a toxic dose dose you'd need to be standing next to whatever is getting hit with a DU round, and at that point there'd be more imediate hazards to your health than gasseous Uranium. After disapating in the atmosphere the gaseous uranium eventualy precipitates to the ground as very fine dust, the long term effects of living in an area where this stuff has been floating around are unknown, on the one hand the levels of Uranium end up being only slightly higher than the natural background levels, on the other hand elevated levels of any heavy metal (not just uranium) aren't very good for your health.

Well If you let them have Off-boresight weapons and HMCS I'd give it to the F-15K in a walk. But without off-boresight weapons the Rhino gets a decided advantage since the ability to point it's nose gives it more chances to take a shot at the Eagle. In the end it would come down to which pilot could take better advantege of their plane. Same as above with maybe a bit bigger advantage for the Rhino (the albino Eagle doesn't have quite power advantage of the K). The Rhino has an avionics advantage and a second set of eyes in the backseat should give the Rhino an edge over the Fulcrum. The MKI Erases the Rhino's maneuverability, crew, and even most of it's avionics advantage, while at the same time having quite a bit more power to play with. Flanker all the way.

Rhino Is the Super Hornet. The name was aparently given by deck crews to avoid confusion with the legacy Hornet. Aparently it refers to the IFF anteana bump on the nose (the Rhino's horn).

Well the FMRAAM isn't too different than the AAAM which was the original Phoenix replacement (other than the fact that IIRC the AAAM was could only be carried by aircraft cleared for the Phoenix while the FMRAAM is designed to be carried by anything cleared for the AMRAAM). As for the Rhino I agree that it is underpowered, but it's nothing a quick re-engineing couldn't fix. Iv'e been looking at the F135/6 and while the specs are tough to find (I had to measure a cut away diagram of the F-35 to get it's length) it does look like it would fit into the Shornet without much trouble (nearly 40,000 lbs of thrust would be a big improvement over the F414's anemic 22,000 lbs).

While the Novator does have extremely long range I doubt it would be effective against a small fighter like the Rhino. The Novator is designed to take down high value air targets like AWACs and JSTARs without the launch aircraft having to penetrate the heavy defenses such targets would have. Performance wise it is similar to the Pheonix in that they're both designed to take down large unmaneuverable targets from extreme distances (the novator optimized for larger targets and longer distances while the Pheonix for big heavy bombers). The problem is the the Pheonix was never intended to take out fighters, and while the data is still a closely gaurded secret it is the general beleif among the aviatoin comunity that the Pheonix is not the best long range anti-fighter weapon (that award would be a tossup between the AMRAAM the R-77 or the Meteor). So while a Rhino might have to fear a Novator armed Sukhoi it's more because it would pose a big threat to the E-2 feeding it orders than to itself.