Vampyre

Only problem with the AC-130 is that, at about almost $200 million for an AC-130U, it's flyaway cost is almost as much if not more than an F-35 and it is a lot more vulnerable than an A-10. That and there are so few of them, less than 50 airframes of all versions combined, that the ones we do have are overtasked as it is supporting JSOC, you know their parent command. ... and before someone says Apache, the AH-64's are also more expensive than the A-10 in both flyaway and operational costs even with inflation factored in. AH-64's are also vulnerable to the same air defenses as the A-10 and more (think rifle caliber and RPG's) if they fly a NOE profile. The only major attack carried out by Apaches in Iraq 2003 ended rather poorly for them. Until a suitable replacement is designed, the A-10 is still a needed asset here and now.

Sounds like a classic case of not turning on pitot heaters. You had ice in your pitots which caused your airspeed to read 0kts when fully developed. once returning to lower altitude (with warmer air) the ice melted and your readings returned.

Got my copy too. :thumbup:

It doesn't matter because both platforms are needed. There is a lot of back and forth about the Air Force retiring the A-10 in favor of the F-35. The A-10 has capabilities that the F-35 cannot match and the F-35 has capabilities the A-10 cannot match. Trying to make one aircraft do the others job is not the best decision. The F-35 will be a great F-117 and F-16 replacement for the Air Force. To replace the A-10 something else is needed, something with loiter, combat persistence, overpowering punch, physical survivability, slow speed maneuvering capability and fiscal sustainability. Those are the A-10's strengths and are weaknesses of the F-35. Even with it's lack of stealth and other advanced technologies in the face of an integrated IADS the A-10 can still be effective where it was originally intended to operate on a modern battlefield, the FEBA. If we are fighting a near peer war correctly the first thing to go will be the enemy IADS. A weakened or non existent IADS (think Persian Gulf War 1991, 2003 or Afghanistan) allows the A-10 to be highly effective at all ground attack missions (CAS, BAI, Strike, COIN, CSAR Escort) for a lot less cost than an F-35 will provide. Right now Russia and China are the focus but we will still be fighting religious zealots for the foreseeable future as well and to continue running our expensive top end fighters airframe lives out to fight a man in a cave with an AK-47, as we have been doing for the past 15 years, is a losing proposition. This will be exacerbated if the A-10 is retired with no comparable replacement and the F-35 is forced to perform the roles of the A-10.

KC-130 doesn't have a boom. You are probably thinking of the KC-135. I'd throw down for a KC-10A Extender with that feature. It was originally purchased to take some of the workload off of the KC-135 by supporting Tactical aircraft operations so the KC-135's could concentrate on their SIOP support mission.

... and we sold S-70's to the Chinese in the 80's so I doubt there is really anything secret about the civilian versions of the Blackhawk. The OH-58A-C are basically the militarized versions of the Bell 206. What everyone here is talking about, I assume because it is the one I want, is the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior which is a more advanced version with a four bladed main rotor, rockets, machine guns, AGM-114's, FIM-92's and the MMS for scouting and target designation purposes. The Army versions of the Hughes 500 (or MD-500) are the OH-6 Cayuse and A/MH-6 Little Birds which would be fun as well.

According to the article, it is Congress that is asking for the information on restarting the line so they might be semi-serious about it. They recognize that we need more F-22's to, at least, replace the aged F-15's and want to go the cheaper route by restarting production in lieu of procuring a new design and in the process using existing technology from the programs already in testing to improve the F-22's combat capability. If they start next year I would expect to see a new F-22B FSD airframe in about 2020-2022 timeframe. They should have just bought the 749 airframes as originally planned and upgraded from there but hindsight being what it is...

^This, with it being hot and dry the environment will kill you very quickly if you are not fully prepared. There are lots of hiking trails around Lake Mead and the views are pretty spectacular as well. As far as getting to Nellis, they do offer tours of the base. Currently they are booked until June for the tours and the Thunderbirds Museum is closed till the end of this month for renovation. http://www.nellis.af.mil/Contact/CommunityEngagement/Tours.aspx

Indeed, and it is more effective if the planes involved in the flyby's are actual Su-24M fighter-bombers instead of Su-24MP ELINT/Jammer platforms (of which the Russians only have about 10 to 15 examples of at most) which further supports my suspicion that both airframes were Su-24M's and not Su-24MP's which is my point.

Quigon's post #13 in this thread has some good quality photos of the jets involved in this incident. One is definitely a Su-24M. The video is too poor to draw a conclusion as to the exact type of Fencers involved. Additionally, I would doubt the Russians would allow one of their handful of Fencer F's out to harass a ship when that can be accomplished with a much less valuable Fencer D's. A dedicated EW aircraft like the Su-24MP does not need to operate in this manner to harass a warship. It has standoff jammers for that.

Judging by this photo at least one of them is a Su-24M. There is a lack of evidence of the other one being a Su-24MP EW aircraft. I was on the Kitty Hawk back in 2001 when we had a Su-24MR and a Su-27 come out and do a number of low passes over the carrier. The Su-24MR was low enough for me to see the rivets on the belly of the jet.

If they are able to make a D-704 pod that works with the A-6E then a KA-6D would be superfluous. That being said, in real life, Navy Intruder squadrons usually deployed with at least four KA-6D tankers in addition to the standard attack birds. The KA-6D's had reduced attack capability with the removal of DIANE until the capability was deleted completely in the early 80's. Most of the displays on the B/N side were removed and tanker specific instruments were added. I would like to see both if possible.

Glad you had a great time on our server.:thumbup: Tracerfacer is the author of that particular map but we have many other missions for 2.0 as well that are equally good.

The A-10 has an AOA vane on the port forward fuselage. AOA sensors, be they vanes or probes, require forward movement of the airframe through the air to get a reading from them. You should not get a true AOA reading until you have the aircraft moving forward at a speed significant enough to effect movement the AOA vane.

Well to be fair, it has been my experience that the squadrons culture is massively affected by it's triad of leadership (CO, XO, CMC) so it was probably not the same culture for more than two to three years in a row. I was hoping for LNS to do a F4U-1/F4U-1A Corsair (with both canopy types) so we could have the original VF-17 Jolly Rogers as they were in the Solomons campaign. VF-142... because Ghostriders! They had an outstanding squadron reputation when they were decommissioned as well.:thumbup:

It is just a modified version of the Asia Minor scheme originally applied to the Iranian Tomcats. All they did was change the tan to the dark grey and the brown and dark green to light grey. The pattern is still the same.

Great update Cobra! The wing, spoiler and flaps animation are true works of art! Looks just like the real thing. Outstanding!

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2659915&postcount=13

If the above photo is indeed from just prior to El Dorado Canyon then the AIM-9 was definitely used as a self defense weapon for certain missions, anti-shipping strike in this case. This looks like a good loadout for attacking small surface combatants like missile boats, corvettes or frigates that would be operating together closer to shore. Being closer to shore means being closer to enemy interceptors so I can see the usefulness of bringing along a self defense weapon like the AIM-9.

The yellow is for the explosive bursting munition and the blue is for what the canister contains... training materials... if you will.:smilewink: The blue X is a dead giveaway for the PDU-5/B. We dropped a number of them on Iraq and Afghanistan on deployment.

Looks like a PDU-5/B Leaflet dispenser to me...:music_whistling: The casing is a Mk7 though, which is the same as used by the CBU-99 and CBU-100's

The KA-6D had an internal hose drogue unit installed in the aft fuselage where the birdcage is located on the A-6E and EA-6B. It was missionized for the tanker role and DIANE was removed so it could not do night time radar bombing. It could also use the D-704 pod as well.

Looks like a nice little helo. As for a storm... its clear and a million here. I'm thinking two weeks for sure!:music_whistling:

Or if someone found a way to implement a D-704 store that could transfer fuel.... A-6E with a D-704 store refueling SuE's

That list might mean something if there were additional information that included strikes due to engine failure and aircraft single engine recoveries for the aircraft with two powerplants. The older jets were a lot cheaper than the F-35 is even with inflation factored in so the loss of those airframes was deemed to be acceptable attrition. I have not been on a single cruise without having an aircraft do a single engine recovery due to engine problems. Additionally, the Navy has not purchased any single engine attack or fighter aircraft for over 30 years and stopped using the Corsair, the last single engine attack type, in 1991. The majority of the single engine designs on the list predate the end of the Vietnam war and upgraded versions of those designs continued to be produced until the F/A-18 took their place. That said, the acquisitions bean counters seem to believe that single engine is the way to go so we will see. Key word "projected".