topol-m

All these talks about it being shot down are pretty premature IMO, unless someone has the missile flying and hitting the aircraft recorded on video we wouldn't know until an official investigation is conducted. Btw did anyone read anything on the pilots contacting air traffic control? That might give a clue as to what happened in the last seconds.

Ka-52 very low pass: *Originally posted by Djoker in the Russian part of the forums.

Beautiful photos, thx.

Alright that's what I was looking for, thanks for the info.

This will happen sooner or later, it might not be F-22 vs Pak-fa, but seeing how a lot of countries will have 5th gen fighters by 2050 if a war breaks out we will no doubt witness 5th gen vs 5th gen fights. It's just a matter of time.

In that theoretical 1vs1 scenario ^^ the Raptor has the better stealth and the better radar, so guess who's gonna fire first :) Three paddle nozzles is far from turbine blades in terms of RCS. Following that logic the edges of F-22's nozzles would make it more visible than the conventional round nozzles. Ultimately if you compare the nozzles 3 paddle ones have less area than 1 round nozzle and more than 2 paddle nozzle, so they should be somewhere in the middle in terms of RCS.

I know that. They can still keep the 3D thrust vectoring and increase the stealth characteristics by putting three paddle nozzles like in X-31. Having 3D thrust vectoring vs 2D vectoring is also a questionable advantage. It might give you a slight edge in some situations but meh, the concept of stealth in the first place is to stay undetected and fire first avoiding dogfighting, so if a stealthier aircraft enables you to do that you'd probably be willing to sacrifice a bit of your maneuverability.

Dude I know they don't have such now, but this was considered as a possible feature that would increase the stealth characteristics of the aircraft. I'm asking if someone has read recently anything new on the matter, cause I personally haven't. The aircraft might as well stay as it it, but looking at how sometimes prototype aircraft are quite different than the final serial production ones (Su-27 T-10, YF-22...) changes are not to be ruled out. Also that argument about them not having flat nozzles therefore they can't build ones is invalid IMO, they have quite an experience with engine thrust vectoring so I don't see how that's such a challenge. Have you seen the trust vectoring the R-73 uses? It's a system similar to that of the X-31 or ATD-X. I have no doubts they can put something similar or even Raptor-style nozzles to the PAK-FA, whether they want to is another question. Without being an expert the aircraft's belly does look like it could get some work too, there seem to be some 90 degree angles there which isn't a good thing.

Any new info on whether it's getting changes to its lower and back side, flat nozzles for instance?

Advanced Super Hornet: source: http://aeroexperience.blogspot.com/2013/08/advanced-super-hornet-makes-public_28.html

Nightmare, are you guys already using DAGR or APKWS rockets? Or they are not fielded yet? To me these are one of the biggest capability improvements that the Apache can get. Next huge one would be JAGM but that one is probably at least a couple of years away.

I love that aircraft :) SuperHornet (8 missiles mounted) flying at RIAT 2014:

Agusta Westland AW609

Supercobra firing hydras:

LRS-B request for proposals! http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/usaf-launches-competition-for-new-bomber-401315/ Finally it's official! My bod... my desktop is ready! Full hd please, different angles and stuff.

I'm not acquainted with E-3's laser system but isn't it something like the CIRCM or the C-MUSIC? I.e. a system that disrupts the IR seeker of IR guided missile and not destroying the missile itself? When I mentioned laser point defense systems I meant ones that would be capable of physically destroying or significantly damaging incoming missiles regardless of their guidance type. AFAIK the currently fielded airborne laser systems are only disrupting missile guidance and aren't capable of destroying the missiles themselves. Mind that we are not talking about YAL-1 and ATL as these systems are not point defense.

If you're gonna carry point defense missiles, that would reduce the payload that you'd use to attack your enemy. What several companies are working on right now is point defense lasers. This technology gets closer and closer to its implementation on aircraft. Laser output increases constantly while their energy consumption and size lowers. Currently different versions are being tested, and in the upcoming years laser CIWS will be deployed on ships and land vehicles. I'd guess that shortly after they would be used on military aircraft as well. But to be effective it should be made really small and with low consumption to be able to mount it on an F-35 or a B-1B for instance, cause trailing a laser-equipped Boeing 747 behind your F-35s on every mission ain't the best idea.

This might be interesting to watch, no music, no talking, just pure sound: It seems to be surprisingly quiet at a distance but when it passes just above your head the roar is awesome!

That's a matter of preference, I like how it looks although I'm a bigger fan of YF-23's looks :) Still we're talking about military technology so it's performance that matters, beauty is the last thing to look at.

I think there have been some tests of such mounting but it's not viable nowadays, it's hell aerodynamically, the missiles create enough drag already imagine putting them backwards... Turbulence is not an issue, you can always make it with delayed engine start like the amraam for instance. And you're right about the speed, the missile would quickly get to it's max speed but it would have shorter range due to using its engine to compensate that negative speed it gets for being launched backwards. The trend is to create stealth aircraft with internal weapon bays, missiles on the other hand are getting smarter and more agile, so next gen missiles you would probably be able to launch in every direction without previously pointing their noses in that direction.

5th gen baby, the Raptor just owns them all... till 6th gen, then I'm changing my vote.

It's awesome! Btw have you heard if they plan on changing those mfcds to F-35-like ones at any point in the future? I've read about Boing fitting such on the "Ultra" Hornet, so why not put them on the Apache too.

Super cobra maintenance:

A photo i just spotted, showing stuff on the MFCDs: Too bad on most photos I've seen the MFCDs are turned off.

Ground launched hellfire and dagr missiles test firing: