The F-14 Tomcast.

[Victory205]

9 minutes ago, Callsign JoNay said:

I just about fell out of my chair when he said the IRST could pick up targets from 200-300 NM away. 

Are you familiar with the maximum seeker detection range of the AIM9M/L? It's a lot farther than that! 

[Wingmate]

5 minutes ago, Victory205 said:

Are you familiar with the maximum seeker detection range of the AIM9M/L? It's a lot farther than that! 

Around 93 million miles or one AU isn't it?

[Jayhawk1971]

 

vor 25 Minuten schrieb Callsign JoNay:

I just about fell out of my chair when he said the IRST could pick up targets from 200-300 NM away. 

I was even more impressed that IRST apparently could track and help engage targets with AIM-54's from apparently a long-ish distance.

Which seriously begs the question why the US military seemingly abandoned that technology until very recently (maybe possibly perchance the Raptor might be equipped with one, or so I've read). A headscratcher, for sure, considering that Russia and China didn't just start messing around with reduced RCS on their 5th gen fighters, but for a couple of years now. 

If the D's IRST from 15+ years ago was good enough to launch a Phoenix with more precision than merely the "general direction", I don't even want to imagine what current-tech IRST could do.

Edit: Forgot the F-35. Not sure if it is equipped with one.

vor 9 Minuten schrieb Wingmate:

Around 93 million miles or one AU isn't it?

Which leads me to wondering if anyone ever try to lock up Proxima Centauri with a Sidewinder seeker head?   

Edited February 2, 2022 by Jayhawk1971

[Uxi]

Loved the comment on pilots racing RIO for targets.  APG-71 and IRST sounds epic.  Also that they didn't really use Pulse Search anymore. 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Uxi

[Victory205]

8 minutes ago, Wingmate said:

Around 93 million miles or one AU isn't it?

Exactly (very old joke that was on weapons tests from time to time). I would imagine that pointing the IRST at the sun was prohibited, but I'm sure it had the same detection range as the AIM9. 

I don't recall trying on other celestial bodies. 

I'm with Bio, we hit the Navy at the same time. As he described, it was frustratingly sad to see how long it took to get upgrades to the Fleet. He did a twenty year career, was a squadron CO and was never in a B squadron AFAIK. Even in the early 1980's, the community was hopeful that it would get AMRAAM when that missile eventually deployed. Never happened. At one point, the F14D was supposed to replace the entire F14A fleet. Never happened. The B's and D's both contained large numbers of remanufactured A's.

Navy adversary squadrons got brand new F16's that weren't combat capable before the F14 fleet deployed with a GE engine. It goes on and on, for a number of insurmountable political and fiduciary reasons, but for the end user that has to take it into harm's way, the lack of upgrades was tough to take. The lack of certain systems bit the Navy in the arse when Desert Storm came out of nowhere.

That's the way it works. Guys like Bio put in twenty years of dedicated work, never sees the D, and some new guy fresh out of Training Command gets to fly the new tech.

[Cab]

9 minutes ago, Victory205 said:

Navy adversary squadrons got brand new F16's that weren't combat capable before the F14 fleet deployed with a GE engine.

If I remember correctly the Navy took advantage of a cancelled order and purchased some of the F-16's intended for Pakistan. It may have been that at least some of the jets had already been built.

[Victory205]

9 minutes ago, Cab said:

If I remember correctly the Navy took advantage of a cancelled order and purchased some of the F-16's intended for Pakistan. It may have been that at least some of the jets had already been built.

I'm sure that it was something like that, with GD working a sweet deal in exchange for something down the line so they wouldn't have to eat the jets, or the money would have never been spent by NavAir. The F16's were on the way when I was at Miramar, and the buzz about them permeated the squadron. 

A lot of funding during that time frame was soaked up by the push for a 600 ship Navy to counter what turned out to be an "overestimation" of the Soviet Naval threat. That includes standing up (and cancelling) the fifteen carrier air wing for the aviation side. It's an oversimplification, but the mindset was quantity over quality. Some amazing weapons systems were deployed on the surface fleet though.

[Cab]

10 minutes ago, Victory205 said:

I'm sure that it was something like that, with GD working a sweet deal in exchange for something down the line so they wouldn't have to eat the jets, or the money would have never been spent by NavAir. The F16's were on the way when I was at Miramar, and the buzz about them permeated the squadron. 

A lot of funding during that time frame was soaked up by the push for a 600 ship Navy to counter what turned out to be an "overestimation" of the Soviet Naval threat. That includes standing up (and cancelling) the fifteen carrier air wing for the aviation side. It's an oversimplification, but the mindset was quantity over quality. Some amazing weapons systems were deployed on the surface fleet though.

Yep, I remember.

[Callsign JoNay]

1 hour ago, Wingmate said:

Around 93 million miles or one AU isn't it?

Lol, smart-ass.

[Spurts]

1 hour ago, Jayhawk1971 said:

I don't even want to imagine what current-tech IRST could do.

Edit: Forgot the F-35. Not sure if it is equipped with one.

 

 

Look up the LEGION pod or IRST21, it's based on the FLIR from the F-14D and is I'm sure why the IRST is still under ITAR.

And the EOTS on the F-35 does both functions of FLIR and Targeting Pod

[Dannyvandelft]

So, question. Probably a stupid one, but wth right?

If a D model Tomcat knew where to look, could it pick up a stealth aircraft like the B-2 or F-22 with IRST and shoot it down with a Phoenix?

Coincidentally, if it can, is that why it's still classified and we can't play with a D model?

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Comstedt86]

1 hour ago, Dannyvandelft said:

So, question. Probably a stupid one, but wth right?

If a D model Tomcat knew where to look, could it pick up a stealth aircraft like the B-2 or F-22 with IRST and shoot it down with a Phoenix?

Coincidentally, if it can, is that why it's still classified and we can't play with a D model?

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

From what is being said on Tomcast in some episosed. Yes it could be done. 

[Spurts]

More like "yes and no"  It could FIND them with an IRST, at much shorter ranges than it would other planes due to IR reduction techniques, and it could FIRE a Phoenix, but then terminal guidance is up to the Phoenix onboard radar, which will have great difficulty tracking the radar absorbing aircraft.

[Katj]

More like "yes and no"  It could FIND them with an IRST, at much shorter ranges than it would other planes due to IR reduction techniques, and it could FIRE a Phoenix, but then terminal guidance is up to the Phoenix onboard radar, which will have great difficulty tracking the radar absorbing aircraft.

Still, if a F-22 has a radar signature of e.g. 1 % of a non stealth fighter that will per the radar equation reduce the detectable range to about 30 %.

Of course the real numbers are classified, but it's not unthinkable that a Phoenix could intercept an F-22 in such a simplified scenario.

I am however sure the F-22 people use tactics to maximize the advantages of their aircraft. They probably don't fly straight and level and let the other guys shoot first.

[Spurts]

The radar on the F-22 would likely track the Phoenix and let it maneuver out of the way or even shoot it down.

 

[Gunslinger22]

2 hours ago, Spurts said:

The radar on the F-22 would likely track the Phoenix and let it maneuver out of the way or even shoot it down.

 

What about the sharks with frickin lasers on their frickin heads? 

[eatthis]

On 2/2/2022 at 5:12 PM, Callsign JoNay said:

I just about fell out of my chair when he said the IRST could pick up targets from 200-300 NM away. 

and me! that blew me away!!!! i was expecting a tenth of that range

 

On 2/2/2022 at 5:22 PM, Victory205 said:

Are you familiar with the maximum seeker detection range of the AIM9M/L? It's a lot farther than that! 

i dont think the sun counts lol

[Jayhawk1971]

 

[Sam Kiwi Mzr]

Hi,

"Bio", "Crunch" and the interviewees, thank you for this wonderful Tomcat stories. I'm Enjoying hearing these episodes while I'm driving to work and back. I admire your patriotism to the army and your state. Many thanks. 

Shmulik, a Tomcat fan, From Israel.

 

 

 

 

[Jayhawk1971]

 

[Spurts]

Another riveting story.  "nine-hundred pounds" will never sound the same again

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

On 3/1/2022 at 8:04 PM, Spurts said:

Another riveting story.  "nine-hundred pounds" will never sound the same again

Indeed, and I'm quite happy the fuel quantity readout error is also present in our DCS: F-14. Just a few days ago I had to escape from a few bandits (I was winchester so decided to bug out), which had me flying at M1.7 for quite some time. I didn't have the fuel to make it back to the boat so I landed at the closest airfield. The engines flamed out on the runway while the indicator still displayed 600 lbs.

[Spurts]

My closest call was as close as it gets.  Doing an Interception mission in the Hornet I burned too much gas.  Got up to 40,000+ft on the way back to the boat until I could do a 10 degree dive at idle.  I trapped on the first pass, looked down at the readout and saw 00010.  The engine then flamed out before I was even done being pulled back by the wire.  

[Jayhawk1971]

 

[Spurts]

All this talk of amazing PTID clarity, and we have a TID.  They really make it sound like TID was never used with LANTIRN.  Truly a remarkable story about getting the capability so fast that the Hornet Mafia couldn't react in time to stop it.