Military AI Works

Air Force Magazine Report on the F-22 Raptor. Here is an online story from AF Magazine.
http://www.afa.org/magazine/feb2007/0207raptor.asp

I know the rapter is the better aircraft by far, but I would like to see how the Typhoon does against it in the red flag exercises in the future.

dave lock

Raptor Vs Eurofighter now tht would be good, i reckon the Raptor would win cos of its stealthyness but eurofighter would turn tighter than it so it may in dogfight situations get a kill, but it has to aviod the raptors long range missles etc, and the raptor boys neva go anwhere without a sentry so they'd have long range eyes.

Thts My View!

Duncan "CrazyDunc" MacKellar
27th Fighter Squadron (Eurofighter Typhoons)
LandCruise Virtual Airlines

Although most people think the Typhoon is a cold war out of date aircraft, they are very miss led. I talked to one of the BAE test pilots at the Farnborough airshow a few years back & he told me that it is "after the Rapter", the most advanced and capable war plane in the world, with second to none maneauverability. Although, watching the F-18E at the show, I might dissagree with the maneauverability issue.

dave lock

Story ive heard - a typhoon was low level in cumbria and got jumped by 2x F-15C and "killed" bth of them, even the typhoon pilot was like hows i do tht?


F/A-18Es may b manourvably but a F/A-18D can out runit, os thts no problemo. lol. wat i wanna see is a 1 on 1 dog fight between a raptor and a tyhpoon!

I read the CinC of the USAF has flown both the F-22 & the Typhoon. He was impressed by the Typhoon but was biased toward the raptor. But yeah, bring on a 1 to 1 dog fight. I would love to see what happens.

dave lock

Well until the RAF puts the gun in it, it could be at a disadvantage, so best we use a German, italian, Spanish, Austrian, Saudi .......

Like most things...comes down to the pilot and their experience/training.

forgot they have no guns, wat were they thinkin!! aw man, they do have ASRAAM though, nice punch mixed with AMRAAMs, Paveways storms shadows and brimestones.

Think they decided to install guns/cannon on the RAF Typhoons after all, don`t know when this will be implemented though.

dave lock

david lock wrote:Think they decided to install guns/cannon on the RAF Typhoons after all, don`t know when this will be implemented though.

dave lock

The kids have to be retaught every generation. The young gung-ho missle believers designed another great aircraft (modeled by a certain modeller whose initials are FM ) to be all missle, no gun interceptor/fighters back in the sixties, too. But then, during it's baptism of fire in a certain southeastern Asian area, and the politically correct people running the war decided the pilots MUST make visual confirmation of the target, AND be FIRED UPON FIRST, missles were useless! It wasn't long before the gun was reinstalled!

The request for Proposal (RFP)defines the systems regquirements. Sometimes the platform is designed for a specific purpose. I.E. Bomber intercept. In that case missiles are highly appropriate and guns only a last resort. Some are more versitile- dogfight capable- I.E. fighter vs fighter. The mission statement in the RFP establishes other parameters too, such as altitude, payload, range, maintenance, etc. It then becomes a set of trade-offs. Guns and Ammo are weight that could also be fuel or payload.
That becomes altitude or range or engine size. If you stick on a bunch of "excess baggage" you soon get to a heavyweight that looses some of the very charateristics you wanted--like agility. So it is easy to say you want a 'Jack of All Trades" airplane and difficult to have it perform in all those trades with good numbers. You will recall Robert MacNamara and the "one size fits all-F-111". When they got away from that concept and made it specific to the SAC or TAC mission it worked OK. The Navy was not satisfied at all. However, the legacy was that very heavy landing gear setup. As we sometimes see, An Airplane starts off as a pure dogfighter (the F-15). Then someone wants a ground attack variant and you get the F-15E. The F-100 is a classic example of an evolution like that. It went from fighter, to fighter-bomber, to ground attack. In addition to that, you begin to hang all kinds of special weapons or pods on hard-points to create additional capability. Remember the Gun pods for the Phantoms? The Recce pods for the F-14, etc, etc, etc. Thus, airplanes are built for a purpose, modified when possible to fit a different mission, or sent to the boneyard. Tactics is the science of knowing the capabilities of your aircraft and the opposing aircraft and exploiting your advantages and minimizing his. Classic examples are the Hellcat vs Zero, Sabre vs Mig 15, etc.

As the raptor is the replcement for the F15A/C as an air defence fighter, how will they replace the F15E. It could be a derivative of the raptor I supose but as the raptor relies on internal weapons bays to keep it stealthy, who knows. Or it might be one of the UCAV`s they are working on now. They say the days of the manned fighter are numbered. I hope not for a long time yet.

dave lock

Yep, the decision has been reversed on the gun fir the RAF Typhoon's, when they will get retrofitted I do not know.

As for the F-15E replacement there is already the unsolicited 'FB-22' proposal, stretched two-seater, whether this will lead anywhere is in the lap of the gods.