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Originally posted by ch1466
Indeed, of particular importance is the utter lack of discussion relative to operating in a contest environment with mixed air and surface to air threats while supporting packages of conventional fighters. As an alternative to 'crossing the country at Mach 2, sling SDB as you go' which seems to be at least one Raptor jocks preferred vision for how to do things.
But always remember the things I forgot you'll never no .
1. Brave robots not cowardly men (Willard: I'll presume you meant other than me )at the controls.
2. Enough EXCM/Maneuver capacity to evade the threat, mechanically.
3. Enough CHEAP airframes to soak the odds-on residual attrition for any
given engagement model (2 missiles:1 target, 60-40-20nm poles).
Not when the F-22 driver brings his aluminum cumulus into the visual fight as was _specifically commented upon_ by the opfor driver (himself a Raptor jock) who 'finally saw him pass over my windscreen as the first indication of where he was'. This after having spent umpteen minutes 'looking for him' with _mechanical scan_ radars that scan the airspace like a flyswatter swinging for a gnat in the Astrodome.
During at least part of which the Raptor must have been close enough for AIM-9M.
Which is of course why we have ATS displayed incidents of F/A-18s putting their pipper on F-22s suffering a severe case of the BFM stupids in their bloody cadillacs.
Which is why F-22s make '9 kills, including a gunshot' because they press after running out of SAFE weapons and think they are God to always get away with it. Strange thing there, God doesn't think he's a fighter pilot.
1. The threat, if it's smart, won't come for the Raptors, they'll go for the support platforms and the strike packages. Probably from dispersal bases after the sweep has boomed-by.
2. The threat, if smart, will increasingly go for an MFFC approach in which the 'lo as light' end of the hilo mix is an unmanned system that is little more than the A2A version of a target drone with just enough numbers to sweep the airspace like dogs before the horse mounted hunters (if any). In this case Dispersal is a given because the drones can launch from the back of a truck and recover by parachute.
3. With all fast-SAM shifting to ARH and soon multispectral seekers while /already being/ (for like the last 30 years) 'netcentric' in their ability to look from over there and shoot from at your feet; operating under the assumption of destroying all A2A comers, regardless of scenario, is delusional. Because _even if it is TRUE_ the predominant threat is one of the 100nm ranging SURFACE TO AIR system which can be salvo fired up to 24 at a time from ONE site. Making life hellish for any system which penetrates enemy airspace either on their own or in support of the Raptor.
Originally posted by ch1466
Which is why F-22s make '9 kills, including a gunshot' because they press after running out of SAFE weapons and think they are God to always get away with it. Strange thing there, God doesn't think he's a fighter pilot.