Super Hornet Thread

[Ryoukai]

^ While we're on the topic of looks of these next-gen planes...why is the JSF so fat and ugly?...WHY?!

 

[vegita1220]

Stealth never really made a plane pretty.

 

[TANGO 1]

it is fat because the weapons-bay is now in the airframe as against hanging on pylons like they have on the 18's. Plus the surface area is being constructed to bounce of radar signal. Pretty much the same concept behind the F-22. This makes it STEALTH !

 

[Squid]

i love the buzzword that gets the air force so much r&d money. STEALTH. great. we already have air superiority, let's just make it uber-superiority. when was the last time we really went head to head in the fighter role? Iraq, Libya, Iran, Kergistanland? C'mmon.

 

[TANGO 1]

You know what, i keep saying the same thing. We are not doing any major dog fights anynore for christ sake, why waste money on all this stuff. There is still a man on the ground that has to go and clean-up after you guys have blown the sh!t out of everything and that is where they need to start putting focus. Presently there is no country that has air superiority like the U.S and they all know it. Why do you want a "stealth fighter". If it is going to every come in contact with potential threat then it is no longer stealth because the enemy discovered its prescence. The whole purpose of stealth technology is so that you go unoticed, so why would you build an aircraft intended for dogfight and then make it stealth. What is it going to be dogfighting? - (the atmosphere) at least it has to dogfight something.
"But you know why they will not do otherwise, because it makes sense". That is why people like us are not running the show.

 

[Fly Navy]

Pay attention to the military build-up that China is continuously doing.

 

[bch]

You know what, i keep saying the same thing. We are not doing any major dog fights anynore for christ sake, why waste money on all this stuff. There is still a man on the ground that has to go and clean-up after you guys have blown the sh!t out of everything and that is where they need to start putting focus. Presently there is no country that has air superiority like the U.S and they all know it. Why do you want a "stealth fighter". If it is going to every come in contact with potential threat then it is no longer stealth because the enemy discovered its prescence. The whole purpose of stealth technology is so that you go unoticed, so why would you build an aircraft intended for dogfight and then make it stealth. What is it going to be dogfighting? - (the atmosphere) at least it has to dogfight something.
"But you know why they will not do otherwise, because it makes sense". That is why people like us are not running the show.

Being a plane captain of a strike fighter I thought you may know why...
Most air to air victories (in the past) were won by the guy who got sight of (either visually or electronically) and was able to pounce on their target, rather than have to dog fight them.
If they cannot pick it up using some means that enables a weapons system to be targeted, then they cannot fire on it. IE more survivable. Same goes with the strike missions. They are going to know it was there, simply by the fact that it is going to make something go boom, and make some noise as it passes over, but again if they cannot find it, they can't shoot it.

Seeing as how we are not making strickly fighter aircraft so much these days, it makes sense to make an aircraft that has the means to defend itsefl enrounte to a target that is stealth. Other nation's continue to enhance their technology (maybe not on the level of ours, but they are getting better), the only way one can maintain superiority is to plan for the next generation, not the current one.

 

[jarhead]

in the AA roll, the Hornet is capable of carrying 2 Aim-9M/X & up to 10 Aim-120's , with a centerline tank ... the Super Hornet can carry up to 12 Aim-120's (maybe 14, i'm not sure if the outer stations can carry just 1 or 2)

a more realistic loadout for a self-escort strike would be 2 Aim-9X/M, 2 JDAM's or LGB's, 2 external tanks, 1 Aim-120, & a FLIR or LST ... a SH would have 2 extra pylons which would probably have a couple more Aim-120's

i think for the F-22 to carry JDAM, it has to loose a few of those AMRAAMs

S/F

edit: this is the f-22's armament, can some of you hornet bubbas compare their load with yours?

Two AIM-9s
six AIM-120s
one 20mm Gatling gun
two 1,000-pound JDAMs

 

[squeeze]

If there is a god out there, he will make webmaster grant me super-moderator powers so that I may strike down this thread and all that follow in its path.

 

[EODDave]

Please start a different thread for other topics.

 

[jarhead]

when the APG-79 AESA radar is finally installed and when the engineers fix the drag issue caused by the canted pylons, the SH will be a pretty nice A-A machine ... and the HMCS and Link-16 will change the ways A-A & A-G are fought by fixed wing air (looks like in time Marine Hornets will have both)

as far as China goes, they have definately paid attention to what our airpower has done over the last decade and with the money we Americans are giving them when we buy "made in China", they are buying the sh!thot weapons Russia & France are putting on the market ... weapons, that in some respects, are better than ours

"Stealth", a misnomer ...

s/f

.............................................

thanks bud

Please start a different thread for other topics.

 

[FlyingDoc]

Does the F model Hornet have a shorter range than the E model?