Fascinating article.
Worked on F-4B for two years, never knew that lower pod was IR. Spent some hours while being duty driver going over the unclas flight manual and never saw any reference to the IR system. Maybe it was in the classified or RIO manual.
/johnny
Ping and read later?
Thank you.
planeBradTyler RogowayOver the years I've talked with some pretty high placed military and DoD officials about the lack of modern IRST on Gen 4 and Gen 5 fighters. Here's what I've taken away from those discussions:
(1) Although the Air Force has a serious technology fetish, it got burned in the 50s and early 60s on a number of technologies that while at the time seemed useful never really panned out. IRST was one of those technologies that became a part of several fighters but never really worked consistently. Of course this could be said of many things of that era including radars and AAMs, but they could foresee big payoffs from the continued development of radars and missiles (along with engines and digital computers), but IRST was thought of as something that would divert money away from more important technologies.
(2) After examining captured and borrowed Soviet/Eastern Bloc aircraft and talking to foreign pilots, the decision makers came away believing that IRST was a gimmick. This was the belief all the way through the Cold War and even into the 90s. Of course the DoD and Air Force totally ignored the progression and advancement of the technology over time and made no serious effort to extrapolate where this technology might end up in the 21st century. I can tell you from being in military academia that there are very few papers seriously examining the subject, but you'll be able to find libraries full looking at both stealth and radar.
(3) In my opinion, the biggest factor in lack of interest in IRST had nothing to do with the technology and everything to do with DoD politics. The US was really the only country in the world with a sizable and capable AWACS fleet. These aircraft allowed detection of the enemy at longs ranges and were able to direct fighters to within weapons range with their radars set to standby. IRST was seen as a threat, because if it became capable enough, it could jeopardize the AWACS program. I'm not sure how the brass squared that circle, but they saw it as a threat where I see it as complimentary technology. In addition, in recent decades there was a fear that by fielding a capable IRST system on American fighters might call into question the value of stealth. There is nothing the guys with stars on their shoulders want to see less than a F-22 or a F-35 routinely getting waxed by IRST equipped F-16s. How could they ever justify the price of the F-35? A contractor friend of mine relayed a story once about how during an exercise that a certain famous Navy fighter with IRST was able to track an F-117. After that happened, the Air Force did everything in its power to never let something like that again. I have no clue if the story is genuine, but he certainly believed it was.
Wonder how an AWACS changes the scenario described? All the fighters with AWACS support could turn off their radars, correct?