Posted on 01/24/2021 8:55:55 AM PST by Onthebrink
Based on the American definition, I’d rather be that than a liar.
Because it’s better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.
>They LASER or GPS paint targets from 2 miles away and hell rains down from a B1 150 miles away 3 minutes later.
We were doing that in the early days in Afghanistan. The BONES were a bit unheralded, but made for one helluva bomb truck. Lots more payload and loiter time than an F-15E.
Roger that but wish it weren’t too true.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter has been described as one of the most advanced combat systems in service anywhere in the world. In addition to its stealth capabilities, the all-weather, multirole, fifth-generation aircraft is a true warbird, and the F-35A conventional take-off and landing variant is armed with four internal stations as well as six external hardpoints on its wings with a capacity to carry 5,700 pounds internally, and 15,000 pounds externally.
The aircraft can be armed with a variety of air-to-air missiles including the AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-9X Sidewinder, AIM-132 ASRAMM and MBADA Meteor missiles; air-to-surface missiles including AGM-88G AARGM-ER and SPEAR 3 among others; and even the AGM-158C LRASM anti-ship missile. Additionally, a variety of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), Mk 77 incendiary, Mk 20 Rockeye II cluster and B61 mod 12 nuclear bombs can be carried.
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The F-35A variant is also unique in that it is the only version of the Joint Strike Fighter that is armed with a built-in 25mm GAU-22/A four-barrel rotary cannon and 180 rounds of ammunition above its left air intake.
The F-35B and F-35C variants can carry the gun underneath the centerline depending on mission requirements. The question is that given the advanced missiles and bombs that the F-35 can carry, why is such a gun needed?
F-35A Gun and Stealth: A Needed Combo
That very question was addressed in a peer-reviewed research paper prepared by then Colonel Charles Moore, who has served as 57th Wing Commander in the United States Air Force and was manager for the Joint Strike Fighter/F-35 program on the Air Staff. His paper, The Need for a Permanent Gun System On the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, noted, “some legacy weapons, such as an internal gun system, continue to prove they are still viable and are absolutely necessary if we want our future aircraft to have the flexibility necessary for the wide range of missions we expect them to perform.”
F-35 on Tarmac
An F-35A team parks the aircraft for the first time at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, Feb. 8, 2016.
As Moore also stated, the issue to design, install and maintain such a gun system would not come without additional expense; while space and weight would remain significant details when designing the new aircraft. This helps explain why only the F-35A variant is equipped with an internal gun. The short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B variant requires space for its LiftFan, while the F-35C carrier variant needs to save weight and space to accomplish its long-range missions – but external guns can be mounted on both airframes as the mission dictates.
F-35A Gun: What History Tells Us
Another consideration, as reported by Business Insider, is that even in an era where advanced aircraft such as the F-35 can hit targets miles away before an enemy aircraft could even see the fighter approaching, pilots still want them. That comes from lessons learned in Vietnam when the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II was initially designed without an internal cannon. The thinking at the time was that longer-range air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-7 Sparrow would make close-in aerial dogfights a thing of the past.
However, when U.S. aviators came up against MiG-19 and MiG-21 they found they wished they had some guns for the close-in fighting, and later models of the Phantom II were armed accordingly.
The same line of thinking still holds true today, if an enemy fighter can get in close enough to shoot its guns, the F-35 better have a way to shoot back. And while the F-35 may only have enough ammunition – the aforementioned 180 rounds – to fire a short burst, it could be enough to make the difference in surviving a fight.
As Moore added, “a gun system is a reliable, low cost, small logistical footprint system that offers effects unachievable by other weapons. Not including such a weapon would not only be imprudent but would potentially prevent the F-35 Lightning II from achieving many of the missions it will be expected to perform late into the 21st century.”
In other words, the GAU-22/A four-barrel rotary cannon should be seen as a weapon of last resort – something no pilot ever wants to count on, but will certainly be glad it was there for those times when it was truly needed.
Not hugely into technology, are you?
1. Yes, GPS can be jammed - quite easily and effectively. Lasers designators can be easily defeated using smoke.
2.GPS doesn't "paint" a target and
3. 150 miles in three minutes - 3,000 MPH? What do we have in our inventory that goes that fast? (and is terminally guided) You should probably not throw BS around when there are people who know how this stuff really works.
So you lied repeatedly about my post and you admit you are a wanker?
Well, admission is the first step to a cure......Good luck with that.....
Let me state it clearly for you. I may be an AH, but you are a liar.
Lessons from Vietnam. Sometimes you have to pull a trigger.
Now you’re just being silly......
What’s next, are you going to say “nanny nanny boo boo” and wiggle your fingers in your ears?
Grow up.....
Thats good thinking, we have plenty of those but, can an aircraft carry enough in the magazine to be effective?
If its done via stealth, nobody knows is coming. Smoke is a temporary solution that doesn't last forever.
150 miles in three minutes - 3,000 MPH? What do we have in our inventory that goes that fast? (and is terminally guided) .
We have our new "super dooper" Hypersonic standoff missiles.
Trump bragged about them an nearly every Rally.
If its done via stealth, nobody knows is coming. Smoke is a temporary solution that doesn't last forever.
150 miles in three minutes - 3,000 MPH? What do we have in our inventory that goes that fast? (and is terminally guided) .
We have our new "super dooper" Hypersonic standoff missiles.
Trump bragged about them an nearly every Rally.
Inertial navigation uses 3-axis gyros, which have an element of drift. Using GPS to correct that drift is how inertial navigation corrects for that drift. Blank out the GPS and you miss the target.
Smoke is set off when the laser is detected, just as the warhead is in it's final part of the trajectory.
The term is "super duper", not "super-dooper" and despite Mr. Trump mentioning hypersonic weapons, they haven't been fielded yet.
Neither have 1,400 planneed F-35's.
Its about the future, not today.
Shithole countries like azerbaijan are showing us the future and the future is cheap, unmanned drones.
True - but it's actually Turkey, our "NATO Ally" that armed Azerbaijan with those drones. The usual Muslim support for more murderous Muslims.
The point you make is correct: the future is unmanned everything: aviation, naval combat power and support, ground combat power and support. The Chinese are aggressively pursuing this direction and we had better catch up.
I led a team that designed and tested fully autonomous artillery 15 years ago and the system worked very well - fire missions fired very precisely in 18 seconds and a Circle Error Probable (CEP) of 15 meters at 8,200M (and using a drone to locate targets) but the services didn't like the technology and it's sitting rusted and ignored in a warehouse at Picatinny Arsenal at the moment.
These attitudes come from senior officers with no technological expertise and their fear of "rocking the boat". As long as we have people like that leading things, we will lose the race to keep ahead of our enemies.
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