Cheap Simulators Threaten U.S. Air Superiority

StrategyPage ^ | Jan 17, 2006

[spetznaz]

Hmmmm .....for one I doubt that any amount of training can help a Chinese pilot in, say a JF17, face off against a USAF pilot in a Raptor. All that will result from such a matchup is a competent Chinese pilot getting shot down (as opposed to an incompetent one).

With that said, this development will improve the skillsets of their pilots. However improved skills or not they should not think themselves able to go kiss-kiss with a Raptor.

[billorites]

"While a hundred hours a year in a simulator isn’t a complete replacement for actual air time, it’s close enough if the training scenarios are well thought out. And another 40-50 hours of actual air time gives you a competent pilot. Add another few hundred hours using commercial (game store bought) flight simulators (especially when played in groups via a LAN), and you have some deadly pilots."

Nonsense.

[The_Republican]

Waste of words this is....

You can't fight what you can't see: RAPTORS

Enough Said.

[COEXERJ145]

Strategy Page really seems to be going off the deep end lately with some of their predictions.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Anti-Bubba182]

"Hmmmm .....for one I doubt that any amount of training can help a Chinese pilot in, say a JF17, face off against a USAF pilot in a Raptor. All that will result from such a matchup is a competent Chinese pilot getting shot down (as opposed to an incompetent one)."

Provided we deploy Raptors in sufficient numbers that will be true.

If Hillary or some other Dem gets into the Presidency, it won't.

[Laserman]

You are right. AS a retired AF pilot I can sau this is baloney!

[evad]

The biggest threat to American air superiority is not Russia selling high performance combat aircraft to countries like China, but the development of really inexpensive flight simulators.

Aw come on...are you series???

[Hypervigilant]

Complete nonsense. How many G's does a flight-sim pull?

[Netheron]

I work in the defense simulator community myself. This is complete B.S.

Cheap machines is one thing. Software that works well for it is completely something else.

In addition, it works both ways. Cheap simulators mean that much more training time for our guys as well.

[dighton]

An ejection simulator will likely prove more useful.

[jaydubya2]

one?

[somniferum]

Pilots are so 20th century anyway. UAVs are the future.

[numberonepal]

Waste of words this is....

Funny.

[advance_copy]

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator is absolutely the coolest game ever.

CFS is not a substitute for actual flight training

[Wristpin]

As you know, there are massive fidelity issues with PC based trainers.

[Larry Lucido]

Complete nonsense. How many G's does a flight-sim pull?

[winner3000]

We used to have an advantage both in technology and in training. Now it seems like the advantage in the training has decreased tremendously. There is no guarantee that the advantage in technology will continue to be there. We didn't beat the Soviets because we had better engineers. We beat them because we had a better economy. The Chinese economy seems to be doing quite well.

[Turbopilot]

Even grossly outnumbered, a USAF Raptor has an overwhelming advantage over anything else that will be built by anyone for decades. I've read that a lone F-22 can routinely win a mock air combat mission against six USAF F-15s. The problem is that they're very expensive, and Congress keeps buying fewer of them (making the per-unit price that much more expensive). So F-15s, F-16s, Navy F/A-18s, and the "super-compromise" F-35 are going to be more prevalent.

They're still fantastic fighters, but they may not maintain overwhelming superiority against an equivalent number of well-trained pilots in SU-37s or Rafales.

[numberonepal]

Pilots Surrender to UAVs