Keepin' it Real!
Posted on 03/06/2006 4:51:13 PM PST by MARKUSPRIME
March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The 94th Fighter Squadron, famous for its historic "Hat in the Ring" insignia and legendary aviator Eddy Rickenbacker, began receiving F-22 Raptors from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT - News) today. The two 5th Generation stealthy, air dominance fighters are assigned to the second operational squadron in the U.S. Air Force.
ADVERTISEMENT The two Raptors will join F-22s flying today as part of the 1st Fighter Wing's 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va. Lockheed Martin has completed final assembly on 71 of the 107 fighters now on contract, and 63 have been delivered.
"This is another great milestone in the history of the F-22 Program," said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President and F-22 Program General Manager. "The F-22 will dominate airspace anywhere around the globe, around the clock, and survive in contested airspace better than any other aircraft in the world.
In the Army we referred to them as, 'the palace guard.'
The X over the guns is because the bullet count for rounds remaining just below guns is 0, no magic BB's no guns available. If he was weapons safe while in A/A master mode there would also be an X. If he was to close in where the mission computer calulates bullet path and possible debris there would be a very large break off X accross the hud telling the pilot not to engage guns.
Notice his water line symbol or nose (W) is @25 degrees nose down, with the ghost velocity vector showing actual flight path greater than 35 degrees down in a hard 45 right bank. He is still not completely unloaded with some centrigul force pushing the gun piper to the port off centerline tracking the raptor with 200 knots closure at 1000 feet range. He is already nearly to close in for a safe shot. He is floating with 1.7 G and set to overshoot and reverse his scizor and was manuevering to keep the piper on the vipor who is nose down and probably has more energy than the hornet to extend. A classic scizors duel in the weeds with the hard deck probably set at angles 10 MSL. The beauty of the hornet is being able to achieve high alpha maneuvers to obtain a good gun solution pushing the nose just about anywhere and the great APG165 able to hold lock. With the thrust vectoring of the raptor depending upon fuel state I would not put my money on the hornet, even though he may have just gotten a lucky shot. That is why close in fighter skills and pilot ability overcome the crate he or his enemy is in. Great training the raptor jockey still needs, but IMHO should never realy use by ever even attempting to mix it up like this. If you are out of missles it is time to go home.
No doubt, do you believe as I do the hornet was already dead even buy guns as well and the raptor was just playing with the hornet to see if the hornet could even obtain a shooting solution and by luck or skill was able too?
I like it! The Navy short version is; "close to the flagpole".
What exactly do you call the Battle of Britain then?
I've got a picture of myself sitting on the tail of a Russian Badger, and many shots from my TCS of lots of MiGs that I've come across over the years that I wouldnt trade for money.
I think a deal was made for that shot, both parties went away happy, the Hornet driver has a legend for his grandchildren someday, and the Raptor driver drank well that evening.
Insanity.
Amend my quote to read Air Combat SHOULD NEVER BE a war of attrition.
We'd use that term too. We also had the concept of 'flag pole leave' which is when an officer or NCO would take leave to eliminate their use/lose balance, but not really go anywhere because they needed the time to stay up with (or at least limit the amount which they fell behind) their responsibilities at the unit.
In the First Infantry Division I was responsible for putting together my unit's Unit Status Report (USR) for the Division. Every October one Commanding General required that all his subordinate commanders report every E5 and above, serving in a leadership position who lost leave, how much leave they lost and why soldiers in his division had not been able to take the leave they had earned. Of course, all subordinate leaders in the division had ample opportunity to take all their leave (wink, wink, nudge nudge...)
Agreed. Thanks to you and Rokke and the others for the information. It's been an interesting read. Never thought I'd see humility out of fighter pilots comparing crates to their own. The F-22 must really be something.
Ahhh...I remember it well!
Hey , did you gentlemen ever do the nasty with Air Force / Navy aggressors ? If so , honestly , how did you fair ? It sure would have been something for you both to get a chance to participate in Red October , with those Luftwaffe MiG-29s and their nasty R-73 Archers ! I shall dedicate a bottle of Stoli Elit to you both tonight !!!
I fought against both the USAF and Navy Aggressors, and against West Germans flying Mig-29's using "red air" tactics. The problem is, the job of the Aggressors is to accurately represent the tactics and capabilities of the countries we are preparing to fight. And they do a good job of that...which puts them at a HUGE disadvantage. So the results are always pretty lopsided against the Aggressors. And flying against the Mig-29's was always fun except everyone immediately blew off the normal beyond visual range gameplan with the hopes of getting to a visual merge. Unfortunately, the Mig-29's were always out of gas about two minutes after the start of each exercise, so the only visual you got was a long trail of black engine exhaust leading back to the base. I did spend a few years in a squadron with a German Mig-29 exchange pilot. He liked the Mig-29 and loved the Archer, but said he would prefer to go into combat with the F-16, because it was much harder to see (in more ways than one) and was more reliable. And now that we are flying with the Aim-9X, the Archer is outclassed as well.
Keepin' it Real!
Sierra Hotel ! Thanks for sharing with a newcomer to FR and have a great day ! P.S. : I love that shot of the smokin'low Rhino that was posted !!!
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