Posted on 06/13/2006 10:15:56 AM PDT by MARKUSPRIME
A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor air dominance fighter, flying at a speed of Mach 1.5 and an altitude of 50,000 feet, released a GPS-aided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) from a range of 24 nautical miles, destroying a small ground target in the F-22's fastest and highest JDAM delivery yet.This was another milestone testing event for the Combined Test Force of Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT], The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and U.S. Air Force pilots who conducted the joint developmental and operational test in early May at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., using a 1,000-pound Mk-83 JDAM with live warhead supplied by Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The ability to release a munition at supersonic speeds and standoff ranges greatly enhances the aircrew's survivability against heavily defended targets.“We've already demonstrated the airplane's ability to operate with virtual impunity in the air-to-air realm and have had many successful JDAM deliveries previously, but successfully attacking a ground target at this speed, altitude and standoff range with a live weapon shows that to be true in the air-to-ground mission as well,” said pilot Lt. Col. Raymond “Buzz” Toth following the test. “The Raptor is ready to fight and is uniquely capable of supporting Air Force and Joint Command objectives against any enemy.”
(Excerpt) Read more at lockheedmartin.com ...
The Air Force apparently wants the bad guys to know (some of) what we are now capable of doing to them. Now that the bad guys know, the bad guys will react. Their reactions could be very interesting, ideed.
Heck of an amazing machine. 2,000 of those in the military arsenal, and we would have complete air superiority against anyone, anywhere, for the next 20 years. We practically have that at this point, but the F-22 does to other nations air forces what the Sea Wolf did to other nations naval and submarine fleets. It makes them obsolete overnight. I doubt there will be 2,000 of them but it would be nice. The more the better. Replaces all the aging F-15 and F-16s with those, and if it is sturdy enough to handle carrier landings and sea air, and at least one full squadron of them could be carried on each Nimitz carrier, I wouldn't give an ounce of spit for the survivability of anything the Chinese could put to sea or in the air if they decided to start a conflict with us. The Raptor is unbelievable. It's amazing looking at it and knowing it's the most advanced thing to take to the air in human history.
A gravity bomb, with a little bit of stealth technology and no heat signature at all, would be virtually undetectable until the explosion. It would come in at high altitude and travel straight to its target, as much as an (announced) 24 NM away. It might even be able to exceed that range by a large margin by using a high-angle trajectory release.
Yeah, I think that that ImADummyJad would really get a kick out of this information.
F-22 JDAM Launch Standard Motion
F-22 JDAM Launch Slow Motion
F-22 JDAM Launch - Fire Ball
Impressive.
I really wish the Navy was getting the F-22. The F-18 is fine for now, but if we ever have to go up against a capable foe flying the latest Sukhois, the F-18 is going to have a rough time, whereas the F-22 is a generation beyond anything else.
Until the JSF F-35 is in production. Then the F22 will be the second-most advanced thing in the air.
The Tomahawk (TASM anti-ship / TLAM Land Attack) is a great missile, but at it's best speed it's sub-sonic, and not stealthy, and they're not always in range for a desired targed, since they're mostly Naval or on heavier bombers that are typically flying in from bases hundreds or thousands of miles away. The F-22 being stealthy, and able to deliver from so high and so far can drop one of those, and literally, the targets would have no warning it was coming. That's the big advantage. An F-22 could drop one of those, and get "on target" much much quicker than it would take a Tomahawk to be targeted and launched and make up the distance from launch position to target. Plus, like with the F-16s that nailed zarqawi last Thursday, you can have F-22s flying racetracks over their assigned patrol area, carring those J/DAM's, waiting to be called to drop on a targed. And it would take longer to empliment a Tomahawk, since they are never just up flying around, like the Predators or other unmanned recon vehicles. That's the big advantage the F-22 gives us. The sooner they are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan the better. :)
More or less. Mission plans are loaded onto the aircraft and then downloaded to the navigation system during flight, but once the bomb is released, it's fully autonomous and completely on its own.
At some point, the military may deploy the DAMASK targeting upgrade for JDAM. DAMASK is an infrared sensor in the nose of the bomb tied to a signal processor in the tail. As the bomb approaches the target via its internal GPS/INS, it "sees" the target area with the IR sensor and compares it to an internal representation of the target area, which can come from satellite or aerial recon, and uses visual cues to adjust the flight path during the final approach. DAMASK is supposed to increase the accuracy of JDAM from its current 10m target radius (CEP, actually) down to a 3m radius. And it's cheap, too - all off-the-shelf commercial parts :)
Grassy-ass!
I think my favorite is the "fireball" that really shows what the target looked like before and at the moment of impact.
...and just in time to welcome Zarqawi's replacement!
I'd like to see it demonstrate its deep penetration capabilities on oh, how about a fortified undergound nuclear power facility?
Exactly. The F-22 is what the F-117 was technically designed to be used for if there was a conventional war with the Soviet Union in the 80s/90s. The F-22 would clear away all SAM sites and other mobile radars that could be used to direct their air units to intercept our planes. Once all those Radar sites and vehicles are wiped out, even B-52s would be free to roam where they want without fear of repercussion. And what's so great about the F-22, unlike the F-117, the Raptor has 20mm guns on it, and air radar, and it's an awesome dog fighter and could take out anything in the air, even if outnumbered 4 to 1 or more. Most other aircraft couldn't even get a weapons lock on the F-22, while the F-22 is dropping them out of the sky like bad habits. And the F-22 would stay in the air to continue running missions and dropping on areas that would be considered to be too hot for conventional aircraft even after the initial strikes. She sure does free up the Air Force a lot. :) Great addition to the Pentagon arsenal.
The libs could be sold on that since they oppose nuclear power, but you'd just have to do one hell of an environmental impact statement.
Slowboat, that was just hysterical! Thank you!
It's a fighter, and a precision artillery platform.
Yes, but they love the iranian mullahs that hate W even more than they oppose nuclear power, so they would find a way to bitch about it.
JDAM costs less than 50k, Tomohawk more than 1.2m
With an abundance of these and other babies in our quiver, why in the world would any third world dictator want any of the USA? There is so much stuff that can be strapped on or put inside of them that would cause so much discomfort for the likes of Kim Jong Il. They need to reevalute the nature of their association with US.
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