Posted on 10/07/2010 5:12:16 AM PDT by Broker
USAF Video
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Bump!
NAVAIR Ping...
mark
Nice bit of AF propaganda....but even if the Russkies and China “catch up” in 2018 or whenever, do we assume that our aeronautical wizards are doing nothing in the interim?
bttt
Weve cut production of both the F-22 and F-35. Even if the Skunk Works has something in development it will take a long time to get them into production. With the budget cuts I doubt much is being funneled to R&D. When 0bama declares victory in Afghanistan budgets will be cut back even further.
Threat #1 should be Obama.
The answer, unfortunately, is yes. At this time there are no new development programs for manned fighters or bombers starting: Unless they are black programs and beyond comment.
Development has shifted to UASs which have multiple Achilles heals but lack a critical one; there are no people in the craft.
In order to fight remotely with UASs, one needs secured, protected satellite systems. At this time that is a fallacy as shown to us by the Chinese.
Also, UASs, when flow remotely, cannot maneuver outside their pre-programmed flight path due to communications lag; it’s been tried and there’s about a 3 second one-way lag so the “pilot” doesn’t even see the results of his input until 6 seconds after the initial input... This falls under the category of “Bad”.
Also, UASs, even flown locally, cannot compete with a manned aircraft; big or small, just dumb unmaneuverable targets.
This stampede to get rid of persons in the loop is just a horrible idea; loose the ability to fly, loose the air superiority war, loose the ground war: Ask the Germans and Iraq’s about that. Having a mixed group is better, but it’s not going that way at this time.
It appears that Aerospace industry is looking for more funding? No wonder China is ahead, they’re getting all our money to support their R&D. Russia has tons of bucks coming in with their Oil holdings and they are increasing their income with weapon sales. We are no longer the great arms producing country that we were. The others have caught on that there are big bucks to be made in arms sales.
We can cover the F-22 gap with the F-15SE, the “Silent Eagle” and I would build more F-15 Strike Eagle’s too. I think we also need a lower cost fighter and always thought the F-20 would have fit the bill, basically an upgraded F-5. Lastly, we should have kept the F-14, despite the 1970 era electronics, it still can compete today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.