Posted on 12/10/2010 6:14:44 AM PST by EnjoyingLife
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The Via
http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-200905.htm (photos 25 and 26)
The Photographer
Major Michael S. Humphreys, United States Army
The Video
NORAD and Russian Air Force Participate in Air Defense Exercise
"Pulses quicken as fighters track 'hijacked' plane" by Dan Elliott: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012598486_apusrussiahijackexercise.html
Does it seem like those Flankers are looking a bit rough to anyone else? Looking closer at the paint and panel seams it sure looks like they have been rode hard and put away wet a few times to me.
I was thinking the same thing.
Creeping gay exercise.
Why do the F-22’s have no markings?......................
Not to me. In fact they look quite clean. No oil streaks under the engines, no fluid streaks around the flight control surfaces, no major chipping or peeling of paint, and no primer that I can see.
Next time you fly commercial, take a peek at the area around the front windshield as you board.
FWIW, I am not comfortable with conducting training exercises with the Russians. It offends my Cold War sensibilities.
Because they're part of the secret United Nations/New World Order Air Force (the nortorious NWOAF.)
They have markings, but they're subdued and hard to see in that light - as intended. Those F-22s are based in Alaska.
I guess I’m too old to ever feel comfortable with it either.
Unless the word China is mentioned in the conversation that is...
Soviet Era/Russian military equipment always has a “rough” look to it. Visit the Smithsonian Air/Space museum—or any US military base that displays Soviet Era/Russian equipment alonside American stuff—and the difference in fit and finish is astounding.
That said, Russian pilots fly these things. However, head-to-head Russian equipment is usually defeated—decisively—by American equipment. I’m not an expert in these things, but it is my take from actual combat over the past 50 years or so. Perhaps part of the problem is the quality of Soviet/Russian client state pilots. But even in Korea and Vietnam where Soviet pilots flew actual combat missions, our stuff defeated theirs.
I might have missed it, but what platform were the pictures taken from?
More interesting tome is that the Russian aircraft still carry the Red Star marking. The Russian Federation—or whatever it’s called—has adopted a different national symbol, but I guess there still those who long for the good old USSR days.
According to the accompanying video's opening credits, the aircraft used to simulate the hijacked airliner was a Gulfstream IV.
The photos were taken from the “hijacked” Gulfstream 4 jet, code-named “Fencing 1220”.
...New World Order Air Force (the nortorious NWOAF.)...
When was this NWOAF initiated? Guess the “New World Order...” caught my eye right away.
They have always gone to function over appearance, but to my way of thinking it is the little details that always come back and bite you in the a$$ on complex equipment.
If the guy machining the turbine blades has been working his whole life to worry about the daily quota and nothing else then there will be problems, period. How pervasive that attitude is in Russia now I don’t know, but QC and maintenance use to be the biggest problem they had.
I’ve seen pictures of ball bearings that aren’t even round making it onto some of their armor, that is the kind of stuff that will kill people.
I have a gut feeling that the Flankers are not as good as advertised. I recently saw video of F-16s and German Flankers flying exercises and it showed video from inside both cockpits. The F-16 flew smooth as glass. The Flanker was shaking constantly. I thought it was going to shake itself to pieces in a steady low-g turn. That tells me the Russians haven’t really figured out the aerodynamics and all that high-amplitude vibration has got to cause fatigue problems.
I’m with you on ruski quality or lack thereof.
Always seemed that RusMil stuff was more intended against ill-equipped civilians or for sale to dumbass countries. Just never seems to stand up against real quality.
Raptors and Flankers
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