Bummer. Now you’ll still have to turn your radar emitter on (like turning on a searchlight at night) or get targeting info from an E-3.
This limits independent patrolling.
Hmm.. I wonder why the Navy program is deemed to be
‘on schedule’ whilst the USAF version is not?
More rigorous application of Earned Value?
“Air Force officials say that the effort was designed to provide “the only USAF search and targeting capability in the infrared spectrum designed specifically for air-to-air, providing air-to-air attack capability in a radar-denied environment”
I might be talking about a horse of a completely different color here, but haven’t the Russians included such a system on the Fulcrum and Flanker since the late 1980s?
The LANTIRN AN/AAQ-14 targeting pod still includes an air-to-air IRST mode. It just isn’t a “dedicated air-to-air IRST” solution.