Thanks clinton.
Posted on 12/28/2009 1:10:19 PM PST by kronos77
A new-generation Tu strategic bomber will be developed by 2017, Russian aircraft maker Tupolev said on Wednesday.
Company President Alexander Bobryshev told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the research on the new aircraft project should be completed by 2012, while production-line assembly should start in 2020 to 2025.
However, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, commander of Russia's strategic aviation said on Tuesday a new strategic bomber, which will use stealth technology, is expected to enter service in 2025-2030
He said the stealth technology will make "the new aircraft difficult to detect by radar, although it is impossible to make airplanes of this type completely invisible."
The new bomber will replace the Tu-95MC Bear and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers, and Tu-22M3 Backfire long-range bombers currently in service with Russia's strategic aviation.
According to various sources, in addition to 16 Tu-160 bombers, the Russian Air Force currently has 40 Tu-95MS bombers and 141 Tu-22M3 bombers in service.
These aircraft will form the backbone of the Russian strategic aviation in the next decade following extensive modernization.
MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA Novosti)
by 2017?
Wanna bet?
Thanks clinton.
Thats old stuff...We got better stuff now...
BTW, we knew those Bear “D”eltas were coming to fiind us in the “Bear Box” almost a day before they got to us...
We would be in a dispersed formation, and all they had to do was pop up to 50K and turn on that “Big Bulge” radar, and they’d always have us in a matter of minutes...
They’d fly in low and slow after that to get pictures of as many of us as possible, under F-14 escort (that will certainly date me of course), and fly on into Vietnam...
After our pitstop in Subic, the very same aircraft (most of the time) would get us on the way from Subic to the Straights of Mallacca just to say “Hi” again on their way back up to Vladivostok...
All in all it was just a big game...
Escort crews had the most interesting jobs to do on those flights...
I even heard that the crews could actually feel the vibrations from the props if they got close enough...Thats pretty bad...
Just saying 2017 because the USAF is supposed to field the Long Range Next Generation Bomber by 2018.
UCAV. . .for a nuke-capable aircraft?
The strength of the manned bomber is signaling, to give warning, and who wants to launch a UCAV with a nuke. . .not me. Assured recall? Not hardly. Able to operate if damaged and still able to recall or retarget—not abort—if hit or lost com?
Unmanned is fine for some missions, like ISR, but so far we have been operating unmanned in a permissive environment, not hostile airspace, and this is giving people a false sense of accomplishment in the field of unmanned systems. Fact is, we have a long way to go.
If we get there, unmanned nuke aircraft, then we will have arrived where unmanned airliners flying you and the family to visit grandma is no big deal.
But the info they gleaned off that wreckage in addition to what they were given by the pants dropper himself out the front door was more than enough to give them the know how to make the leap to stealth aircraft.
At best their first generation Mig 29’s and SU 27’s were equivalent to mid to late model F-4’s technology wise? Even the current generation of the Migs and Sukois are early to mid 80's models of the F-15. They're gaining more and more each year while we're declining, and the 180 F-22's are not going to count for mutch if the trends keep going the way they're going now.
Well what you say is true, I don’t dispute that...
But a flight of F-22’s is an extreme force multiplier, and it is limited only by the amount of ordinance it can carry on one sortie...
Remember the story of “one” (1) F-22 that went up against a flight of 5-6 F-15’s and that one A/C got all of them without being detected by the opposing force???
I believe things are changing, yet I believe the other sides efforts to improve the technology has always been inferior to our ability to integrate the whole spectrum of technology, integration of systems, training of aircrew, and operational effectiveness...
Just my opinion...
You’re being a bit optimistic I think. At least with the Su-27, it represented a considerable increase in capability to the F-4. The MiG-29 was developed for a far different set of requirements (short-range point defense fighter) and would’ve bested the F-4 in that role. The current Sukhois (upgraded Su-27s and Su-35s) should be more than capable of handling 80s-era F-15Cs in USAF service (not accounting for pilot quality).
The first video of downed F-117A showed allmost intact cockpit, with instruments pulled-out so that wires were tangling. And it was covered with fire-extinguisher foam.
That video was newer showed again.
Boy, you nailed that one right between the eyes.
Da...
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