Posted on 10/18/2017 5:44:35 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The F-15 or 16 gets the SAM to light it up and the F-35 sneaks in and nails the site.
>>IAF’s claims of air superiority in the region.<<
If they have at least one F-15 Strike Eagle they have air superiority.
The F35 Flying Anvil was the best idea possible executed in the worst way possible.
Um... given modern technology, that’s something the -16 can do for itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-88_HARM - to name just one possible response. In fact, we use F-16s to do that duty now: https://www.defensetech.org/2017/06/22/air-forces-f-16-wild-weasels-hunt-missile-sites-destroy/
No F-35 required.
A HARM works well but it requires an active radar which SAM sites turn off when the plane gets in HARM range.
So the F-15 roams around just outside HARM range while the F-35 comes in low and nails the site
I always thought the F-105 was an interesting choice to serve as a Wild Weasel plane...it seemed so big and ungainly...
Being a Wild Weasel pilot is a hell of a way to earn a living!
If you follow some of the Wiki links, it seems the Israelis intercepted an SA-5 missile with an Arrow AA missile back in March.
Love Israel constantly whipping Syria’s head around.
HARM no longer requires an active radar. About 10 years ago it got an upgrade - it ‘remembers’ where it last saw the radar and goes over to investigate. It can either attack the last location or it can loiter in the area waiting for the SAM site to come back up even briefly, at which point it strikes. The HARM can “see” further than it can travel, so it doesn’t matter if the site goes off the air when the aircraft gets to HARM launch range, the HARM still knows where it was.
The very latest version (-E) as of 2010 actually incorporates its own radar transceiver and can attack the hostile radar even if it is shut off and has started to move. Again - the -16 can do this all by itself, no F-35 required.
The Arrow isn’t an air-to-air missile, it’s a dedicated ABM/anti-missile missile. Not terribly surprising that it can take out the big old SA-5. The SA-5 is a flying telephone pole with delta wings.
It's a textbook example of design by committee, bureaucrats and central planning, why government run projects are always money pits.
Turning off your anti-aircraft radar when it detects an aircraft doesn’t sound particularly effective.
It is when a first generation homing anti-radar missile is following the radar emission back to the source.
Israel needs to develop a small bomber capable of delivering small diameter bombs (SDBs) at high altitude. Some types of 250lb SDBs can glide 70 miles to their target, which means that Israel could hit targets throughout Lebanon, and much of southern Syria without even crossing the border.
I worked on those at George afb
The F-105 flew air defense suppression as a matter of circumstance. It’s primary mission before Vietnam was nuclear strike. The Weasel mission was developed in the F-100. Unfortunately the F-100 lacked durability and speed - both of which the F-105 had in spades.
All true. I heard that when you put that thing into a dive at full power, it would go like hell!
Good morning.
An SA-5 is not the new S-300?
Right?
5.56mm
The F-105F (later-G) was later used because it was already in theater WRT support and maintenance and was on the way out as a first line fighter bomber in TAC elsewhere.
In short, the F-105 was available and expendable. My scoutmaster went down in one of the first F-105F Wild Weasel missions, he was the GIB.
Capt Ben Newsome RIP.
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