To: vannrox
This worries me. America must have a military that can destroy all enemies. Otherwise the world that hates us because we will free will be tempted to strike and might even win.
To: adam stevens
This worries me. America must have a military that can destroy all enemies.Technology is great, but it will never replace training. To defeat all enemies, we need to worry less about the most advanced technologies and more about the most advanced training. People fight, not machines.
14 posted on
09/30/2002 3:08:49 PM PDT by
templar
To: adam stevens
This worries me. America must have a military that can destroy all enemies.
Not to worry. Fighter planes that weighs 75,000 lbs has already made a terrible error. Pulling 8 G's is a tough structural requuirement for a plane that will surely weigh over 40 tons by the time weight overruns are added.
A modern fighter that has a thrust to weight of .93 is truly a sluggard. (thrust 70,000 vs weight of 75,000) A pig by todays standards.
I doubt if we could afford this plane. Advanced fighters cost us about $300 per ounce, or about that of pure gold. The Russians can do better but compared to their radically smaller GNP it becomes even more difficult for them. There would never be large numbers. A fatal flaw.
Air-to-air missiles contained in internal bays is also a major problem. It is difficult to get a missile to see the proper enemy. When you launch without lock-on you will often throw blind missiles that never see the bad guys. These missiles have zero Pk. (probability of kill)
Forward swept wings are dynamically unstable. We experimented with this concept decades ago. It sole advantage using todays technology is in the quikness of responding to a control input. Of course the responsivness of a standard design is so fast that any advantage would be measured by micro seconds. A trivial exercise.
I could discuss about 20 other features that auger poorly for a 75,000 lb forward swept fighter but the answer doesn't change.
Godspeed, The dilg
25 posted on
09/30/2002 3:59:43 PM PDT by
thedilg
To: adam stevens
This worries me. I wouldn't be, this is old new news and the Russians are probably trying to stay in the arms race for the simple fact they have China as a neighbor. Nobody ever thinks about that, but they've had skirmishes over the years, and they are vastly outnumbered.
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