JediMaster

That will certainly almost always fix it, but there's no doubt it's a drastic step!

Rafale is smaller than the Super Bug, it's more in the legacy Bug class. That's why I think almost every pic I've seen of one in operation has had 3 massive fuel tanks underneath. Just like we're facing with our planes, the Rafale was built under a Cold War design philosophy. In modern ops it's being forced to do things differently from the way the designers conceived it.

Of course, there are some odd configs for planes out there. You'll have older planes upgraded with newer avionics than the newer planes have! There are F-15s that are 20 yrs old with better radars than 5 yr old Super Hornets.

I believe "stealth" is listed as a requirement for a "5th gen" fighter, but how MUCH stealth isn't specified.

No no, the P-8 is coming. That will be great, really. Where's the sarcasm smiley?

Right, but those rules don't say "visible from XYZ distance."

Yeah, that's fairly certain. On the one hand, this is needed because thanks to delays since the early 90s there's no time left (or money) to develop something new. On the other, they bit off more than they should have with trying to make this one-size-fits-all medium fighter.

I'm a strong believer in not putting all your eggs in one basket. There's still no guarantee the GE engine will ever be produced for the F-35. Can you imagine a day 20 yrs from now where we have an F-15-style grounding because of the P&W engine...across a fleet of 2000 planes in the US alone? With nothing else but a handful of Raptors and Super Bugs and maybe some A-10s to cover???

Each service should've stuck with making their own plane for their own needs instead of giving every service something they DON'T need because the OTHER guys use it and making it the Joint Compromise.

The situation could be far better if they weren't spending money in the WRONG ways. I see it here all the time. There's no money for X, but they waste money on Y. Why is that? Because that's what that area's budget says they can have. It's totally stupid.

The F-22 simply because no one else is willing to spend that much on R&D and production for one.

The only thing the F-22 can't do is be cheap.

LOL, I work at Patrick AFB and even I miss half the rocket launches! Especially the Delta 2s, they're just not impressive.

Anyone who watched Futurama knows what Xmas is.

USMC (definite), UK (likely but not certain), other Harrier operators looking to replace theirs (Italy? Spain? who knows?)

Don't forget there was a supersonic Harrier in development that was cancelled long ago, before the "Harrier II" we all now know (ie AV-8B/GR.5+) was in service).

you lost me there. when do you think they started back up and what gives you the mistaken idea they've stopped?

Where did you get the idea I thought they had?

I meant when they first resumed the flights they weren't at the frequency they are now, but the news was all over it when they started, not now that they've actually increased the ops tempo.

I'm still getting over being sick, myself. That is to say I've had this cough and head congestion for 2 weeks now!

As for blues, I always feel it because I'm low man on the ladder and can never take the holidays off since everyone else does!

Your bat'leth is missing its blade...

LOL, I ran out of things that I thought of years ago, and we've only been together 12 years! It took less than 10 for my ideas run dry!

So yeah, I just get her what she asks for pretty much.

As for how they know, most likely you weren't careful! A receipt, an email about it, overheard talk, etc etc etc.

Tis it? Thadn't noticed!

Meh, humbug.

I'm one of those people that never particularly thought much about it. I didn't grow up celebrating it, and to me it's more a "OMG I have no idea what to buy for people!" times of year.

I'm not certain about this. I'd like it to be good, but I'm concerned it may not be.

Yes, thousands. So if it says "40" and "8", it means the radar is scanning between 40,000ft and 8000ft.

While a machine gun fires hundreds of rounds a minute, the Vulcan fires THOUSANDS.

Oddly enough, it's hard to get people to use the "right" sound for movies or TV because of the perception that it sounds "wrong." There was footage posted online from a Dutch news site about their troops in Afghanistan looking for Taliban. At a couple of points in the video an A-10 flies overhead firing its gun at targets a mile or 2 away. The sound is like nothing else...kind of like a dragon belching. It echoed up and down the valley they were in. It was far louder than the engines of the A-10 itself.

Timing acc? Is there a time accelerator? I'll have to check it out. Also when you are out of missiles and guns how does one continue a campaign? Or does that mean it's pretty much over?

Also what if I get to all the waypoints early. Can I land earlier or in order to complete the mission 100% do I need to wait til it's 5:59 or whatever to land?

It depends on the mission. Some like escort or CAP have time requirements such as 15 mins on station or escort until back in friendly territory or whatever. The "blow it up" missions generally don't have those and you can land when you want.

When you say "out of guns", do you mean your plane is out, or do you mean you've run your campaign supplies out of weapons? If the former, you can land and rearm if you need to to complete the mission. If you mean the latter, I guess you're done!

Now, not at the time they started up again.

Looking at all those listed here and thinking about it, my answer is...I don't have one!

Eagles will be fine, we just need money. Personally, I always thought an Eagle with a v3 radar was preferable to F-22, but I may be a bit biased in that regard

Well, it depends what you want it to do. There's no question it will have superior range/detectability thanks to the larger array/power/sensitivity, so for detecting stealthy cruise missiles and similar missions it would be better.

However, in a dogfight I'd take a 22, and I'd also prefer one if I was flying over enemy ADA.

Gunpowder--it does an explosion good.

In peacetime they will put transponders on the outside of the plane to boost their RCS as well as preserve the info of what they look like on radar WITHOUT them.

The only other way is the use of datalinks.