Gocad

Sorry for the bump, but there is something about the F-22 that crosses my mind frequently. One of the most signifying features is of course its stealth capabilities. The fact that the F-22 is basically impossible to detect is often described as its main advantage compared to all other potential aircraft it could encounter in combat. But I do keep thinking that the Stealth technology is some sort of dead end, because it is only an advantage as long the other side (who ever that may be) has no access to it. But what happens if Russia, China or any other nation striving to build modern aircraft succeeds in building their own stealth aircraft, or at least come up with a new method to detect it. Then what? Sure, given the amount of time and the resources that were necessary to come up with the F-22 make it clear that something like it won't turn up tomorrow, but still I think it's a vaild question. So, what do you guys think?

IIRC the skins for the F-8E found on column5 will not fit the WOV F-8E. I do also think that there are no skins for the WOV F-8E available because there are no templates for it out there.

Has there ever been a conflict for which any nation was prepared for? The honest answer would be: No. Just look at World War II. It wasn't only the United States that was unprepared for it, equipment-wise. Britain, Germany, they all had equipement in their inventory that were soon found out to be unsuited for the conflict they had become involved in... And in fact it is impossible to known what needs to be done to be prepared for the next conflict. It is now easy to say that the US forces sent to Iraq were in some aspects rather unprepared for their mission, but did back then who did actually know how this would turn out? One can "argue" or make some "analysis" all day and night whether euqipment X is well suited for the next conflict Y, but in the end it's all just talk that leads nowhere, especially when it's done on the net.

Except for that the F/A-18A-D replaced mostly the attack aircraft such as the A-7 and A-6, which means they were not really meant to be first-line air superiority aircraft. And the same can be said about the JSF. That's the problem with multi-role aircraft, they are after all somewhat of a compromise. The Tomcat, on the other hand, was designed around a single weapon system, the Phoenix missile. It was rather conincidence that the it could also fulfill other roles, such as doing Recon or Attack missions. Imagine how useful the Tomcat would be these days, were it still in service, but had it been unable to carry bombs or even recon pods. Ever seen pictures of Hornets that operate over Iraq or Afghanistan? Just look at their wingtips. Air combat seems to have become a secondary task these days.... Link: Navy News photo. Just an example.

Ah, the X-32. To be honest I don't find ugly at all. Looks like a stealthed A-7 to me.

Are you sure? Some how I doubt that you could carry the ALARM on the Sidewinder rail, after all the ALARM 2.5 times as heavy as a Sidewinder.

This should have nothing to do with the planes themselves, but with rather the gundata file.

Perhaps, but the extra speed is nice. You can really feel the difference during take-off. The A-7 basically leaped off the runway...

I'd prefer FLUF. scnr

I'd rather have the A-7F (that's the designation for the F100 version) instead of this weird-looking twin engine version....

There is a simple explanation for this: torn_data: [LeftWingStation1] ... FuelTankName=TankTornado NoJettisionTank=TRUE [RightWingStation1] ... FuelTankName=TankTornado NoJettisionTank=TRUE Also, it seems to me that the MW-1 dispenser body is actually part of the model itself, thus making impossible to simply dump it once it is equipped. But that's just my guess here.

It might have something to do with that the WOV F-8 is based on the RL design...

Okay, now I'm convinced. Those Yak-9s are strange planes...

Yeah, it was. As strange as it may sound, these missions were nevertheless far more exciting than those "bomb X" or "shoot down plane group Y" jobs...

Too bad that the recon missions in SFP/WOV/WOE are nothing more than "fly to waypoint #5"... and actually you do not even have to get there at all to complete the mission. It's a shame, since I still remember how much fun the recon missions in Microprose's F-117 were.

Huh? (Notice the altitude!) And no, I did not mix up the order. Or would you believe that a Yak-9 could climb up to 70.000 feet on its own?

IIRC he had just mounted them on the Sidewinder stations that are part of the F/A-18 model. There is one thing however that might be a nice addition: weapon plyons. Some models have weapon stations, but not the pylons to mount the bombs, rockets, etc properly. Thus I think that some generic pylons might be a nice addition for the weaponspack.

The main problem with such a campaign would be that between 1940 (after the BoB was over) and 1943 there wasn't much going on in the skies over western Europe. Most of the German units were sent east or to Italy/Northern Africa (there were just two Luftwaffe units left on the western front) and the bulk of USAAF units didn't arrive until 1943.

Nah, those were just pics of the new C/D Hornets. Two more weeks, right?

You do know that the Russians are aware of the concept called 'Cruise Missile'.

I would not be surprised if that has something to do with the introdcution of those new subcategories in the Cold War section. Nice work, btw. Any chance that the same will be done with the WWII planes?

You think Ivan is planning to grab the Arabian oil fields? But seriously, I stand to what I have posted previously. Russia may be recovering, but they are still lightyears away from having the military capablities the might have had during the Cold War era. Putin is keen to play the 'strong Russia' card and underscore that they want to be global power once again, but their military simply is not up to this. These flights are just a show to demonstrate their own people: "Look, our mighty bombers take to the sky and everyone in the West panics." But I doubt that this is the case. It's not like the Russians have done something nobody was prepared for.

You should also check if there is a diameter limit for the weapon station. Some Sidewinder stations have them and they are usually set to match the diameter of the Sidewinder. But the AMRAAM is slightly wider. An example (from the MF F/A-18): [LeftOuterWingStation4] //SUU-63 Pylon with LAU-115A/A SystemType=WEAPON_STATION StationID=11 StationGroupID=2 StationType=EXTERNAL AttachmentPosition=-3.092,-1.7,-0.727 AttachmentAngles=0.0,-1.0,-90.0 LoadLimit=2600 DiameterLimit=0.3 <- I have changed this value to be able to load up an AMRAAM here AllowedWeaponClass=IRM,AHM AttachmentType=NATO,USN ModelNodeName=LeftOuterPyl02 PylonMass=91.4 PylonDragArea=0.03 LaunchRailNodeName= But in most cases adding 'AHM' should do it, especially for modern American jets.

I fail to see what's the big deal with this. If the Russians want to burn some fuel over international airspace, let'em do it. If it makes them them happy, feel more important, or else, so be it. Or is it still considered a miracle if the Russians manage to get their birds airborne?

From the article: It was originally reported that five nuclear warheads were transported, but officers who tipped Military Times to the incident who have asked to remain anonymous since they are not authorized to discuss the incident, have since updated that number to six. I guess somebody should look up what 'not authorized' means.