wahubna

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, been gone... What do you all think of this? Good idea or dead-end? Useful design? http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_09_16_2013_p22-615375.xml

Now that you mentioned it yeah it does have a bit of an Alpha Jet look to it. If Textron can make it as cheap as they claim and as easy to operate as they claim then it might be a hot ticket. Isn't the USAF looking for a new jet trainer or are they still requiring supersonic capability?

I am struggling though to see how this fits in the global market. Seems like in performance it competes with turboprops but with it being a 'jet' they are trying to compete against the variety of advanced jet trainers capable of much higher performance.

I really wish but alas no :( Some engineers I chatted with on the field had a hoot though that day!

Had the pleasure of seeing that beauty sitting in Mojave...apparently on its last 'manned' flight the pilot had a lot of fun ;)

Im not that much of a modder but I do love IL-2, how did you get the Mig for it? I have been looking for a good site with IL-2 planes that are complete (with accurate cockpits) but I have not found a good source.

Well combat aircraft of today are simply weapons delivery platforms. They are first and foremost designed to get weapons on target. Besides, regardless of how agile and lethal say the F-22 is it still has to spend most of its time on the ground. Making it a big easy target and all aircraft need massive support infrastructure which is all easily destroyed. So a 5th gen bomber/strike aircraft (maybe a 5th gen style of the F-111!) can easily eliminate any potential enemy 5th gen fighter like the J-20 and T-50 (China and Russia/India respectively). In short, a 5th gen bomber would be a welcomed compliment to the F-22 and F-35A in USAF service.

The F-35B is "on probation" by Gates because it is holding up the successful F-35A and C. Plus, he has ok-ed the USAF B-X program!! So maybe a new bomber is in the future for the USAF! Still, Gates is a moron... Here is the Aviation Week article: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awx/2011/01/06/awx_01_06_2011_p0-280761.xml&headline=F-35B%20Put%20On%20Probation;%20New%20Bomber%20To%20Go%20Forward&channel=defense

After flying several missions in the F-22 in the War For Israel addon and getting shot down by Sparrows and whatever stupid radar guided missile the Floggers use I suspect the RCS (stealth) of the F-22 is not really up to par. That and after getting nailed over and over and over by radar guided SAMs and radar guided AAM's in several other 4.5 gen fighters in the add on I feel like the ECM in non stealth aircraft are not up to par either. So anyone know how to edit these to make them either stronger or weaker? I also wanted just to experiment. As far as the F-22, F-35, F/A-18 E/F and other top of the line western 4.5/5th gen fighters, there is a lot more that is not simulated in SF2 that makes them stealthy and their BVR missile shots very affective. AESA radars with the proper avionics suite being capable of frying enemy radars (F-22 & F-35 have this ability). So Im thinking of tweaking the RCS and/or the ECM abilities of some of these aircraft.

What about the radar cross section of an aircraft? I know that the F-22's declassified head on RCS is .07sq ft (or extremely close to this) versus the F-15's which is about 4,500sq ft. For internal ECM is it somewhere in the aircraft folder? Thanks for the quick response!

Thanks for the quick reply! I know HOJ capability is in many missiles in SF2, but I am still getting hit without ECM....just hit a lot faster. When I got hit by a AIM-7M Sparrow from 15nm away when I was in a F-22 I got just a little pissed to say the least!

I heard about this plan a year ago. At first they wanted F-22's but Gates said no. Lockheed Martin is having a bit of a fight still with IAI over IAI wanting to be able to make their own upgrades/modifications to the electronics on the F-35.

I would think the USAF would not retire the Bone for at least 15 more years. The recently canceled B-X program was going to replace it, but Obama had other thoughts. Who knows what could be in the dark waiting to replace it. There has to be a reason the Bone would even be considered for retirement.

Thank you! Also, seems like the Expansion Pack 1 put out by Thirdwire doesnt work with this mod. Made my sim crash. So I re-installed and left out the exp 1 and all is well. Oh well, Ill give up the handful of 1950's era planes and weapons for a huge amount of current/future aircraft and weapons! Amazing aircraft selection, but where is the F-22? Seemed like an odd thing to leave out seeing how that bird is the premier fighter of the USAF. Still, good job!

That would be useful to know, I am using 32-bit Vista Service Pack 2.

I am not to good with computers but I cant seem to make this pack work all the way. I download the file (including the update), extract the files (seeing how they are 7-zip). I have SF2:E and SF2:I in a merged install and the new Exp 1 for SF2:I installed. I have followed the read me step by step but when I run the copied and re-named exe file (StrikeFighters2WarForIsrael.exe) after I put the "Strike Fighters 2 Main Dir" into the SF2 Main Dir as you say in the read-me. I ran the renamed exe as you said and when SF2 started I had the WFI menu, backgrounds, and music and obviously none of the campaigns, planes and such. I close it, go back the original SF2 file and I cannot find a "new mod Dir" that the exe was supposed to create. So Im stuck. I have tried moving things around but to no avail. Any ideas? I have tried doing NATO Fighters 4+ and had the same problem. I cant even find an aircraft file for the stock planes. Sorry if this isnt detailed enough but like I said, I am not a computer guru but I have installed community addons to WOE, and Microsoft Flight Sim 2004 many many times. I would really like to use this addon. I checked out the aircraft files in this download and my jaw dropped! You even have the UCAV X-47B! Looks and reads like this addon should top NATO Fighters.

I do not do any multiplayer (because i cant get on at the right time and servers), but anyways, I have had a lot of intense moments in IL-2 and WOE. This most recent one was shortly after i got all the NATO addons working. So to kick it off, i did a single mission in the F-16 blk 1 USAF on a fighter sweep in the early 1980's date. My flight was 12 Vipers each with 6 AIM-9L's and a ECM pod. Just before my flight got to the target area I 'asked' RED CROWN where the neareset threat was, the stupid AI voice replied "Rambler 11, you're clear, no bandits in area". So my flight spreads out and all aircraft including me kept the 2 drop tanks. As we cruised along on max military power at roughly 15,000ft with a thick overcast sky I asked RED CROWN again since my radar on search mode showed nothing and again she said no bandits. Then suddenly all hell broke loose and warnings went crazing and all my wingmen said "MISSLE INBOUND!". Up to this point i was also calming talking to my girlfriend on my cell, then suddenly all this happened so I went "what the hell?" and started hitting keys to get everyone to drop tanks and engage while switching to 'winders myself and switching my radar to AA mode (so i could track targets through clouds better while turning) then started banking every way I could on full burner. Now not only was I talking to my gal, but my flight just entered a huge cloud bank so we had no radar contact, and no visual and no warning. So after me and my flight turned and burned like all hell for a minute, we made visual contact, the enemy was 12 Mig-25's that snapped up from low level and did a formation BVR salvo, they closed on us fast but in F-16's, we easily downed them all. Still, the start was quit the shock. By the end of the mission my flight claimed 12 Mig-25's, and 3 Mig-23's with only 1 Viper lost. 15:1 not to bad considering they had the advantage!

I agree, ECM pods are not always the best option in real modern aircombat since it is an active system. Typically the radar jammers use false signals to either overwhelm the enemy radar or put false signals in through the radar's "sidelobs" to fool the radar computers into dumping the real target and accepting the false signals. As far as avoiding the missles, stay fast. A typical AAM's rocket motor only burns for like 3 seconds some only 1. So at 100km which is at the limit of the real AMRAAM, stay fast and perpindicular to the missle. High speeds at long range severly limit a AAM's or even a SAM's affective kill envelope. staying low will benefit (in reality) the missles maneuver ability. During the last usually 10nm a missle like the AMRAAM will switch to its own radar for the kill and by that point its using its fins to manuever which need air flow. So high altitude, high speed, and forcing the missle to turn the most will defeat it, chaff cant hurt...Might be way to much information, but hey, i like overkill!

I am new to using addons to this particular flight sim. I have the 8.30.06 update installed so that criteria for NATO packs 1&2 is met as well as there being no other addons installed. Before I installed NATO Fighters 1&2 I had no problems with the sim eventhough I am running it on a Vista laptop. Yet when I installed the NATO packs mentioned, the sim crashes with out any error messages or warning. The sim just closes suddenly. Any ideas? I followed the instructions as stated on the column5 NATO fighters page.

Thanks, I will look into it and see what I can do. This information seems hard to come by!