MigBuster

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EGLIN AFB — Two fishermen trolling on Choctawhatchee Bay Monday afternoon probably went home with a story to tell. The boaters got a close-up look at some pretty realistic Air Force training that included 25 to 30 boats and four A-10 aircraft practicing low-level air-to-sea combat operations. “There are hostile countries that are developing high speed, armed boats that are harassing our fleets at sea and in ports,” said Dennis Beabout, the 96th Test Wing’s Gulf Range Engineer. “This exercise allows our pilots to practice maneuvers and tactics to take on this threat.” Monday was the first day of the latest round of Eglin’s Maritime WSEP (Weapons Systems Evaluation Program). The exercise will run through Thursday, with live-fire operations over the Gulf of Mexico in the morning, and realistic simulations on Choctawhatchee Bay in the afternoon. Local residents may experience louder than normal noise levels while these exercises are taking place. During Monday afternoon’s operations on the bay, six squadrons of five boats each (about half of which were private vessels hired from local fishing fleets) took to the water in inverted V, or “Vic” formations. Each squadron was labeled by color. Upon hearing a radio operator call out “Fight’s on,” the boats took off in formation. Like a play-by-play announcer, the radio operator called out directions to the boat captains. “Red squadron, clear to jink!” the operator called out, causing the five boats flying red flags to fan out in different directions. Seemingly out of nowhere, four A-10s from Eglin’s 53rd Wing appeared from the west, their trademark whistling roar announcing their presence. With its huge 30mm Gatling gun sticking out of its nose, the A-10 is known affectionately as the “Warthog.” On Monday afternoon, however, the mighty planes looked more like giant seagulls, swooping down as low as 100 feet above the scrambling boats. As the boats attempted to maneuver out of the way, one by one they fell victim to the Warthogs. “If the pilot can lock on electronically and hold it for three seconds, it’s considered a kill, explained Mike "Adrian" Guidry, the general manager of InDyne, the main defense contractor that provides support for the Eglin test range’s missions. Occasionally, a boat would set off a flare to simulate a surface-to-air missile, but they were a poor match for the A-10 pilots. Within 20 minutes, the first round of attacks was complete. Final score? Warthogs 30, Pretend Terrorists 0. http://www.nwfdailynews.com/military/top-story/eglin-pilots-test-their-skills-against-flotilla-in-the-bay-w-photos-1.451764

Good one Yavin 4, March 31, 2015 – Rebel Alliance, in cooperation with The Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics, are pleased to announce the development of DCS: T-65 X-Wing Fighter. DCS: T-65 X-Wing become next generation of the PFM/ASM modelling incuding zero gravity engines and enviroment with fully interactive advanded R2D2 AI. WIP video Enjoy and May the Force be with you! http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=2364743#post2364743

He will be missed - was an honour to have him here. Rest In Peace sir http://combatace.com/index.php/topic/46359-interview-with-jugs/

pretty much everything you wanted to know about the F-14 , glove vanes, F-111B etc etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1428&v=SsUCixAeZ0A

Comment from John Williams on F-16 net Long story there, I'll try to be as brief as possible. The design mission usage of the F-16A/B was 55% air to air, 45% air to ground, but the F-16N was used almost 100% air to air in aggressor training. Some parts of the airplane had an easier time of that (weapon hardpoints, for example), but some parts had a more severe experience of high g events. The N airplanes were delivered with titanium wing attach brackets in place of aluminum brackets on the A/B. The Navy would not pay for a full analysis and durability test of those parts, since they were easily inspected. Bad idea, as the brackets started cracking at a relative young age. But there is more to the story. USAF uses a structural technology called fracture mechanics to track crack growth and allows airplanes to keep flying with cracks so long as the cracks remain within specified lengths. The Navy, being old fashioned and ultra conservative still used fatigue crack rules which say that any crack is reason for grounding. Because fatigue analysis and test is much more primitive than fracture mechanics, it requires a more conservative approach. So if USAF had those same F-16N airplanes, they would not have grounded them.

You can fly missions created for the P-51 and a campaign that I thought was fun if you buy the module. You can create your own missions and there are WW2 aircraft to fly against now.

A bit here also In the meantime, some US Navy officers had been expressing interest in a low-cost alternative to the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, which was at that time experiencing severe teething troubles and suffering from a series of cost overruns. This program came to be known as VFAX. A stripped version of the Tomcat (named F-14X) had been proposed by Grumman, but had been summarily rejected by the Deputy Defense Secretary. In May 10, 1974 the House Armed Services Committee dictated that the VFAX would have to be a wholly new aircraft, but, apparently having forgotten the sorry experience with the F-111, they wanted the USAF and the Navy to purchase basically the same plane. However, the Navy (unlike the Air Force) wanted the VFAX to be capable of filling both air-to-air and ground-attack roles. In August of 1974, the Congress took money intended for VFAX and diverted it to a new program known as Navy Air Combat Fighter (NACF), and directed that this plane make maximum feasible use of the USAF's LWF/ACF technology and hardware. It would be basically a navalized LWF/ACF. However, most Navy officers were solidly committed to the F-14 and wanted nothing to do with either the VFAX or the NACF. Nevertheless, Congress was insistent, and in September of 1974, the Navy announced that it would select a single contractor to begin engineering development of the NACF and requested bids from the industry. In response to this request, on September 27, 1974, General Dynamics announced that they would be teaming with Ling-Temco-Vought (also located in Dallas/Fort Worth) to propose a NACF design based on the YF-16. The navalized YF-16 was to have BVR radar, which was not part of the original planning for a USAF F-16. If both the Air Force and the Navy picked the YF-16, General Dynamics would be the prime contractor for the Air Force and LTV would be prime contractor for the Navy. However, in retrospect, since both contractors were located in the same state, there was little likelihood of receiving a contract. In the meantime, the F-16 still remained one of the contenders for the NACF order. One proposal from General Dynamics was for a single-seat naval fighter based on the two-seat F-16B but with the space ordinarily occupied by the rear seat being used for increased avionics or fuel. On May 2nd, 1975, the Navy announced that they had decided not to buy the navalized F-16, but opted instead for an aircraft developed from the YF-17, which was eventually to emerge as the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. http://www.f-16.net/f-16_versions_article25.html

Take this guys example

http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/11/taliban-bowe-bergdahl-desertion/ QUETTA, PAKISTAN – Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl may be innocent of desertion as far as the U.S. Army is concerned, but in recent days the ex-prisoner of war now faces the same charges from the most unlikely direction: his former captors.

The Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is the western world’s most prolific fighter of the last 40 years. Even if medium and long-range air-to-air missiles, such as the AIM-7 Sparrow and the AIM-120 AMRAAM, have been integrated in the F-16 since 1986 for BVR (Beyond Visual Range) engagements, the Viper (the universal F-16’s nickname)was born in response to LWF (Light Weight Fighter) program, for a small and agile fighter: the U.S. Air Force needed a small, cheap, maneuverable airplane to flank the F-15 Eagle, its air superiority fighter, and face the small Soviet fighters, such as the MiG-21 in close combat. Indeed the Viper can maneuver against any opponent, proving to be the ideal adversary (or “aggressor” in the Air Force jargon) aircraft for both U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy training programs. Arguably the best version of the Fighting Falcon having played the bandit role has been the F-16N. Born in response to the need of the Navy to replace its aging fleets of A-4 Skyhawks and F-5 Tigers adversary fighters, the F-16N was a basic F-16C Block 30 with the General Electric F110-GE-100 engine. The F-16N was typically equipped with the Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) pod on the starboard wingtip and to completely simulate adversaries, the ALR-69 Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) and the ALE-40 chaff/flare were also incorporated. To save weight the internal cannon was removed and the aircraft could not carry air-to-air missiles, even though it retained the APG-66 radar from the F-16A/B models. Twenty two single seat F-16Ns along with four two seat TF-16Ns were delivered in the late 1980s to the Navy and four units flew the jet: the VF-126 Bandits and the Fighter Weapons School both based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar, the VF-45 Blackbirds based at NAS Key West and the VF-43 Challengers based at NAS Oceana. According to Rick Llinares & Chuck Lloyd book Adversary America’s Aggressor Fighter Squadrons, since the U.S. Navy didn’t own any Fulcrum or Flanker, the F-16N was the best fighter to replicate the then new fourth generation Russian fighters and finally F-14 and F/A-18 crews could fight against a real different aircraft. In particular, against the Tomcat, the nimble F-16N was a very challenging adversary, as by the video below Unfortunately the F-16N began to experience the wear and tear due to the excessive g’s sustained during many aerial engagements and in 1994 the Navy decided to retire the type since the costly repair to keep the Viper flying couldn't be afforded. But even if as bandit the F-16N was replaced by the F-5 which was the fighter the Viper intended to replace, the F-16N still remains the best adversary fighter ever flown by the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, at NAS Fallon, Nevada, currently operates some F-16A in the aggressor role. http://theaviationist.com/2015/03/26/f-16n-best-adversary/

The co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps, named as Andreas Lubitz, appeared to want to "destroy the plane", officials said. Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin, citing information from the "black box" voice recorder, said the co-pilot was alone in the cockpit. He intentionally started a descent while the pilot was locked out. Mr Robin said there was "absolute silence in the cockpit" as the pilot fought to re-enter it. He said air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to contact the aircraft, but to no avail. Passengers could be heard screaming just before the crash, he added. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32063587

Exclusive: Chuck Norris urges feds not to send fighter jets to airplane scrapyard The “Warthog” is term of endearment in the U.S. Air Force’s line up of fighter jets. Its firepower capability, speed and accuracy, frequent war use, and the oft-painted teeth on its nose cone have made it one of the military’s most popular aircraft. I am humbled and honored that many have called the Warthog: “the Chuck Norris of airplanes.” But what you might not know is that its entire fleet right now runs the risk of landing in the U.S. airplane scrapyard, if the government has its way. Technically known as the A-10 Thunderbolt, it is the U.S. Air Force’s primary low-altitude close air support aircraft. The Warthog was originally built four decades ago to destroy Soviet tanks in Europe, but has been since used in a wide range of U.S. wars and operations. Military.com explains, “Its combination of large and varied ordnance load, long loiter time, accurate weapons delivery, austere field capability, and survivability has proven invaluable to the United States and its allies. The aircraft has participated in operations Desert Storm, Southern Watch, Provide Comfort, Desert Fox, Noble Anvil, Deny Flight, Deliberate Guard, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.” Military.com also details its wide range of firepower capabilities: “The Thunderbolt II can employ a wide variety of conventional munitions, including general purpose bombs, cluster bomb units, laser guided bombs, joint direct attack munitions or JDAM, wind corrected munitions dispenser or WCMD, AGM-65 Maverick and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, rockets, illumination flares, and the GAU-8/A 30mm cannon, capable of firing 3,900 rounds per minute to defeat a wide variety of targets including tanks.” In May 2014, the 300 planes in the fleet nearly suffered a collective fatality due to the Obama administration budget cuts, which desired to cut the program to the tune of about $4 billion over a five-year period. But last September, Republicans in Congress temporarily saved the A-10 Thunderbolt by allowing it to join the airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Congress’ rationale was simple, according to the International Business Times: “Cutting it would lead to the deaths of U.S. servicemen on the ground.” Those fighting to save it, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., explained that: “the aircraft was the only U.S. jet to offer tactical and accurate support close to the ground. Other aircraft, they argued, flew too fast and too high and were not as accurate in taking out the enemy in close confines.” So Congress continued its program and use until 2015 with the help of a $635 million budget taken from its war fund. But the Warthog is back on the chopping block. In May 2014, Air Force Col. Robert S. Spalding III argued that the Warthog had no place in the future of the Air Force, and advocates for it were “missing the point.” It was the Obama administration, however, that missed the point and boat by concluding that the Warthog’s utility was passé with fading wars in Afghanistan. In underestimating foes like ISIS, who are spread out in terrain like al-Qaida and the Taliban, the A-10′s utility is warranted even more now than ever. Those like ACC chief Gen. Herbert Carlisle might say about the A-10: “There’s only so much you can get out of that airplane. Those airplanes are gonna wear out.” But that statement is true of every airplane in existence, and even the sun! The question is: Is the fleet of A-10 ready for retirement? I just celebrated my 75th birthday, but I’m nowhere near ready to head to the scrapheap. Some things improve with age, and the A-10 has done just that, too. The 300 A-10s are not like old passenger jets with archaic technology. For example, according to Military.com, the A-10 fleet has received a host of upgrades allowing them to remain one of the finest fighting machines around: “The Low-Altitude Safety and Targeting Enhancement (LASTE) upgrade provided computerized weapon-aiming equipment, an autopilot, and a ground-collision warning system.” “In 1999, aircraft began to receive Global Positioning System navigation systems and a new multi-function display.” In 2005, the entire A-10 fleet began receiving the Precision Engagement upgrades that include an improved fire control system, electronic countermeasures, upgraded cockpit displays, the ability to deliver smart bombs, moving map display, hands on throttle and stick, digital stores management, LITENING and Sniper advanced targeting pod integration, situational awareness data link or SADL, variable message format, or VMF, GPS-guided weapons, and upgraded DC power.” “The entire A-10 fleet has been Precision Engagement modified and now carries the A-10C designation.” That is why Col. Craig E. Ash, the commander of the 122nd Fighter Wing Maintenance Group that sent the A-10s to the Middle East, summarized: “We have the best training, equipment and aircraft in the world; we’ve been preparing and training for this deployment for the past few months; and I am fully confident in our ability to deploy one of the country’s most lethal fighting forces to support and defend US efforts abroad.” ................ http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/save-the-a-10-thunderbolt/

Sad news - looked at the flight history on flightradar24.

Happy Birthday Dave - have a great day!

As part of America's continued initiative to show greater military readiness and fighting capability in Europe in order to reassure NATO allies and deter Russian aggression in the region, USAFE has sent six of its F-16CJs from Germany to train with some of the oldest jets in NATO, Romania's ancient MiG-21 Lancers. Reading this you are probably taken aback by the fact that a NATO member is still flying MiG-21s. Although the MiG-21's inferior in pretty much every way to their modern 4th generation fighter counterparts, Romania's MiG-21s are some of the most advanced versions of the type ever conceived. Because of limited funding, Romania has not been able to purchase a western fighter for its air policing mission, yet alone for its ground attack mission requirements. In order to meet NATO standards, they put their best MiG-21 Fishbed models through a deep upgrade program with the help of Israeli aerospace defense contractors. What they ended up with was a fairly capable basic fighter platform at a bargain basement price, not just when it came to its acquisition cost but also its operational cost as well. The Lancer upgrade program saw some 108 MiG-21s receive western standard navigation suites for bad weather and night flying, a radar warning receiver and self defense suite, a HOTAS control setup for improved control ergonomics, an advanced helmet mounted display, a new weapons control interface and a partial 'glass' cockpit. The jets could also use Israeli-built weapons such as the Python series of air-to-air missiles and an assortment of laser guided bombs. The Lancer-A variant is used for ground attack and can carry the Rafael LITENING targeting pod, while the Lancer-C version is used for point air defense and carries the modular Elta EL/M 2032 pulse doppler radar within its air intake spike. Although 108 jets were upgraded, only about three dozen remain in service with Romania today and many parts have been cannibalized from other airframes in order to keep the fleet's readiness high. These remaining aircraft will be partially replaced starting later this year, with used F-16AM MLU Vipers coming from Portugal. As more used F-16s are bought, they will eventually replace Romania's entire MiG-21 Lancer fleet in full. So at first glance, what clearly appears to be a readiness drill and show of force opportunity for the USAFE and the Romanian Air Force is also a highly valuable and unique training opportunity due to the highly dissimilar fighter aircraft involved. On one hand, you have Romanian MiG-21 Lancer pilots who get a great opportunity to learn about their new (to them) fighter first hand and to USAF F-16CJ pilots get to fly with and against one of the most legendary fighters of all time, the MiG-21. Additionally, there are not just any MiG-21s, but they are the most potent form of the jet ever that are being flown by some of the most experienced MiG-21 drivers in the world. Lt. Col. David Berkland, the 480th Fighter Squadron commander describes this unique opportunity in his own words: "We just had a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to fly against the Romanian MiG-21 fighter pilots today. Hopefully it was just as rewarding for the Romanian pilots... We all have a lot of learning to do. We debriefed and talked about what we saw, what we did and what we could have done better in fighter pilot fashion — always trying to make each other better." It truly is dissimilar air combat training (DACT) at its best and similarly upgraded MiG-21s are known to be very tricky aircraft to fight against when flown by highly trained pilots using non-traditional tactics. During the Cope India air warfare exercises of the last decade that pitted USAF F-15Cs against a wide array of Indian Air Force aircraft, including the Su-30MKI, it was the similarly upgraded MiG-21 Bisons, with their small radar cross-section, their Israeli-built jamming pods and their helmet mounted sights tied to high-off boresight heat seeking missiles that gave Eagle crews the worst time. Beyond aerial jousting high in the skies over Campia Turzii, Romania, these bi-national exercises are meant to strengthen the ties between the two militarizes by having them work side-by-side with one another. For every jet temporarily deployed there are literally dozens of ground support folks, from crew chiefs to administrative personnel, who get the opportunity to make new friends and learn from how a unique NATO ally does its air combat business on a shoe-string budget. Romanian air force Col. Marious Oatu, an air base commander stated: "I believe the next two weeks will be a great opportunity, not only to increase our efficiency, but mostly to tighten up the bonds between the U.S. and Romanian air force." Beyond international goodwill and what are sure to be some pretty interesting aerial engagements, the 480th Fighter Squadron's trip to Romania, which is the nation located closest to Russia's Crimea who are also holding its own air combat drills this week, is all about being able to fight together should it ever come to that. Considering how stretched America's ever shrinking air power fleet is, and how small the USAFE's in situ fighter contingent has become over the last 25 years, understanding even the diminutive MiG-21 Lancer's capabilities, and putting them to work during a time of crisis would be crucial. Lt. Col. David Berkland states: "It's an honor to be here and train side-by-side with the Romanians... We hope by being here we can increase the cooperation between our countries and NATO partners and be able to provide increased security in the Eastern Europe region." Under pressure from the current threat posture of its nearby Black Sea neighbor, Russia, Romania's hybrid eastern block fighter fleet will finally give way to a modern western fighter aircraft soon. Which means one less operator of the MiG-21 internationally, an aircraft that has served and remained relevant for over 50 years. And with its overdue retirement, US fighter aircraft will only have two NATO partners left with MiG-21s, which are Bulgaria and Croatia, and neither of those forces feature the capabilities of the Romania's Lancers. http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/usafe-f-16s-train-with-romanias-mig-21-lancers-during-d-1692798167

Fourteen AV-8A Harriers from Marine Attack Squadron 231 (VMA-231) "Ace of Spades" embarked aboard the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42) from 1976 to 1977..................

We do not discriminate against any colour of aircraft - they are all welcome

Some very good points made on here - will look forward to seeing it in Ace Combat 14

Hear Hear - they have done an unbelievable job with FE and turned it into one of the best WW1 sims

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=141046 Dear All, First off, thank you all for your kind words of support and positive attitude to our announcement. It is a great motivator to put in those long hours when you know you've got such a great community behind you. Sincere gratitude from the entire team. Also a big thank you to those of you who have gone above and beyond to spread the news of our announcement. While it's still relatively early in the development process, it's good to get some awareness out there right off the bat. We've been kind of quiet lately, but not to worry; it is simply an effect of the large workload placed on each and every member of the team. Ambitious plans require hard work and much of our focus lies on attaining planned development sprints. Unfortunately, a byproduct of this is that many of your questions about the F-14 have gone unanswered. I've been gathering many of these and they will be answered in the FAQ section of our new F-14 site section coming next week. Therein you will also find a lot of information on various features of the aircraft and our design goals for e.g. JESTER AI. We're due for a monthly update, which will have some information about other developments and the MiG-21. Thus, I'll be keeping this F-14 specific update fairly short. Art Development We're now essentially feature complete on both exterior and interior models for the F-14, including the majority of integration work and animations. Thus, preparatory work for diffuse, specular and normal map texture creation has begun. With the F-14, we're pioneering several new techniques based on the tried-and-tested industry standard sculpting and baking workflow. We've already put this to good use for our other unreleased, in development aircraft, but we're hoping to take it that one step further for the F-14. We hope we can further enhance the realism of both our exterior and interior textures and the initial results are very promising. It's very exciting for us as artists to have the opportunity to apply years of accumulated knowledge to a project such as the F-14. We hope to capture every minutiae detail, down to the touched up lumps of paint. Something many of you have concerns about is performance. We're taking a very pro-active stance on ensuring that performance is optimal at release this time around. We very much wish to ensure that the F-14 will perfectly on the vast majority of systems, and approaching things more carefully from the beginning will make it easier for us to make adjustments in the future. Attached below you can see some Work in Progress renders of the cockpit. Do note that these images have flaws, so take them with a few pinches of salt. Codebase Development Not counting the Radar and HUD (two big systems in themselves), the Tomcat contains, by our count, roughly 67 Major systems, of which 37 are related to Flight and Flight Controls. In addition to this, one must take into account the size and difficulty of both the JESTER AI system and the External Flight Model. Noting that the F-14 is a massively difficult undertaking is putting it mildly. Currently, heavy focus lies on creation of the AICS (Inlet Control System), Hydraulic System and Electrical System. These systems, together with the Engine and grouped control systems lay the basis for the construction of the swing-wing EFM that will capture the spirit and real performance of the F-14. There is yet a long road ahead, and many difficult tasks to complete, but we have absolutely no reservations about our capabilities nor our choice of aircraft. We look forward to sharing more progress with you soon. Thank you for your support, Sincerely, Leatherneck Simulations