Interesting plane pr0n from the Usual USAF Source...
Fighter Smorgasbord
Air Frame: A formation of US Air Force and Royal Malaysian Air Force aircraft, including an F-15 Eagle from the 131st Fighter Squadron at Barnes ANGB, Mass., an RMAF SU-30MKM Flanker, a USAF F-22 Raptor from the 154th Wing at JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, an RMAF MIG-29N Fulcrum, a BAE Hawk, and an RMAF F/A-18 Hornet fly over Penang, Malaysia, during Cope Taufan 14 on June 18, 2014. Cope Taufan is a biennial large force employment exercise, which took place June 9-20. It was the Raptor's first time participating in an South East Asian international exercise. (Air Force photo by TSgt. Jason Robertson) (click to embiggen)
The original photo is very large and Blogger resizes the photos you post to some arbitrary size limit, which is less than half the size of the original in this particular case. To get the full effect of the shot, view the image at the "Usual USAF Source" link, click on "view current column" in the right sidebar. Here's an original size detail from the photo:
Click to embiggen, of course. I don't know if that's a Flanker or a Fulcrum (they're both very similar) next to the Raptor, but the shot sure gives you an ideer of the Raptor's competition (flown by Commies, of course) if the balloon ever goes up.
That's a Flanker, it's bigger than the Fulcrum and the Fulcrum lacks that extended tail piece. That long tail is the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteBTW, nice photo!
You make me feel lazy. I COULD have gone to The Wiki and figgered that out... but it's too early and I'm not fully caffeinated yet.
DeleteSuffice to say, the Flanker has the big ass radar. The problem though, it isn't an LPI radar like the F-22, so it can be seen twice the distance than it can detect. LPI being a radar that changes frequency every PRT across a large band, so as to sneak up and pluck your feathers. B-2 also has an LPI radar. The old E-3 is also obsolete, as the new Boeing E-737 has an LPI radar also. Congress really wants to upgrade, but so far they are selling the E-737's to all our allies, so maybe we won't need any. Oops, too much radar in one message :-)
ReplyDeleteIs there really such a thing as too much radar?
Delete@ Big Radar: Thanks for that, srsly.
Delete@ Skip: Yes, there IS such a thing as "too much radar." I carried an AC&W radar maintenance AFSC (that would be "rate," to you Squids) for 16 years before I could get out of it and into something else. Why? The AF designated my old radar AFSC as "critically manned" until 1979, so the only way you get out of the career field before '79 was to die or quit the service... no cross-training allowed.
I know all about "critical."
DeleteRadar was my last choice for a school out of boot camp, but my test scores made it the Navy's first choice.
Once in, as you said, the only way out was feet first or quit.
@Big Radar/
DeleteThe best way to explain it to civilians is to think of a huge, darkened warehouse with the bad guy at one end and the night-watchman entering the other with a flashlight. The bad guy can see the flashlight Waay before the flashlight beam will ever illuminate the other end of the warehouse..
I got to see a captured device made by Czech's in the 80's at Green Flag. It was a completely passive receiver that could track 100 planes at a time. It just listened to the microwaves, and had a library of signals that could associate a target to a type. The display looked just like an ATC scope. The E-3 was north of the range in Utah, and the screen had plotted its orbit. I asked if it was tracking its radar, and the guy said, yes, but it was also associating its weather radar, it's TACAN, everything it was emitting! Fighters didn't need to turn on their radars, as they knew where it was, and could just fly there and kill it. E-3's were always the first to die at Green Flag exercises :-) They only really work against third-world countries...
DeleteI'm bettin' the boys at Tinker really LOVE livin' with this knowledge.
Delete