In article , "Paul F Austin"
wrote:

Kinda gives you an appreciation of the AIM-47. A long ranged missile
fired at Mach 3+ and 80,000ft+ I still think that the YF-12 was one
of the best "might have beens".

Interesting aircraft and great at it's design purpose, but too
operationally
limited as a fighter or interceptor.

I'm not sure I understand. At the time the USAF was procuring the
replacement for the F106 in the late seventies, I saw the results of cost
and effectiveness evaluations of several alternatives: F12/AIM-47,
BF-1/AIM-54(lots of them), F14, F15/Sparrow and....F16/Sparrow. Against the
cannonical Backfire threat in the North Atlantic basin, the F12 performed
hugely well. On a cost/benefits trade, the results for most threats was
pretty much in the order shown above.

Of course, the USAF selected the F16/Sparrow which showed up worst in every
scenario I saw. That spoke volumes on how seriously the USAF took the late
seventies bomber threat.

The BF-1A was interesting: huge aperature for the AWG-9 set and IRRC, 24
AIM-54s. The increased antenna gain raised the various RADAR ranges by about
50%.

First of all, I have no axe to grind, just so you know. My company had the
radar
and weapons system for all but the F-16/Sparrow, and the weapons for first 3
too.

I was focusing on some of the same issues that Pete pointed out, about basing,
launch, re-fueling, etc. all practical matters that (IIRC) were pretty much
ignored in the initial study. People sometimes think the Blackbird was a
super-aircraft because it flew so fast, but try to do a 3 minute scramble
in one.
And that was the mission they were being considered for.
Also, what about re-engagements, or alternate targeting?
What was it's turning radius again? It takes how long to get back on target?
Once you point this thing at a target, it's awfully tough to re-direct.

BTW, I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the F-16 in the ADF
role. It was nonsense of the first order. It's probably still nonsense today
even if the F-16 is carrying AMRAAM. Aircraft range too short, engagement
time too limited, weapons envelope (IIRC) non-existent. If your GCI is not
perfect, you miss.

--
Harry Andreas
Engineering raconteur