Not to sound like an F-22 cheerleader but I thought this was interesting. . .

On Tue, 18 May 2004 17:26:58 -0400, "Paul F Austin"
wrote:


"David Pugh" wrote
"Scott Ferrin" wrote
"They never get into dogfights, so it makes no difference," Secretary
Roche said. "The fact that (the Raptor) flies very high, very stealthy
and at (Mach 1.6) without afterburner makes it very tough for anybody
else to have a fire control solution. The F-15s, with very good
radars, were not able to pick up and understand where the F/A-22s
were, and the F/A-22 was looking at the F-15s all the time."

I wonder how it would do against Mig-29s with their IRST? It probably
wouldn't make much difference (even if the Migs knew where the F/A-22 was
they probably couldn't get a missile lock) but it might make for a more
realistic test.

People are missing something here. M1.6 and high altitude for long periods
makes it difficult for_any_fighter to get a fire control solution,
regardless of detectability. Or at least that's what some of the fighter
drivers said here about doing (or trying to do) intercepts on MiG-25s some
years back.


Not to mention the SR-71 :-) Twice as fast as the Raptor, four miles
higher. . .forty years ago.




The envelope for a successful intercept is small and once the
nil detection range for fire control radars gets folded in...


Compare the "average interceptor" these days with the "heavies" and it
skews it even more. The Mig-31 and F-14 were both designed with big
radars, big missiles, and fast to boot. Let's see an F-16 or Rafale
lug a thousand pound AAM up to Mach 2 or better. I'd be interested to
know how well a missile like the AIM-120 or your typical dogfight
missile would fair at 65k to 70k feet altitude. Most missiles
designed to do much manuevering at high altitudes have (had) bigger
wings to deal with the thinner air. Just look at AA-6, AA-9, Phoenix,
AIM-47, SA-5, Nike Hercules, and so forth. The "upper-right" corner
of the envelope became less and less in vogue over the years so it
wasn't that big of a deal but now you have everything geared to hit
aircraft flying below 50k for the most part. Makes me wonder what
kind of effect it has overall. Probably not much in the big picture I
would guess since there never will be huge numbers of Raptors but
still I wonder would even the latest AIM-120 have had much luck
against an SR-71




It's all very well to apply handwavium multistatic techology that you just
happen to have in your hip pocket but how are you going to guide a weapon
using it? Inquiring minds...