The sky-high aircraft and aviation thread

entropy: Your significantly overblowing the hatred and wrongly assuming it somehow magically means they can't make use of their embassy to ask the Russians, who they had a treaty with at that point and were allied with the US, to possibly bring a peace proposal before the US. If anything Russia at that point is perfectly placed to receive such a consideration. Others already pointed out the problem with the Soviets trying to launch a mass invasion.

edited 19th Nov '15 4:34:55 PM by TuefelHundenIV

APKWS fired from F-16 striking a moving target. Inert warhead test.

edited 19th Nov '15 11:55:12 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Each one of those is the cost of 20 dumb fire rockets, could you really not hit the target with 20 shots from those things?

The idea behind these rockets is to serve as a cheaper and lighter weight alternative to the Hellfire Missiles. They also have a smaller foot print meaning it is safer to use them in some areas over the Hellefire which is a fairly powerful missile in it's own right. This means a drone for example can pack on 14 guided missiles vs two and engage more targets. The rockets are better suited to smaller targets like trucks, light armor, and enemy infantry. In terms of use in an urban environment they are a lot less likely to cause large amounts of collateral. The smaller foot print also means you can fire them closer to friendlies.

Fair enough, but can the drones even mount those rocket pods?

Becaue I can definatly see it being usefull for them.

Short answer is yes Long answer is that it would depend on the drone and whether or not it could mount the rocket pod meaning it would vary.

Can the reaper mount them?

Since IIRC it is the most common one for drone strikes.

I don't know. None of the fixed wings have mounted a rocket pod but chances are good they could. Supposedly the idea is if it can fire Hellfire it can mount the pod and fire these and possibly LOGIR and/or DAGR which are also guided rockets with some variations on the guidance kits. The Fire Scout will be the first to mount them for drones.

Reaper certainly has the mounting points capable of handling the pods so I would say there is a strong possiblity it will happen in the future as the rocket is further developed down the drone line. Right now the focus is on US rotary wing craft and then Fixed wing jet which is why that F-16 test is a big deal. It already works for the Key Gunship platforms in use now.

There is another kicking around that got some interest from US spec ops GATR.

It seems that something similar is already available on the CRV7 rocket. And isn't Brimstone also being integrated into the UAV fleet?

edited 20th Nov '15 1:02:10 AM by Greenmantle

Brimstone is somewhere in the mix. I know the US Navy was interested in it and there was interest in it for drones as well IIRC. I also knew about the guided CRV-7 but I don't know how nicely it plays with US systems atm.

The problems with the Soviets is irrelevant though because Stalin sees it as "no problems whatsoever". By 1945 he's back to 1940 in a sense. Remember that how badly the Soviet defenses were (badly) deployed, and how the armed forces were (badly) organized, were "no problems" to Stalin. Late 1941 to early 1945 was a lengthy out-of-character moment for Stalin. The Yalta Conference was a victory for him in Europe, but there's no counterpart for it with the Far East. Since "defeating the enemy" is no longer his primary concern and was instead replace by "have as much land as possible through as much forces as possible to have at the fastest time possible", he went back to form.

Are there really some communications between the USSR and Japan specifically asking for help in brokering peace? Because that would be very weird, even discounting communism for a moment, the Japanese believe that if they do ask the Soviets, Manchuria will be "strongly suggested to be transferred" to a strong USSR, and not to a China that would eventually be ravaged further by conflict still (i.e. the Chinese Civil War).

entropy: That might be part of why it never got anywhere. Stalin didn't give a shit and was just waiting for things to swing his way. He only had to wait a few months at most. He likely knew the US would ask them to drop the treaty and that would free him up to do as his pleased. The only reason the Japanese possibly tried is they had the treaty for the time being. After that they tried parties that were less directly involved at that point then the US.

Green: That little lifted up profile is kind of interesting towards the nose of the fuselage. What purpose does that serve?

That is the mounting of the IR camera for the G650's EVS System, which is transmitted to a HUD in the cockpit.

Anyway, the latest Osprey — Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces turned up today, along with World Air Power Journal Vols. 19/20.

edited 20th Nov '15 10:10:56 AM by Greenmantle

People forget had that the IJA actually did stuff in the air during the war. What with the carrier-heaviness of the Pacific theatre.

Not forgotten, just easily mistaken. A great many aircraft encountered in the Pacific Theatre (especially the New Guinea/Solomons region) were IJA.

It doesn't help that the Ki-43 Hayabusa ("Oscar", "Army Zero") greatly resembles the A6M Reisen ("Zero", "Zeke").

edited 20th Nov '15 6:06:02 PM by MajorTom

They also had a large number of smaller assorted airfields for their aircraft based on various the islands. The US wound up taking most of them or they were abandoned as their supply lines got strangled.

Green: Wow that is pretty sophisticated system for a passenger jet. Having read some history for craft like the B-52 that sort of thing used to be cutting edge military equipment.

edited 20th Nov '15 6:21:59 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Once is coincidence, twice is circumstance, third time is enemy action.

Ivan couldn't remember if he drank the fuel or put vodka in the rocket, probably did both.

The question is where are these things landing specifically? The middle of the desert or are they again not telling anyone?

Looks like a farming area from the images there.

Hush Hush