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Old 29th Sep 2017, 20:46
  #50 (permalink)  
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: florida
Age: 81
Posts: 1,610
Received 55 Likes on 16 Posts
Salute!

I do not agree with Eclectic's assertion that "stealth" can be easily defeated. Remember, it's not that you have the "Romulan" cloaking device and remain 100% invisible until bomb release. You just have to make it really hard for the other side to detect you in time to do anything about it. Ask the 4th gen folks at the last two Red Flag exercises. The SR-71 missions flown in the 70's and 80's reflect this aspect of the engagements.

In my personal experience, our unit (18th FIS at Grand Forks) fired Genie rockets at M3+ Bomarc missiles back in the 60's, and despite a decent Bomarc RCS, only a slight change in course by the Bomarc ruined out intercept. Computers are much better now, however you still have to detect the target in time to get a good solution by your fire control system, not the long range stuff that tells you about where to go and serach, but not exactly.

I later flew down a chaff corridor over Hanoi in 1972 and the bad guys did not lock us up until we were coming down the chute and released our bombs.

The latest avionics are cosmic, but the final decision to engage or whatever is still relegated to a human being. So human factors and tactics and such come into play.

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