Yeah, what he said. In saying the F-313 doesn't need a HUD as the F-35 doesn't have one either, you were kinda comparing them. There's nothing wrong with that, just saying is all...

ssion
 

Thanks. That explains why I missed any sense of mission-effectiveness.

I'm sure the goat-herders are impressed, though ;)

Well mock all you want, but here is the clear evidence of it being prepared for operational missions:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5cNb5eoI8Uw/maxresdefault.jpg

So clearly it's as real as a Trump press release!

PDR

So you're saying the Iranians have developed a helmet mounted display system like the F-35, along with all the sensors, processors, display drivers, etc etc required to feed the display system? Nice to know, although the pilot in the "taxi tests" was not wearing one.

Not required if it's a one way trip only type of stealth chariot...

Anybody else find this episode of most probable deception triggers recall of the "Stealth Blackhawk" bits saga. . These were only seen in public once, following the Osama Bin laden mission nearly six years ago in Pakistan.
That is unless somebody has any substantial evidence of the type's continued existence?

Haraka:
If "Stealth Black Hawk" was real, I am pretty sure the Army / SOCOM want to keep that under wraps.
If "Stealth Black Hawk" is not real, then someone did a great job with OPDEC.


Which do you think is more likely, and why?

Seeing as the "deception" involving a "Stealth Blackhawk" included violating the airspace and territory of an ostensible "ally", the death of several individuals, and the destruction of tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars in property, that would be one heck of a deception operation. And to what end?

Haraka - some pretty credible statements at the time (I'll see if I can find the thread) from a few people who obviously knew a lot more than they were saying that there indeed is a Stealthy variant of the Blackhawk. One even mentioned the Project name.
It's been mentioned that 160th SOAR do a lot of mods in house.
If there are only a handful of Stealth Blackhawks - even just one or two - then it's entirely possible it's a type that been concealed until now.

Gentlemen,

IMHO, comparing this persian plane with F-35, -22 and likes is not correct, as it is seemed to be purposed for a quite narrow set of "use cases", and is not a fighter at all.

Looks like it is a subsonic plane, more likely to fly quite low with terrain following. Is it real or just a mock-up? Look at Boeing BirdOfPrey:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Bird_of_Prey

BTW, its intakes look even more "improperly" located :-)

Without wishing to set off too much thread drift, one possible reason ( of several) for leaving evidence of a "Stealth" helicopter operation might have been to provide plausible deniability of any cooperation from certain elements within Pakistan.

Whilst being shaved this morning by my barber, Mr Occam, he said that it is MOST likely that the helicopter was used for insertion, not disinformation.

And he should know.

Occam isn't a rule - more a sort of "guideline", as Cp Sparrow would say. And the covert ops chappies (of all nationalities) have a long history of maskirovka like Cats Eyes Cunningham and indeed the whole "F-19 programme".

So I wouldn't say it was necessarily that much of a stretch...

PDR

I like the color at least. Also note how far up the main gear is on the best plane ever designed: http://i.imgur.com/J1wI4Gz.jpg

I don't think the Iranian '''plane''' has any engines. Either it's towed by an invisible cable or they put small electric motors in the wheels. It might be designed to use two small Iranian turbojets, explaining the small intakes. The wing could hold enough fuel for turbojets and it would be a subsonic aircraft if it's an aircraft at all.

There's lots off oddballs around. This was a BAe thing from the early noughties.

http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/wp-c...E-Replica1.jpg

That was the Revise programme - essentially a study project into the issues around manufacturing a low-observability airframe. It was never intended to be a real aeroplane; just a collection of the typical materials, processes and shapes that such things have to explore the observability consequences of manufacturing variance.

PDR

PDR Ahem, ITYM REPLICA.

REVISE was a sort of joint research prog with DERA (or whatever they were called then) into cruise missile in flight release dynamics.

EAP

Replica programme.

Thread drift, but c'mon guys?
Occams razor.
They construed an extremely elaborate fake bit of a stealth helicopter and then planted it in the courtyard to distract everyone.
Or some poor pilot got caught in a ring vortex or whatever and smacked one of the 160th SOAR's handful of ghost Blackhawks into the ground.
Conspiracy... or cock up?
I'll go with the latter everytime thanks lads.
The former is just too elaborate to be believed in my view.

It was indeed - my CRS was kicking in again!

Apols,

PDR