Your Nation's Air Force Mark II:

[Hurtful Thoughts]

No SR-71s flew over the USSR, their anti air missiles were already thought to be able to shoot it down.

Because it flew so high, in the time it took strategic air defences to climb to an engagement altitude, the SR-71 could already outrun it. SR-71s evaded SAM fire in Vietnam and probably other combat zones.

SR-71 never flew over the Soviet Union? I find that hard to believe, an aircraft even more capable than the U2.

Well, the A-12 (SR-71's less capable predecessor) was largely forbidden from doing-so, unless it were of a national emergency.

[Spirit of Hope]

No SR-71s flew over the USSR, their anti air missiles were already thought to be able to shoot it down.

Because it flew so high, in the time it took strategic air defences to climb to an engagement altitude, the SR-71 could already outrun it. SR-71s evaded SAM fire in Vietnam and probably other combat zones.

SR-71 never flew over the Soviet Union? I find that hard to believe, an aircraft even more capable than the U2.

Except the SR-71 was very visible on radar and had no turning ability. While it was flown over the baltic sea, and areas with less capable surface to air missiles, I do remember reading that it was never actually sent over the USSR. Because the USSR could reliably see it coming and had missiles that with the proper warning could be fired to intercept the SR-71.

In addition the SR-71 was "intercepted" on a couple of occasions by Soviet aircraft. Though it should be noted I don't think the soviet planes could have fired on the SR-71 with any reliable chance of a hit.

EDIT: Additionally the US didn't want to have a repeat of the U-2 incident, and was thus simply not interested in sending maned reconnaissance over the USSR.

[Triplebaconation]

Because it flew so high, in the time it took strategic air defences to climb to an engagement altitude, the SR-71 could already outrun it. SR-71s evaded SAM fire in Vietnam and probably other combat zones.

SR-71 never flew over the Soviet Union? I find that hard to believe, an aircraft even more capable than the U2.

Except the SR-71 was very visible on radar and had no turning ability. While it was flown over the baltic sea, and areas with less capable surface to air missiles, I do remember reading that it was never actually sent over the USSR. Because the USSR could reliably see it coming and had missiles that with the proper warning could be fired to intercept the SR-71.

In addition the SR-71 was "intercepted" on a couple of occasions by Soviet aircraft. Though it should be noted I don't think the soviet planes could have fired on the SR-71 with any reliable chance of a hit.

EDIT: Additionally the US didn't want to have a repeat of the U-2 incident, and was thus simply not interested in sending maned reconnaissance over the USSR.

I would also like to address why the X-29 and SU-47 never became combat aircraft. Both these programs never went anywhere, because neither were ever meant to go anywhere. Both were technology test aircraft for things such as fly-by-wire and advanced composites. The truth is FSW has never been used because no nation really has a desire for it, but this doesn't mean its discredit it.

This is nonsense, by the way. The X-29 and Su-47 were intended to test technologies for the ATF and PAK-FA. There was a shift away from FSW in Grumman ATF concepts after the X-29 was flown, and an abrupt end to the 30-year-old Russian flirtation with FSW advanced fighter projects after the Su-47.

[Kusthet]

Attempt three. Increased the wing area, removed the booms and lowered the engine pod to better integrate with the rest of the jet's body. Actual round roundel, too. Because I got lazy and made it square, last time.

[Medwedian Democratic Federation]

Those are only two of Medwedia's air weapons:

Kjolsen KX84 Hypersonic Interceptor

A hypersonic airplane that is propelled by multirole ramjets but switches to rocket propulsion to gain speed at high altitudes. It can theoretically even intercept a hypersonic cruise missile, flying as quick as Mach 12 and at an altitude of up to 50 kilometers.

Kjolsen SB-8 Long-Range Propelled Bomb

The SB-8 is a bomb useable for carrying payloads of high explosive yield with a range of up to 500 kilometers, at a speed of up to Mach 1.5 and having a radar-powered autopilot that both homes the target and makes the bomb evade obstacles. The bomb is powered by a high-thrust rocket engine, but is launched and accelerated using a SRB stage. It is usually launched at a 20-degree angle.

[Norilova]

The Imperium makes very limited use of Pre-War helicopters only, because planes are too difficult to repair these days thanks to the knowledge and technological base being not there to support a full air-force. Honestly, we only use Black Hawks and maybe a few UH-1 Iroquois choppers, but they're used only for the leader's visits to Imperial cities outside Tobyhanna, and for the most important missions outside Imperial territory, such as important scavenging operations and such. However, even these choppers are beginning to be difficult for us to repair due to mechanical know-how being quite low as a result of the Imperium being a bunch of technophobes.

[The Soodean Imperium]

Those are only two of Medwedia's air weapons:

Kjolsen KX84 Hypersonic Interceptor

A hypersonic airplane that is propelled by multirole ramjets but switches to rocket propulsion to gain speed at high altitudes. It can theoretically even intercept a hypersonic cruise missile, flying as quick as Mach 12 and at an altitude of up to 50 kilometers.

Kjolsen SB-8 Long-Range Propelled Bomb

The SB-8 is a bomb useable for carrying payloads of high explosive yield with a range of up to 500 kilometers, at a speed of up to Mach 1.5 and having a radar-powered autopilot that both homes the target and makes the bomb evade obstacles. The bomb is powered by a high-thrust rocket engine, but is launched and accelerated using a SRB stage. It is usually launched at a 20-degree angle.

A hypersonic interceptor is of extremely limited utility. The highest speed ever recorded on an interceptor aircraft was Mach 3.2 on a MiG-25 flying over the Sinai peninsula, but this more or less destroyed the engines. Additionally, even at those speeds the MiG-25 could really only fly in a straight line. Maneuvering faster than that at Mach 12 will not only place incredibly high stresses on your airframe, and is likely to crush the pilot due to the massive G-forces created.

Not to mention that if you really need to destroy a hypersonic target at 50 kilometers altitude, you're much better off using a specialized surface-to-air missile or anti-ballistic missile as opposed to an interceptor.

[Imperializt Russia]

The Imperium makes very limited use of Pre-War helicopters only, because planes are too difficult to repair these days thanks to the knowledge and technological base being not there to support a full air-force. Honestly, we only use Black Hawks and maybe a few UH-1 Iroquois choppers, but they're used only for the leader's visits to Imperial cities outside Tobyhanna, and for the most important missions outside Imperial territory, such as important scavenging operations and such. However, even these choppers are beginning to be difficult for us to repair due to mechanical know-how being quite low as a result of the Imperium being a bunch of technophobes.

Helicopters are probably more technologically intensive to repair and maintain, and are probably more difficult to fly as well.
Jets and especially prop aircraft are much simpler vehicles.

[Crookfur]

The Imperium makes very limited use of Pre-War helicopters only, because planes are too difficult to repair these days thanks to the knowledge and technological base being not there to support a full air-force. Honestly, we only use Black Hawks and maybe a few UH-1 Iroquois choppers, but they're used only for the leader's visits to Imperial cities outside Tobyhanna, and for the most important missions outside Imperial territory, such as important scavenging operations and such. However, even these choppers are beginning to be difficult for us to repair due to mechanical know-how being quite low as a result of the Imperium being a bunch of technophobes.

most planes are a lot easier to repair and maintain than helicopters. If you can keep blackhawks and hueys going then turboprop and piston powered fixed wing aircraft should be childs play.

Medwedian Democratic Federation: you flying bomb thing is basiclaly a cruise missile that is much bigger and with a smaller payload thanit needs to be. Bump the speed up to mach 2 to get you out the transonic region of suckiness and you could run it with a nice turbojet engine or drop the speed to mach 0.8ih and you can use a little turbofan engine for more range with less fuel.

[Vassenor]

A hypersonic interceptor is of extremely limited utility. The highest speed ever recorded on an interceptor aircraft was Mach 3.2 on a MiG-25 flying over the Sinai peninsula, but this more or less destroyed the engines. Additionally, even at those speeds the MiG-25 could really only fly in a straight line. Maneuvering faster than that at Mach 12 will not only place incredibly high stresses on your airframe, and is likely to crush the pilot due to the massive G-forces created.

Not to mention that if you really need to destroy a hypersonic target at 50 kilometers altitude, you're much better off using a specialized surface-to-air missile or anti-ballistic missile as opposed to an interceptor.

To put that another way, typical Max-G manoeuvres in modern fighter aircraft top out at around 9-12G, with >25G being the fatal threshold.

If we assume a linear scale (and a speed of about 1.5 Mach for that reference), then you're looking at forces of around 72-96G.

Are you FT enough to have inertial dampeners?

[Norilova]

The Imperium makes very limited use of Pre-War helicopters only, because planes are too difficult to repair these days thanks to the knowledge and technological base being not there to support a full air-force. Honestly, we only use Black Hawks and maybe a few UH-1 Iroquois choppers, but they're used only for the leader's visits to Imperial cities outside Tobyhanna, and for the most important missions outside Imperial territory, such as important scavenging operations and such. However, even these choppers are beginning to be difficult for us to repair due to mechanical know-how being quite low as a result of the Imperium being a bunch of technophobes.

most planes are a lot easier to repair and maintain than helicopters. If you can keep blackhawks and hueys going then turboprop and piston powered fixed wing aircraft should be childs play.

Yeah, but most planes have rusted away in the 300 years since the Third World War, since there used to be no need for them in the post-War world. That is, until recently when the neo-feudal states began organizing into cohesive states. In the words of a Pre-War individual who's identity has been lost to history forever; "We dun goofed."

[The Soodean Imperium]

most planes are a lot easier to repair and maintain than helicopters. If you can keep blackhawks and hueys going then turboprop and piston powered fixed wing aircraft should be childs play.

Yeah, but most planes have rusted away in the 300 years since the Third World War, since there used to be no need for them in the post-War world. That is, until recently when the neo-feudal states began organizing into cohesive states. In the words of a Pre-War individual who's identity has been lost to history forever; "We dun goofed."

If you're dealing with a time frame of 300 years, there's no way pre-cataclysmic helicopters of any kind could still be kept in working condition. As Samoz noted, propeller aircraft are a lot easier to build and maintain, so a more realistic outcome might be that in those 300 years your engineers began experimenting with powered flight again, starting with small propeller-driven aircraft.

A hypersonic interceptor is of extremely limited utility. The highest speed ever recorded on an interceptor aircraft was Mach 3.2 on a MiG-25 flying over the Sinai peninsula, but this more or less destroyed the engines. Additionally, even at those speeds the MiG-25 could really only fly in a straight line. Maneuvering faster than that at Mach 12 will not only place incredibly high stresses on your airframe, and is likely to crush the pilot due to the massive G-forces created.

Not to mention that if you really need to destroy a hypersonic target at 50 kilometers altitude, you're much better off using a specialized surface-to-air missile or anti-ballistic missile as opposed to an interceptor.

To put that another way, typical Max-G manoeuvres in modern fighter aircraft top out at around 9-12G, with >25G being the fatal threshold.

If we assume a linear scale (and a speed of about 1.5 Mach for that reference), then you're looking at forces of around 72-96G.

Are you FT enough to have inertial dampeners?

Fun fact: the fatal threshhold for negative Gs is even lower, somewhere around -3. Pulling into a dive at -96Gs might actually lead to a "head asplosion."

[Crookfur]

most planes are a lot easier to repair and maintain than helicopters. If you can keep blackhawks and hueys going then turboprop and piston powered fixed wing aircraft should be childs play.

Yeah, but most planes have rusted away in the 300 years since the Third World War, since there used to be no need for them in the post-War world. That is, until recently when the neo-feudal states began organizing into cohesive states. In the words of a Pre-War individual who's identity has been lost to history forever; "We dun goofed."

there would be far more use for them than there ever would be helicopters and they would be far far more likely to survive both becuase they are more robust and are far more numerous and widespread.

[Kusthet]

Yeah, but most planes have rusted away in the 300 years since the Third World War, since there used to be no need for them in the post-War world. That is, until recently when the neo-feudal states began organizing into cohesive states. In the words of a Pre-War individual who's identity has been lost to history forever; "We dun goofed."

If you're dealing with a time frame of 300 years, there's no way pre-cataclysmic helicopters of any kind could still be kept in working condition. As Samoz noted, propeller aircraft are a lot easier to build and maintain, so a more realistic outcome might be that in those 300 years your engineers began experimenting with powered flight again, starting with small propeller-driven aircraft.

If you must insist on helicopter-like aircraft, Autogyros are always some kind of thing.

[Organized States]

There is an interesting drone system I found in Dale Brown's new book. It's a small "nano" UAV that forms into small squadrons and is utilized similar to Chaff and Flares. According to the book, it's about 5" long and has a wingspan of 7" inches and can confuse AMRAAMs and R-77s. I'm not quite sure how exactly this would be any better than chaff other than it can react quicker (and at one point rams a R-77). Any ideas on how I can utilize it in a NS environment?

[Spirit of Hope]

There is an interesting drone system I found in Dale Brown's new book. It's a small "nano" UAV that forms into small squadrons and is utilized similar to Chaff and Flares. According to the book, it's about 5" long and has a wingspan of 7" inches and can confuse AMRAAMs and R-77s. I'm not quite sure how exactly this would be any better than chaff other than it can react quicker (and at one point rams a R-77). Any ideas on how I can utilize it in a NS environment?

I don't see this at all working better than chaff. First it is going to cost more, because of the required electronics and other bits.

Second I don't see anything that small being able to move at any effective speed, especially against something as speedy as an air to air missiles, or air to ground missiles.

Third where would you store the darn thing?

Forth what use does it have other than acting as chaff (where it isn't that good)?

[Organized States]

There is an interesting drone system I found in Dale Brown's new book. It's a small "nano" UAV that forms into small squadrons and is utilized similar to Chaff and Flares. According to the book, it's about 5" long and has a wingspan of 7" inches and can confuse AMRAAMs and R-77s. I'm not quite sure how exactly this would be any better than chaff other than it can react quicker (and at one point rams a R-77). Any ideas on how I can utilize it in a NS environment?

I don't see this at all working better than chaff. First it is going to cost more, because of the required electronics and other bits.

Second I don't see anything that small being able to move at any effective speed, especially against something as speedy as an air to air missiles, or air to ground missiles.

Third where would you store the darn thing?

Forth what use does it have other than acting as chaff (where it isn't that good)?

I'm still pretty early into the book. I'll continue to see if there are more details about the speed and storage. According to the book, this little drone costs about 250,000 USD a pop, but supposably is so easy to mass-produce that they can get the cost down to 20,000 USD.

[Spirit of Hope]

I don't see this at all working better than chaff. First it is going to cost more, because of the required electronics and other bits.

Second I don't see anything that small being able to move at any effective speed, especially against something as speedy as an air to air missiles, or air to ground missiles.

Third where would you store the darn thing?

Forth what use does it have other than acting as chaff (where it isn't that good)?

I'm still pretty early into the book. I'll continue to see if there are more details about the speed and storage. According to the book, this little drone costs about 250,000 USD a pop, but supposably is so easy to mass-produce that they can get the cost down to 20,000 USD.

That sounds amazingly, in fact stupidly, expensive for what is a less effective chaff system.
Additionally this is a work of fiction, don't put to much faith in it. (Clancy had a stealth fighter in Red Storm Rising)

[Yugoshvanka]

Carrier borne Mig-19, can it be done?

[Star Trek America]

Hummingbirds dispute that small things cannot move fast.

---

the Armée de l'Air (Army of the Air) is the air force of the Crowned Republic; it's... essentially a clone of the French Air Force because I'm a francophile and lazy bastard.

[Organized States]

I'm still pretty early into the book. I'll continue to see if there are more details about the speed and storage. According to the book, this little drone costs about 250,000 USD a pop, but supposably is so easy to mass-produce that they can get the cost down to 20,000 USD.

That sounds amazingly, in fact stupidly, expensive for what is a less effective chaff system.
Additionally this is a work of fiction, don't put to much faith in it. (Clancy had a stealth fighter in Red Storm Rising)

It's certainly an interesting concept... That's about where it ends. I can't see this ever being implemented in RL.

[Spirit of Hope]

Hummingbirds dispute that small things cannot move fast.

---

the Armée de l'Air (Army of the Air) is the air force of the Crowned Republic; it's... essentially a clone of the French Air Force because I'm a francophile and lazy bastard.

Hummingbirds can't move at mach speeds. Which requires a rather nice sized rocket motor, which you aren't fitting in something 5 inches by 7 inches.

Frances Air Force is rather nice.

Carrier borne Mig-19, can it be done?

I don't think so, but I am not an expert.

[Organized States]

Hummingbirds dispute that small things cannot move fast.

---

the Armée de l'Air (Army of the Air) is the air force of the Crowned Republic; it's... essentially a clone of the French Air Force because I'm a francophile and lazy bastard.

Hummingbirds can't move at mach speeds. Which requires a rather nice sized rocket motor, which you aren't fitting in something 5 inches by 7 inches.

Frances Air Force is rather nice.

Good book so far. Not the most realistic of his books, but he does write military sci-fi for a reason. I really enjoyed Collateral Damage, drone wingmen are awesome.

On a completely different note about the French Air Force, Rafales and Mirage 2000s are always cool.

[Imperializt Russia]

Hummingbirds dispute that small things cannot move fast.

---

the Armée de l'Air (Army of the Air) is the air force of the Crowned Republic; it's... essentially a clone of the French Air Force because I'm a francophile and lazy bastard.

Hummingbirds don't rely on the rocket equation.

[Vassenor]

Carrier borne Mig-19, can it be done?

I can't see why you couldn't navalise one.