Your Nation's Air Force Mark III: Best Korea Edition

[Laritaia]

I'm mainly talking about an affordable, cheap, easy to maintain CAS aircraft, or anti insurgency aircraft.

Cessna Combat caravan with hellfire rail on each wing

[Gallan Systems]

Bell 204
55 gal. drums with ANFO

[Urran]

The F15 and F16 seem to be able to place missiles on the shoulders of fuel tanks and other large weapons and even fit multiple small bombs on one hardpoint. Could a Russian fighter do the same if it has western avionics?

[New Korongo]

A-4K Kahu Skyhawk

Until you realise that most of the companies that provided components for the upgrade program went out of business or were absorbed in the following decade. There were also issues with overheating, if I recall correctly.

[Free Asian Ports]

A-4K Kahu Skyhawk

Until you realise that most of the companies that provided components for the upgrade program went out of business or were absorbed in the following decade. There were also issues with overheating, if I recall correctly.

bah, petty reasons not to pursue the upgrade of your entire inventory of light bombers from the 1950s.

Hook that lil guy up with an APG-73 and it will happily chew your radical Muslim neighbor's MiGs for as long as the wings hold up.

[Laritaia]

The F15 and F16 seem to be able to place missiles on the shoulders of fuel tanks and other large weapons and even fit multiple small bombs on one hardpoint. Could a Russian fighter do the same if it has western avionics?

depends on a number of structural factors, but if the wing hard points can take the weight and you fabricated entirely new pylons with the necessary mounting points and data cables.

it's entirely doable, would take awhile though

rating an aircraft for a new store is not a quick or simple process.

[Rhodesialund]

Until you realise that most of the companies that provided components for the upgrade program went out of business or were absorbed in the following decade. There were also issues with overheating, if I recall correctly.

bah, petty reasons not to pursue the upgrade of your entire inventory of light bombers from the 1950s.

Hook that lil guy up with an APG-73 and it will happily chew your radical Muslim neighbor's MiGs for as long as the wings hold up.

You are forgetting F404 engines. I've talked to a few Viper Drivers. The A-4SU's were sporty fuckers in their opinions.

[Gallan Systems]

Until you realise that most of the companies that provided components for the upgrade program went out of business or were absorbed in the following decade. There were also issues with overheating, if I recall correctly.

bah, petty reasons not to pursue the upgrade of your entire inventory of light bombers from the 1950s.

Hook that lil guy up with an APG-73 and it will happily chew your radical Muslim neighbor's MiGs for as long as the wings hold up.

Last I checked the most radical Muslims were flying F-15s, F-16s, and F-14s.

[Juche America (Ancient)]

Juche America's main air superiority fighter jets are as follows:

• The F/A-42 (in development)
• The F-22 Raptor
• The Sukhoi PAK FA
• The F-15 Eagle

Here are its multirole fighters:

• The F-35 Lightning II
• The F/A-18 Hornet
• The F-16 Fighting Falcon

Finally, its bombers and CAS:

• The B-52 Stratofortress
• The B-2 Spirit
• The B-1 Lancer
• The B-21 Raider (in development)
• The A-10 Thunderbolt II

[Free Asian Ports]

bah, petty reasons not to pursue the upgrade of your entire inventory of light bombers from the 1950s.

Hook that lil guy up with an APG-73 and it will happily chew your radical Muslim neighbor's MiGs for as long as the wings hold up.

You are forgetting F404 engines. I've talked to a few Viper Drivers. The A-4SU's were sporty fuckers in their opinions.

So gut an F/A-18 and bolt it all onto the A-4? Sounds like a plan.

[Former Communist Republic Of Romania]

The main fighter jets of Romania

MIG-21 LanceR- Modernised by Israel, the plane has proved it's usability in the 21th century, scoring kills against more modern aircraft in mock dogfights and in one case, a kill against an F-22, the plane can be used either as a ground attack as LanceR-B or as an air superiority which features 2 LCD MFDs, helmet mounted sight and the Elta EL/M-2032 Air combat radar, it can carry both eastern and western weapons, the Gripen will replace the MIG-21 starting mid-2017.

Dassault Mirage 2000- Ordered in 2006 as a multirole fighter jet, delivered in 2008, currently there are 6 squadrons operating this plane which contains 7 aircrafts for each squadrons, designated as "Mirage 2000-5RO", they feature Italian made avionics, ASTAC electronic intelligence (ELINT) pods, mid-flight refuelling ability and can use western and eastern weapons.

[Pavelania]

You are forgetting F404 engines. I've talked to a few Viper Drivers. The A-4SU's were sporty fuckers in their opinions.

So gut an F/A-18 and bolt it all onto the A-4? Sounds like a plan.

Thats basically what our FA-03 Leopard is lol. Uses x2 F404 engines, same avionics, electronics, and radar as the hornet, and can carry the same, but a little more weapons than the Hornet. Only problem with barrowing technology from other countries into your fighters, is that it's a little harder to export your fighters. For example, if we want to sell FA-03s to a customer, we need US approval since we use US tech in the Leopard, which is probably why we're the only Leopard operator.
FA-03A Leopard

The main fighter jets of Romania

MIG-21 LanceR- Modernised by Israel, the plane has proved it's usability in the 21th century, scoring kills against more modern aircraft in mock dogfights and in one case, a kill against an F-22, the plane can be used either as a ground attack as LanceR-B or as an air superiority which features 2 LCD MFDs, helmet mounted sight and the Elta EL/M-2032 Air combat radar, it can carry both eastern and western weapons, the Gripen will replace the MIG-21 starting mid-2017.

Dassault Mirage 2000- Ordered in 2006 as a multirole fighter jet, delivered in 2008, currently there are 6 squadrons operating this plane which contains 7 aircrafts for each squadrons, designated as "Mirage 2000-5RO", they feature Italian made avionics, ASTAC electronic intelligence (ELINT) pods, mid-flight refuelling ability and can use western and eastern weapons.

Hey Romania! By the way in real life I'm part Romanian.

[Former Communist Republic Of Romania]

Hey Romania! By the way in real life I'm part Romanian.

Nice, i have an interest towards Romania, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

[IceBuddha]

Question for the thread:

What orbital launch vehicle does your nation use?

Spent some time thinking about this, came up with a concept for my main launch vehicle. It's essentially a Long March 7 with higher thrust, more efficient engines and an RL-60 based high energy upper stage. Not all the numbers are necessarily correct (in particular, I think my upper stage mass ratio is probably a little bit too good, might be skewing the performance a little bit).

The core stage and boosters are horizontally integrated, the rocket is brought to the pad and erected, a mobile service tower is rolled in, the upper stage and payload are vertically integrated, the service tower rolls away, and finally the entire thing gets fueled and launched. I originally wanted Russian-style full horizontal integration, but the upper stage is based on the Centaur (which requires vertical integration), and the real CZ-7 is vertically integrated. So I went for a compromise which resembles the way the Soyuz is serviced at French Guiana.

If the rocket flies with boosters, the TWR can get a bit high during certain parts of the flight, so the core stage throttles down to mitigate this.

I used the Silverbird Astronautics launch vehicle performance calculator to produce the payload figures, not sure how accurate that is. I didn't calculate the mass of the fairing, so that would be included in the payload.

Stage 0
(0, 2, 4) boosters
Length: 26.5 meters
Diameter: 2.25 meters
Dry mass: 6 metric tons
Propellant mass: 75.5 metric tons
Propulsion: (1) RKO-100
Total thrust: 1500 kN (sl), 1650 kN (vac)
Specific impulse: 310 sec (sl), 330 sec (vac)
Fuel/Oxidizer: Kerosene, Liquid Oxygen
Power cycle: Oxidizer rich staged combustion

Stage 1
Core stage
Length: 28.5 meters
Diameter: 3.35 meters
Dry mass: 13 metric tons
Propellant mass: 180 metric tons
Propulsion: (2) RKO-100
Total thrust: 3000 kN (sl), 3300 kN (vac)
Specific impulse: 310 sec (sl), 330 sec (vac)
Fuel/Oxidizer: Kerosene, Liquid Oxygen
Power cycle: Oxidizer rich staged combustion

Stage 2
Upper stage
Length: 11.5 meters
Diameter: 3.35 meters
Dry mass: 2.5 metric tons
Propellant mass: 22 metric tons
Propulsion: (1) RL-60
Total thrust: 266.7 kN
Specific impulse: 465 sec
Fuel/Oxidizer: Liquid hydrogen, Liquid oxygen
Power cycle: Expander cycle

Payload to LEO (200 x 400 km x 42°, from French Guiana): 9 metric tons - 18.1 metric tons
Payload to escape trajectory (from French Guiana): 2.7 metric tons - 6.4 metric tons

EDIT: Lengthened the core stage a little bit. All numbers updated accordingly.

[United Earthlings]

So what do you guys think would be a good RF-4E Replacement? We fly them, but we're retiring them by 2025, and currently I'm thinking of 4 aircraft as a possible RF-4E Replacement:

F-35A Lightning II

F/A-18F Advanced Super Hornet

F-15SE Silent Eagle

JAS-39F Gripen NG

What do you guys think?

If the circumstances of replacing the RF-4E is merely to be replaced by another intelligence gathering platform and your nation doesn't actually need a new fighter type, then I would suggest none of the above and go with a turbofan powered MALE drone either RL design or custom.

I'm partial to the General Atomics Avenger.

Question for the thread:

What orbital launch vehicle does your nation use?

Government owned and operated is divided between the Atlas V family and a powered shuttle with a few private aerospace companies entering public-private partnerships with their own designs.

So, lets talk CAS now.

So what do you guys think is the best modern, available CAS aircraft?
A-10 is excluded because it's not for export, and it's obviously the best CAS aircraft.

A-29 Super Tucano
AT-6 Wolverine
Boeing-Proposed OV-10X Super Bronco
AirLand-Textron Scorpion
BAE Hawk (Armed version)
L-159 Alca
Scaled Composites ARES (Just wanted to include it since it's pretty cool)

I went with a high-low mix, with the Army operating the low mix with the few remaining A-10s still in service, supported by Attack Helicopters, A-29s and armed RPV/UAVs. For the Air Force as the high mix, any modern fighter or bomber can perform CAS when called upon, but mostly I just made the CAS mission the purview of my Ground Forces which made sense given my Army's control of long range artillery especially short and intermediate range ballistic missiles.

[Rhodesialund]

Just gonna leave this little segment for you guys on the F-20. Cause it felt like it needed sharing or the sort. I dunno.

[Gallia-]

Pierre "Man Killer" Sprey

"Never trust a Frenchman to know how to fly planes," is the lesson to be learned here. As if the AdA's performance in the Battle of France wasn't enough.

[Korva]

sprey president now

[The Akasha Colony]

The "Light fighter" article has also been taken over by a rabid Sprey/Boyd enthusiast who faps hard to both of their biographies and has turned the entire article into a puff piece for the classic Sprey light fighter concept.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

Pierre "M48 is better than the abrams" Sprey
Pierre "lol who needs ECM" Sprey
Pierre "Stealth is a hoax" Sprey
Pierre "F-15 is terrible" Sprey
Pierre "BVR DOESN'T EXIST" Sprey

2edgy4me

[Rhodesialund]

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

He's eternally butthurt that the F-15 he hated on became arguably the most successful fighter aircraft ever made.

[Gallia-]

Until F-22 F-35.

[Rhodesialund]

Until F-22 F-35.

I have legitimate complaints about the F-35's program. But I'm willing to let it prove itself in combat. It's gonna have to be a baptism by fire thing for me.

[Gallia-]

It won WW3.