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

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

The Austrasian Space Forces most important asset is it's fleet of optionally manned reusable space vehicles that can be put into orbit for up to a year or more with a variety of intelligence payloads. Optical imagery, infared imagery hyper spectral imagery, SAR imagery, and maritime surveillance (specialized SAR/MTI + ELINT) are the most common loads. The heavy lifting of imagery intelligence is still done with optical bar cameras because of their superb resolution, sensitivity and coverage. Though the film is now processed digitally.

A constellation of four ELINT satellites geosynchronous orbit is the Space Forces primary ELINT asset, they provide continuous global coverage of communication and radar signals.

Three infrared satellites in geosynchronous orbit provide early warning of ballistic missile launches.

Is that the Mcdonnell-Douglas TAV?

[Pavelania]

Whats better: AT-6 Wolverine or the A-29 Super Tucano?

[Padnak]

Whats better: AT-6 Wolverine or the A-29 Super Tucano?

Throwing barrel bombs out the back of an An-12*

[Sareva]

Whats better: AT-6 Wolverine or the A-29 Super Tucano?

Throwing barrel bombs out the back of an An-12* MOAB's out the back of a C-130.

Fixed that one for ya.

[The Akasha Colony]

Moving on to another important aspect of operations many modern air forces do, do any of you have dedicated space-borne assets?

Yes.

[Padnak]

Throwing barrel bombs out the back of an An-12* MOAB's out the back of a C-130.

Fixed that one for ya.

This is a road we've been down before lol

[Austrasien]

Is that the Mcdonnell-Douglas TAV?

Yes.

I was aiming for something the size of the X-37C though. Fortunately the FLD-7 is a scalelable form.

[Gallia-]

The Gallan Army/Navy Joint Space Command doesn't have much in the way of permanent orbital infrastructure as it generally piggybacks off of Morivaine or League space assets, but it has a small constellation of imaging and electronic intelligence satellites capable of monitoring most of the Northern Hemisphere, as well as a regional satellite navigation system covering most of Alisna, which is being expanded into a global navigation satellite system by 2025. Future unmanned orbital launch vehicles have been developed to expedite this, operating from the M'pala Space Launch Center and Hammarsborg SLC.

Galla also possesses the ability to attack satellites in low Earth orbit (such as radar or reconnaissance satellites) with ship-, air-, or ground-based anti-satellite missiles, as well as a small quantity of space fighters and suborbital saboteur delivery vehicles.

Sub-orbital and low orbit reusable vehicles, as well as high stratospheric reconnaissance aircraft, such as Pr.4092 and Pr.4202 fall under the Royal Navy Space Command. Most of these aircraft are designed to be deployed from the rear of heavy cargo aircraft such as the Tp 68 (C-5) and Tp 90 (C-17), using drogue chutes and disposable rocket boosters to accelerate to low orbit. The oldest of these aircraft still in service is the Pr.4092 'Mica', designed in the early 1960s and deployed as a strategic reconnaissance aircraft in the 1970s. Unlike its successors, the Pr.4092 is a pure reconnaissance aircraft, using a manned hypersonic glide vehicle as its basis. It also lacks the turbofan engine and conventional wheel-type landing gears of the Foxglove, relying on deployable skis instead.

The only landing area suitable for Pr.4092 are the massive salt flats of Object 67, a classified military installation operated by the Army/Navy JSC, about thirty kilometers from M'pala, Kampala.

Pr.4202 "Foxglove", a one- or two-man "space fighter" capable of deploying anti-satellite missiles/rockets; perform satellite maintenance, sabotage, and destruction; and high altitude (low orbit) strategic reconnaissance. The Pr.4202 is the immediate successor of the 'Mica', incorporating new heatsinks allowing for wheeled landing gears, "flip-out" wings, and a turbofan engine embedded inside the aircraft to allow for powered subsonic return flight. Pictured is the two-man "heavy" version, designed to loft an electronic warfare/radar intercept officer and pilot, along with a reconnaissance systems package incorporating ELINT, MASINT, and IMINT capabilities. The one-man version (Pr.4212) has a larger cargo area, allowing for carriage of satellite intercept missiles or a powered arm for satellite sabotage/inspection. Both vehicles support conduct EVA. The Foxglove was designed in the mid-1970s and deployed in the early 1980s (concurrent with the manned SLV).

Launch vehicles for the Pr.4202 and Pr.4212 are the Tp 90 and Tp 68, although Galla operates only the Tp 90. It can also be carried by the manned, reusable Pr.7201 SLV, the robotic Pr.9292 SLV, and various disposable, multi-stage rockets.

As it has a turbofan engine and conventional landing gear, the Pr.4202/4212 can theoretically land at any airport, so long as it has a runway of 3,000 meters length. In practice, the landing zones are limited to Gallan military airbases, or allied airbases, although the latter is hypothetical and would involve pre-deployment of a recovery team comprising maintainers, a heavy lift cargo jet, and armed guards.

High speed, high altitude (mesospheric) airbreathing aircraft remain a vital reconnaissance asset for Royal Navy Space Command. The Saab Shade and Spirit, referred to by the Royal Navy as "Blueberry" and "Strawberry", are first-generation supersonics. The Shade is a dedicated reconnaissance aircraft while the Spirit is a dedicated bomber, originally designed to carry nuclear weapons, but now carries supersonic anti-shipping missiles or long-range air-to-air missiles, and can also be used as a reconnaissance aircraft. They fly approximately the same flight regime (>80,000 ft, >M3), but the Spirit is larger and can carry greater payloads. Both aircraft were designed in the 1950s and built in the 1960s.

More modern aircraft, such as the Saab Specter have replaced the Shade and Spirit in reconnaissance roles (the former is being considered for scrapping or conversion into a long-range interceptor, while the latter pulls double duty as a heavy bomber interceptor and anti-shipping aircraft). Capable of flying in the mid-mesospheric region (>200,000 ft) and sustaining powered flight (>M12) at this altitude, the Specter was expected to replace the Pr.4092 in a one:one ratio, but this seems unlikely given the high cost of the aircraft. Also unlike the Pr.4092, the Specter is capable of taking off from the ground vertically, but it requires a hefty rocket fuel tank to do so.

It reaches its operating altitude and speed approximately 180 seconds into flight, whereupon the supersonic ramjet engines then sustain powered flight. Upon landing, a turbofan engine provides powered flight in the transsonic and subsonic regions. It has a modern ECM suite, operated by the single pilot, and its powered nature affords it tremendous energy to avoid interception. The Specter was designed in the 1970s or 1980s and first fielded in either the late 1990s or 2000s, based on satellite photography of Object 67's expansion in the mid-1990s, where the base received an approximately 6 km airstrip built on the salt flat.

~steampunk super science~

[Pavelania]

Throwing barrel bombs out the back of an An-12* MOAB's out the back of a C-130.

Fixed that one for ya.

Wish we had MOABs.

[Padnak]

Wish we had MOABs.

If you look back a ways into some of the previous air force threads you can fallow the development of my stupidly impractical but totally awesome, maxes out the cargo capacity of an An-124 earthquake and fuel air bombs lol

If you're not really concerned about precision or anything besides surface devastation you could always just drop pallets of mining explosives with drag chutes and rudimentary ignition systems to detonate them above the ground for maximum damage

EDIT: Search for "HOG", that's what I called the bomb

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

More modern aircraft, such as the Saab Specter have replaced the Shade and Spirit in reconnaissance roles (the former is being considered for scrapping or conversion into a long-range interceptor, while the latter pulls double duty as a heavy bomber interceptor and anti-shipping aircraft). Capable of flying in the mid-mesospheric region (>200,000 ft) and sustaining powered flight (>M12) at this altitude, the Specter was expected to replace the Pr.4092 in a one:one ratio, but this seems unlikely given the high cost of the aircraft. Also unlike the Pr.4092, the Specter is capable of taking off from the ground vertically, but it requires a hefty rocket fuel tank to do so.

It reaches its operating altitude and speed approximately 180 seconds into flight, whereupon the supersonic ramjet engines then sustain powered flight. Upon landing, a turbofan engine provides powered flight in the transsonic and subsonic regions. It has a modern ECM suite, operated by the single pilot, and its powered nature affords it tremendous energy to avoid interception. The Specter was designed in the 1970s or 1980s and first fielded in either the late 1990s or 2000s, based on satellite photography of Object 67's expansion in the mid-1990s, where the base received an approximately 6 km airstrip built on the salt flat.

Flight above ~150kft would not be feasible with a a scramjet as it would not produce enough net thrust to maintain level flight, even if the aircraft is flying at near stall AoA (which is what you would be doing anyway at those kinds of altitudes). You would need rockets to augment the thrust above that and at 200,000+ feet the scramjet would just flame out from oxygen starvation. For a high-hypersonic waverider this would be a LOX/LH2 linear aerospike engine integrated into the trailing edge of the vehicle. There's also no advantage to launching it from a launch pad with a large booster to get it to scramjet takeover speed when you could use RBCC or TBCC and just take-off from a conventional runway. The turbofan engine is also kind of useless because assuming an L/D of 4 at M12 and 200kft you would be able to glide some 3,500 km, way more than the cross-range capability that you would need to land at or near the place you took off from.

At mach 12 the stagnation temperature is high enough to disassociate oxygen molecules (2000K) and thus you will also have a partial plasma-sheath surrounding the vehicle that will severely impede any kind of EM communications, not desirable for a reconnaissance platform. You would also need a ceramic TPS and would be forced to use triple-point or slush hydrogen as fuel (probably triple-point as slush is much more annoying to prepare) to cool the walls of the engine and parts of the fuselage. The fuselage would basically be a graphite/epoxy fuel tank covered with high temperature insulation layered under C/Sic and or C/C TPS panels.

There are several reasons that for an airbreathing hypersonic aircraft to be useful militarily it would have to fly in the M5-M8 region (where air is still ideal and does not disassociate). The most significant advantage would be that at the lower end of this this spectrum you could use a hydrocarbon fueled dual-mode scramjet (which would work up to maybe M6.5) using some endothermic jet fuel like JP-6 or JP-7. You could also use methane/LNG which at those speeds could be used to actively cool the entire vehicle. In this regime you could use Inconel alloys, near alpha titanium alloys, and Ti/SiC MMCs for the TPS (besides the nose which would require ceramics or refractories) which is more desirable than having to use ceramics like C/Sic or C/C which are fairly weak and prone to cracking and need a protective anti-oxidation coating at high hypersonic speeds.

[Gallia-]

More modern aircraft, such as the Saab Specter have replaced the Shade and Spirit in reconnaissance roles (the former is being considered for scrapping or conversion into a long-range interceptor, while the latter pulls double duty as a heavy bomber interceptor and anti-shipping aircraft). Capable of flying in the mid-mesospheric region (>200,000 ft) and sustaining powered flight (>M12) at this altitude, the Specter was expected to replace the Pr.4092 in a one:one ratio, but this seems unlikely given the high cost of the aircraft. Also unlike the Pr.4092, the Specter is capable of taking off from the ground vertically, but it requires a hefty rocket fuel tank to do so.

It reaches its operating altitude and speed approximately 180 seconds into flight, whereupon the supersonic ramjet engines then sustain powered flight. Upon landing, a turbofan engine provides powered flight in the transsonic and subsonic regions. It has a modern ECM suite, operated by the single pilot, and its powered nature affords it tremendous energy to avoid interception. The Specter was designed in the 1970s or 1980s and first fielded in either the late 1990s or 2000s, based on satellite photography of Object 67's expansion in the mid-1990s, where the base received an approximately 6 km airstrip built on the salt flat.

Flight above ~150kft would not be feasible with a a scramjet as it would not produce enough net thrust to maintain level flight, even if the aircraft is flying at near stall AoA (which is what you would be doing anyway at those kinds of altitudes). You would need rockets to augment the thrust above that and at 200,000+ feet the scramjet would just flame out from oxygen starvation. For a high-hypersonic waverider this would be a LOX/LH2 linear aerospike engine integrated into the trailing edge of the vehicle. There's also no advantage to launching it from a launch pad with a large booster to get it to scramjet takeover speed when you could use RBCC or TBCC and just take-off from a conventional runway. The turbofan engine is also kind of useless because assuming an L/D of 4 at M12 and 200kft you would be able to glide some 3,500 km, way more than the cross-range capability that you would need to land at or near the place you took off from.

At mach 12 the stagnation temperature is high enough to disassociate oxygen molecules (2000K) and thus you will also have a partial plasma-sheath surrounding the vehicle that will severely impede any kind of EM communications, not desirable for a reconnaissance platform. You would also need a ceramic TPS and would be forced to use triple-point or slush hydrogen as fuel (probably triple-point as slush is much more annoying to prepare) to cool the walls of the engine and parts of the fuselage. The fuselage would basically be a graphite/epoxy fuel tank covered with high temperature insulation layered under C/Sic and or C/C TPS panels.

There are several reasons that for an airbreathing hypersonic aircraft to be useful militarily it would have to fly in the M5-M8 region (where air is still ideal and does not disassociate). The most significant advantage would be that at the lower end of this this spectrum you could use a hydrocarbon fueled dual-mode scramjet (which would work up to maybe M6.5) using some endothermic jet fuel like JP-6 or JP-7. You could also use methane/LNG which at those speeds could be used to actively cool the entire vehicle. In this regime you could use Inconel alloys, near alpha titanium alloys, and Ti/SiC MMCs for the TPS (besides the nose which would require ceramics or refractories) which is more desirable than having to use ceramics like C/Sic or C/C which are fairly weak and prone to cracking and need a protective anti-oxidation coating at high hypersonic speeds.

No it works.

e: Besides it obviously has rocket engines.

e2: Oh wait the painting is M12 cruiser not HSVS.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

No it works.

e: Besides it obviously has rocket engines.

e2: Oh wait the painting is M12 cruiser not HSVS.

It appears to be an early version of MDs NASP proposal which also looks like their hypersonic transport concept. Using it as the basis for a TSTO system in one thing, using it as a reconnaissance aircraft doesn't really make sense unless you're using it to loft small spy satellites into LEO. Mach 6, hydrocarbon fueled TBCC is what a hypersonic spyplane would be because it could be forward based at military airfields overseas and refueled mid-air with conventional tankers to extends its range and endurance. You could also do dual-fuel TBCC with hydorcarbon turboramjets and hydrogen scramjets. Basically you fly with your hydrogen scramjets to the target (after first accelerating to scramjet takeover speed with your turboramjets) and then on the return trip fly with your turboramjets while being gassed up along the way by KC-135Q type tankers.

[Gallia-]

It's a hypersonic nuclear bomber disguised as a reconnaissance aircraft, actually.

Anyway it's literally a decade prior to NASP.

It's actually this:



But I really meant this:



They're here with their friends:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/653 ... sonics.jpg

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

It's a hypersonic nuclear bomber disguised as a reconnaissance aircraft, actually.

Anyway it's literally a decade prior to NASP.

It's actually this:

(Image)

But I really meant this:

(Image)

They're here with their friends:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/653 ... sonics.jpg

Are these all parasite vehicles then? That's the only real way it's going to work if it's using liquid fueled rockets to get to scramjet takeover speed.

These also all look like 60's delta-wing hypersonic lifting bodies which was before CFD, a better shape is the viscous optimized hypersonic waverider which was developed in the 80's once proper CFD codes for hypersonic flight became a thing. You specifically want the nose to have an ogival shape (look at X-51) instead of a sharp point because it increases the mach cone angle, decreasing skin friction.

Getting stores to separate at mach 12 would also be an....interesting challenge. I'm assuming you're using one or more MIRVs as the payload? You'd probably have to do that anyways because I don't think a B83 would like being thrown into mach 12 freestream. The MIRVs would need to be modified with some kind of rocket spin-stabilization system though.

[Gallia-]

It's a hypersonic nuclear bomber disguised as a reconnaissance aircraft, actually.

Anyway it's literally a decade prior to NASP.

It's actually this:

(Image)

But I really meant this:

(Image)

They're here with their friends:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/653 ... sonics.jpg

Are these all parasite vehicles then? That's the only real way it's going to work if it's using liquid fueled rockets to get to scramjet takeover speed.

These also all look like 60's delta-wing hypersonic lifting bodies which was before CFD, a better shape is the viscous optimized hypersonic waverider which was developed in the 80's once proper CFD codes for hypersonic flight became a thing. You specifically want the nose to have an ogival shape (look at X-51) instead of a sharp point because it increases the mach cone angle, decreasing skin friction.

Getting stores to separate at mach 12 would also be an....interesting challenge. I'm assuming you're using one or more MIRVs as the payload? You'd probably have to do that anyways because I don't think a B83 would like being thrown into mach 12 freestream. The MIRVs would need to be modified with some kind of rocket spin-stabilization system though.

ok

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

A manned, Scramjet powered aircraft in operation in the 1990's is a bit of a stretch though no? Scramjets have been around since the 60's yet it wasn't until a few years ago that someone built one that could actually fly under its own power for any significant period of time.

[Pavelania]

Only scramjets I know are the X-43 and the X-51 Waverider. I think the first pulse jet powered aircraft was a heavily modified Long-EZ which flew only once and flew at a low speed around 100 feet above the runway, then landed. It's the first and only aircraft to utilize PDE (Pulse Detonation Engine aka Pulse Jet). Btw do you guys think the Aurora exists? Not the TR-3A or TR-3B, but the Hypersonic Aurora jet.

[Austrasien]

No. Aurora is basically a UFO. There is no reason to believe it exists In any form.

[Gallia-]

A manned, Scramjet powered aircraft in operation in the 1990's is a bit of a stretch though no? Scramjets have been around since the 60's yet it wasn't until a few years ago that someone built one that could actually fly under its own power for any significant period of time.

Gallan hive doesn't have the research penalties associated with individualism.

Work yourself to death 25/8 to be replaced by another PhD caste human ant.

Beautifulest civilization.

[The Corparation]

Only scramjets I know are the X-43 and the X-51 Waverider. I think the first pulse jet powered aircraft was a heavily modified Long-EZ which flew only once and flew at a low speed around 100 feet above the runway, then landed. It's the first and only aircraft to utilize PDE (Pulse Detonation Engine aka Pulse Jet). Btw do you guys think the Aurora exists? Not the TR-3A or TR-3B, but the Hypersonic Aurora jet.

The Aurora is a myth, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's was some short lived high altitude high speed stealthy research aircraft from ~1990 that has yet to be declassified.

[Iltica]

Well... There was a thing back in the 1960's called project Isinglass or Rheinberry for a spying spaceplane that sounds really close to what Aurora's supposed to be.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Isinglass It never got built but give it 30 years somebody might try again idk.
*whoops Rheinberry and Isinglass are not the same thing sorry,*

[Austrasien]

Well... There was a thing back in the 1960's called project Isinglass or Rheinberry for a spying spaceplane that sounds really close to what Aurora's supposed to be.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Isinglass It never got built but give it 30 years somebody might try again idk.
*whoops Rheinberry and Isinglass are not the same thing sorry,*

Not really.

Isinglass was a glider. Aurora has always been associated with some kind of exotic air-breathing engine. When information on Isinglass came out it actually made Aurora seem kind of lame and that actually took a lot of wind out of the "black aircraft" crowd's sails imho. Aurora Nazi UFO antigravity space magic was just no match for space age ingenuity.

[Gallia-]

hello my name is "fish gel" and im flying m25 in a sub orbital trajectory dodging all your rokkkits

[Laritaia]

hello my name is "fish gel" and im flying m25 in a sub orbital trajectory dodging all your rokkkits

And then some utter monster straps a Patriot missile to a fighter jet and just ruins your day.