Forum: F-22A Raptor

elp wrote:

You are aware that all those extra smokers coming out of the aircraft are in fact muntions don't you? Laughing

meaning extra weight for those appliances...in the form of wiring, containering to where they are flight safe... stealth.... meet basic weapons clearance and release issues under various flight profiles.

Problem is JSF has no growth room like that for shooting-smoking things coming out and going after an incoming threat. It might make good for the people that do the cover art for Popular Mechanics which always have dreamy aerospace unfact in their artwork.

Actually, it has more growth room than any other aircraft. You simply use up a little fuel space in the lift fan area with a set of 24 or so cannisters each holding a "smoky thing" the size of a 2-liter soft drink bottle. It'll cost you about 1/2 ton of fuel and about 30~40 nm of range. These things aren't big because they only need to have a 1~2km range and they don't need to hit accurately enough to vaporize an AAM only to blast close enough to it to damage it and cause it to miss. The things are basically warhead, divert control jets and motor. Cueing is already in place on the F-35 in form of the 360 degree DAS system.

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Forum: F-22A Raptor

AAM Vs AAM