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Nowadays a dogfight between powerful nations is going to be driven by stealth, sophistication of ECM and counter measures. Take a 2 F15s and 2 F35s and they are

Nowadays a dogfight between powerful nations is going to be driven by stealth, sophistication of ECM and counter measures. Take a 2 F15s and 2 F35s and they are straight into merge dogfight then the F15s will likely win. Put those same planes 150 miles apart and the F35s will shoot twice before the F15s even see them due to their stealth. There remains a place for this type of aircraft purely because nations don't have sophisticated stealth counterparts or the same level of sophistication of anti air but its a dated design however many upgrades you throw into its avionics, engines and radar.

RecycledEle 2y ago
What if stealthy designs and coatings get replaced by active RF stealth (where the plane being targeted by the radar emits RF that makes it look like it is not there?) Would an F15 EX with such a system be the ideal fighter for 2030?
- philwelch 2y ago
  Is that even physically possible? Usually you want to minimize your emissions because if you’re emitting anything, it’s a massive beacon to everyone.
  - TomatoCo 2y ago
    But sometimes you want to be a massive beacon! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-160_MALD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-160_MALD
qingcharles 2y ago
It blows my mind that the USA is still developing a new manned aircraft that will cost "hundreds of millions" a piece: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Air_Dominance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Air_Dominance Is this stuff necessary? What we're seeing in Ukraine is that you can buy a drone from AliExpress, put a few grams of C4 on it and tear an important piece off a half-billion dollar aircraft on the runway before it even takes off...
- thechao 2y ago
  It'd just be a lot cheaper to pay these guys a basic income, and take the management savings from a UBI and buy absolutely a gajillion hardened drones.

RecycledEle 2y ago

What if stealthy designs and coatings get replaced by active RF stealth (where the plane being targeted by the radar emits RF that makes it look like it is not there?) Would an F15 EX with such a system be the ideal fighter for 2030?

philwelch 2y ago
Is that even physically possible? Usually you want to minimize your emissions because if you’re emitting anything, it’s a massive beacon to everyone.
- TomatoCo 2y ago
  But sometimes you want to be a massive beacon! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-160_MALD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-160_MALD

qingcharles 2y ago

It blows my mind that the USA is still developing a new manned aircraft that will cost "hundreds of millions" a piece: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Air_Dominance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Air_Dominance Is this stuff necessary? What we're seeing in Ukraine is that you can buy a drone from AliExpress, put a few grams of C4 on it and tear an important piece off a half-billion dollar aircraft on the runway before it even takes off...

thechao 2y ago
It'd just be a lot cheaper to pay these guys a basic income, and take the management savings from a UBI and buy absolutely a gajillion hardened drones.