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The author writes this as if heat seeking missles are new tech. They’re not. The designers of the F-35 developed it knowing they exist and made whatever tradeof
by randyrand 6mo ago
The author writes this as if heat seeking missles are new tech. They’re not. The designers of the F-35 developed it knowing they exist and made whatever tradeoffs they decided to make. That’s just engineering.
- franktankbank 6mo agoSo what is it that happened? They got extremely lucky? The missile has a seriously reduced profile? How did the guy land? Almost sounds like a cannonball hit him.
- dmix 6mo agoIt's been speculated the F-35 detected the missile and deployed it's towed decoy behind it which the MANPAD missile hit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/ALE-50_towed_decoy_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/ALE-50_towed_decoy_system
- franktankbank 6mo agoSo got hit indirectly.
- dmix 6mo agoPossibly with fragments, which is the best outcome considering how dangerous MANPADs are. The US and Israel didn't lose a single pilot over Iran after 15,000+ sorties which is saying something on their capabilities.
- burnt-resistor 6mo agoIR/EOST capabilities of the very short range (SHORAD) Majid* / AD-08. F-35 flying relatively low (somewhere <FL200) and in full burner according to the alleged video. Getting hard facts is complicated by the fact that this DoD isn't necessarily going to reveal what happened, and the IRGC can't be trusted 100%. * Rumored that some components like some of the "camera" sensors were sourced from Canada.
- khelavastr 6mo agoRight. This F-35 wasn't carrying active countermeasures for heat-seeking missiles, or maybe Iran made an extra stealthy or supersonic version.
- bigyabai 6mo agoEven with countermeasures, the F-35 has two issues: 1) It's not the 1990s anymore, Counter-Countermeasure IR missile discrimination is pretty common on imported MANPADs and IR SAMs. 2) The F-35 has a insanely hot engine even when it's not afterburning. The F135 produces hotter inlet temperature than even the F-22's engine (F119) giving older IR seekers an easier target.
- ElevenLathe 6mo agoI think the point (no idea if this is true, it isn't my domain) is that cheap, infrared imaging seekers are new. Previous generations of heat seekers either used low-resolution infrared sensors or were hellishly expensive on a unit basis. Do cheap Chinese components and cheap compute not mean that its now feasible to field these things much more cheaply and widely, by a larger range of actors, than previously? (again, not my domain).
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- labcomputer 6mo agoCheap may be the point. The Soviets deployed a missle with an imaging seeker in 1984. But the real question is: does the appearance of good, cheap IR sensors in combat mean that we civilians will finally be allowed to buy thermal IR cameras that don’t suck? Everything is limited to 20 Hz with potato resolution. The ITAR restriction is a joke at this point.
- jandrewrogers 6mo agoThis type of imaging terminal guidance has been around since (at least) the 1990s. They actually use low-resolution imagers because they are cheap and sufficient. There is nothing new or novel about the IR threat domain. It has never been compute-intensive. Current hypersonic kinetic-intercept missiles use ancient MIPS R3000/4000 class CPUs.