The F-22 gets its Morrisette Moment

The F-22 Raptor originated in the Advanced Tactical Fighter programme in the 1980s, intended to counter Soviet fighter jets like the MiG-29 and Su-27, along with posited future development. The Soviet Union collapsed before it entered service and Russia was not exactly a threat to the US after that in anything bar the nuclear department; still arguably isn't considering their problems in Ukraine.

I don't think the developers on that programme for one second imagined that the first time the F-22 would engage in air-to-air combat would be against... a balloon. However, it is likely the highest altitude air-to-air kill of all time, which is something.

The pilot of that F-22 is going to have an interesting remainder of his or her life, that's for sure.

Belarus teddy bear follow-up

Jams - you might be interested in this one.

An Infinite Supply of Sidewinders: Battlefield 3 thoughts

I've been playing Battlefield 3 lately on the PS3, mixing between the single-player story and the more enjoyable multi-player.

This is not to say that the SP game isn't interesting, but after the superlative Half-Life 2, I've seen better. One particular area of comment is the fourth mission, "Going Hunting".

Essentially a rail-shooter, you play a female F/A-18 WSO who has to shoot down Iranian Fulcrums (not "Flankers" as IGN says - no tail booms), take out radar sites and mark targets for JDAMs. While enjoyable, having an infinite supply of AIM-9Xs to hand does damage the realism some what.

Although not as much as getting from the Persian Gulf to Tehran in under ten minutes...

Anyway, I'm glad to see Glenn Morshower (Agent Aaron Pierce from 24) in both voice and face form as one of the cut-scene people.

"J-20": A Chinese "Backfire"?

The aviation forums recently have been buzzing with discussion on the new Chinese "stealth fighter" recently spotted doing fast taxi runs.

In one of the discussions, the writer warned about the danger of "mirror-imaging", citing the incorrect evaluations of the Tu-22M "Backfire".

Now follows some slightly-educated guesses that may well be completely wrong.

I do not think, as Air Power Australia does, that J-20 is an F-35 rival. For five reasons:

1. It looks too large and too blocky for effective manoeuvrability in a situation where air-to-air combat is looking like going back into within-visual-range fights.

2. We still have no indication of the super-cruise capabilities of this thing, if it even has any.

3. Chinese missiles still aren't up to US standards. No-one is talking about any PLAAF missiles rivalling the AIM-9X/ASRAAM/IRIS-T weapons used by "Western" forces.

4. It doesn't really fit into believed and stated Chinese strategy. This talks about the defence of two "island chains", the second going out as far as Guam and the Northern Marianas.

5. There are plenty of capable Chinese SAM capabilities on the mainland and in their ships that will at least force F-35s to carry internal ordinance only. That's before we get to J-11 and J-15.

****

The classic scenario for a war involving China involves Taiwan. In this scenario, the defence of the Republic of China would be assisted by US carrier groups and air strikes from as far away as Guam, but more often from Japan or the Philippines.

It would be very useful for the PLA to attack land bases and the carriers directly. The propaganda potential of sinking a US carrier would be simply huge - and right now the Chinese lack the effective assets to do it.

DF-21D, which the US now evaluates as having achieved "Initial Operational Capability", lacks key elements in the "kill chain", such as the capability to locate a CVBG without being counter-detected and attacked. The US is rapidly improving AEGIS to cope with it as well.

The Chinese need an alternative strategy. Their other attack aircraft either have limited range (FB-7) and/or are vulnerable to AAM (Su-30/H-6).

Their planned carrier force will run into similar problems, particularly from the new US SSNs, as there is currently no "Chinese AEGIS" (or Russian one for that matter)

This is where the Chinese could do with a "stealth Backfire".

The Tu-22M "Backfire" turned out to be an aircraft designed for medium-range strikes with stand-off missiles against US carrier groups and land-based targets (e.g. Keflavik, which would play host to NATO maritime reconnaissance aircraft). Any "Backfire" raid against a US carrier group, though, would have had to get through the gauntlet of a rather capable CAP (Combat Air Patrol) made up of F-14s and F/A-18s. Even F-4s would have caused it severe problems. You either need luck a lot of "Backfires"; i.e. one hundred plus, or a fighter escort. It's a lot of resources involved.

However, with a stealth aircraft, you get a decent chance of avoiding said CAP and getting into sufficient range (say 20 kilometres) to launch a missile attack that is going to be difficult to defend against.

This also applies to strikes against land targets.

****

In conclusion, if this becomes operational, it will be a new and potent Chinese capability, but not because it can beat the F-35.

The Strategic Defence and Security Review

As a card-carrying member of the opposition party, I'm naturally bound to say that I don't like this review. It's cutting too much at a time when we're at war. Especially Ark Royal.

However, there is one good thing. We may have to wait a decade for it, but come 2020, we're back in the CATOBAR business.

Now, if you excuse me, I've got an RP to create... :)

Walking around a funfair (Farnborough: Part Two)

 Part One

Once the Airbus A380 had done its thing, it was followed by the Blades, a display of ex-RAF pilots flying four small Extra 300 LP piston aircraft.

Acrobatics in tiny aircraft is something I find a little boring after a while (IMHO), but this one was particularly notable for aircraft changing roll positions at blinking speed. Apparently, 10g was being pulled at times.

That one, a kind of mini-Red Arrows (I'll get to them later), was pretty impressive. During the display; which I kept an eye on, I started to look around the rest of the very large site.

This air show was simply huge. It would take a good fifteen minutes to walk from one end to the other. There were multiple food stalls, several dedicated huts for some of the larger companies and a small funfair for the children.

The US military had its own collection of static aircraft, including an UH-1Y, a MH-60R Seahawk, a F-15E Strike Eagle, a F/A-18E Super Hornet and an F-16C Fighting Falcon Viper.

The biggest thing in the airshow business at the moment is XH558 Spirit of Great Britain. A restored Avro Vulcan nuclear bomber (although it ended its RAF service as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft), it has been wowing air show crowds for the last couple of years, mainly because it looks like a stealth fighter, flies like a stealth fighter and does both of these things despite being built in 1960. It is flown by Martin Winters DFC, who flew XM607 in the first "Black Buck" mission against Port Stanley in May 1982 (read Vulcan 607 for a brilliant account of that)

I've seen a Vulcan before at the RAF Museum in Hendon, but it was pretty impressive to see a flying one, even out on static display. It was due to fly on both public days and had flown earlier in the week, but the plane was found to have a faulty brake on landing that evening and couldn't fly on Sunday.

I looked around the shop, but didn't find anything to buy. Found it a bit odd that it had a 3M logo in the bomb bay.

Seriously though, it's extremely agile for its size.


Part Three

I didn't know that A380s could dispense chaff... (Farnborough: Part One)

Yesterday, I went to the Farnborough Air Show, one of the big air shows, where big deals are done and new aircraft displayed. Five of the days are dedicated to trade stuff, but the Saturday and the Sunday are open to the public.

As a subscriber to AIR International, I took advantage of an offer they were running to get a ticket to the airshow, including access to the Diamond Paddock, with deckchairs, a position right next to the flightline and toilets that you didn't have to queue for.

Getting there

I made my way from my home in Havering to London Waterloo station; having to go via Bank and the once-BR-run Waterloo and City Line as TfL have shut the Jubilee Line this weekend for engineering works (part of it's like the Tube's version of Charles de Gaulle; barely a decade in service before needing a major refit).

London Waterloo used to be the boarding point for the Eurostar services to the Continent; until a new high-speed route was completed and the services diverted to London St. Pancras, a station that frankly needed some love (refit is seriously impressive). The Eurostar platforms are now being used for performances of the classic children's story The Railway Children.

Boarding a Class 450 EMU (that's Electric Multiple Unit to the non rail fans out there) just as it was about to leave, I travelled in a fairly empty train through the suburbs of South West London and past the headquarters of a certain intelligence agency, before reaching Guildford.

Guildford isn't a particularly well signposted station; I had to ask where the platform was for North Camp.

I started to get an idea of the size of the crowd I would be encountering when boarding the DMU at Guildford; it was standing room only on board.

The organisers were laying on shuttle buses and it took us half an hour to get there due to sheer volume of traffic; a one-way system was in place. Then there was the queue to get in; and this was for the people with pre-paid tickets!

I finally got in around 11.30 am. With an hour until the flying was due to begin, I headed into the exhibition halls to have a look round; the trade stuff was done, but the stalls were still there. I'm pretty sure that most of the attendees weren't exactly in a position to buy fighter-bombers or UAVs, but having the stalls there generates good PR for defence and aviation companies.

First cab off the rank turned out to the Russian section of the hall:



The Russian presence at Farnborough was very limited; there was only one flying aircraft there, a Sukhoi Superjet and it wasn't flying on the Saturday. They made up for this somewhat with their trade stuff; United Aircraft Corporation had models of most of their for-sale aircraft except the T-50.



Not that I'm intending to buy Russian anti-shipping missiles or any others for that matter.

I skipped over most of the rest of the halls; with the exhibition of the Flight Gear-using Tornado simulator provided by Panavia. I took off from Farnborough and headed for Central London before crashing past the end of 27R at Heathrow.

I headed outside at 12.15pm and got pretty close to the flight line on the eastern end - it runs west to east - for the A380 display. The A380 is a very large aircraft, but surprisingly quiet (which they're aiming for) especially to some of the other stuff.

The aircraft powers up and I think a fly has gone in my mouth...

Turns out the engines were blowing dried grass into part of the crowd. It did the same on landing. Didn't get in my food though...

The aircraft takes off and does a graceful impressive display. It'll certainly be popular; orders were announced there.

You wouldn't be moving it around like that in the sky on passenger service though...

Part Two