HeathenBrewing

Any military or commercial pilots out there? Have you seen the Russian SU-30MK?

"This is for those of you who will understand how remarkable this really is. Any way you slice it, pretty impressive. Great camera work. This remarkable aircraft and its pilot demonstrate what I thought impossible for a high speed jet fighter. In the SU-30MK, Russian aviation has surpassed that of the US and its NATO allies. This truly impressive fighter can stall from high speed flight to stop in less than a second. It can fall back on its tail, without compressor stall, and go into a flat spin and recover in less than a minute. There is no aircraft in any country's inventory that could stand up to it in a dog fight."

http://www.crazyaviation.com/movies/CA_SU-30.wmv video

scionofPCFL

I didn't get to see the video (blocked out), but I'm sure it's impressive. However, they don't dog fight anymore. Haven't done it years. Today we can fire on you from 10 miles away. Don't need no stinking dog fight for that.

It'd be like some military comming out with an indistructable sword that stays sharp forever and only weighs 3 oz. Great, have you seen my .50 cal Eagle?

BYeRhONe

...all the night time UFO sightings are all making sense now

jct

I-Fly-High

I have a question if we dont dog fight anymore why are we funding the F35 joint strike fighter and still building the F22 the plane that was built for the new age dogfighter. It was Commissioned to replace the F15 wihich was used by the Airforce as a head to head comnbat fighter. Also why are the Red Flag teams still out hear at Nellis still practicing their head to head combat teames while traing how to use the ground ops and AWAC's at the same time. Dogfighting is still being trained and refined on a day to day basis hear and all over the world. It is used to display air Seniority.

Neothin

what's the physics that lets it do that kinda stuff? Thrust vectoring has to at least have something ot do with it....

I-Fly-High

It is a combination of thrust contrl and avaionics that allow the plane to correct the slights of movments before the human brain can even prosses that it has happend. Also if you watch closely the wings in the fron move up and down to help stabilize the plane they are what allow the plane to recover so quickly.

scionofPCFL

Because if you design the aircraft to be a top notch dog fighter, then you have designed an aircraft that is extremely agile.

If you train a pilot to be a top flight dog fighter, you have trained a pilot to be extremly good.

These skills and abilities serve a military good when dodging the missles that are being lobbed at the aircraft from below, and for determining the quickest reacting pilot and plane.

Tactically speaking (for the time being), the age of dog fighting is over. But there is still a possibility that in the not to terribly distant future that there could be a return to it, if stealth technology proliflerates to enemies.

Our current "enemies" are still flying 20 year old technology, if anything at all. But that list of current enemies could expand in the not too distant future with current foriegn policy.

BTW, the next generation of tactical fighters won't include a pilot. The limiting factor on how agile they can create a plane is the pilot. The egineers are completely capable of creating planes that can pull double figure G moves, however that would kill a pilot in an instant.

I-Fly-High

If dog fighting no longer occures how about you write to all of the people risking their lives taking part in traing missions like the one attached that their services are no longer needed to help protect this wonderful country

http://www.acc.af.mil/media/archives...ryID=123041151

Nick06tC

Although Dog Fighting isnt a day to day operation in todays airforce, you must train for the inevitable truth of todays society. Nations will prospure and someone will challenge the superior force at every tactic out there.

If you dont train for it, you are doomed if it ever happens.

( I am in the airforce and stationed at a base with dozens of F-22s and F-15s, they dog fight daily)

I-Fly-High

Where are you stationed and what fighter wings are with you? I f you dont mind me asking.

scionofPCFL

That's what I was trying to say.

HeathenBrewing

Nice...glad to there is some discussion going on....

But my point really, I was quite surprised to know that Russia with its old platform still can beat the F-18.

Nick06tC

Stationed at Langley Virginia with the 1st FW and 91st and 27th FS. (i think those are the squadron numbers, i have been in Iraq for awhile and forget)

I think we have like 90 fighters now or something like that.

scionofPCFL

I'm quite shocked Russia has the funds for this kind of venture. I guess the military isn't as broke as they have been reporting.

HeathenBrewing

Im not shocked that they have the funds, I mshocked they have the technology!

When was the last time you heard of a quality Russian car, for example? I think they have a good tank as well, but other than that, I usually dont here of a lot of quality coming the former Soviet Union.

dudehitt

It's military. Very little has changed in Russia in the last 20 years. There are a few very rich people, there are a lot of very poor people, the military can have whatever they want.

backseatchris

there are still dogfights all over the world as we speak. First off, most countries dont have the capability we have to make a kill from 100 miles away. Also, there are many aircraft (including ones in our arsenal) that are stealthed against long range missile lock and satellite laser guidance systems. So when more nations catch on, we will need a good dogfighting plane.

if we count on our longe range kills, when someone tries to invade and we cant kill them, we dont exactly want to be screwed. We want to be able to meet them before they get to our gates.

The perfect fighter is supersonic (without afterburners), completely stealth, low heat, large variety of accurate weapons, highly maneuverable, and can make a kill from low, high, orbital, near and far distances. Now thats a fighter

seattledave

the longhorn makes a point that dog fighting really isn't done anymore. and yes the russian fighters are possibly the superior planes, but so what? Fighter planes have a range of 400 miles, so unless canada starts launching MiGs we shouldn't put too much thought into having second best.

First you need a aircraft carrier to get fighter planes even close enough to land to do anything, and if there is an aircraft carrier in any ocean right now, we could hit it with a missle and it would all be over. it doesn't matter if it's loaded with 10,000 MiGs.

and then most importantly we don't attack people with nukes, period. so it's not like we're going to have US vs. Russia or China dogfighting to see who rules the world.

BYeRhONe

hahaha the F/A-37 talon