RAAF Discussion

[tflash]

Air Power Australia = Dr. Carlo Kopp, a vocal F-35 opponent who constantly repeats himself. It makes no sense to serve us this BS over and over again.

[shu77]

source

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/russian-raptor-killer-game-changer

 

Australian airpower is a bit of a joke in the industry, they are just Raptor lovers pushing their agenda.

[Vekkinho]

^^^^

But wanting Raptors for the prevent future liberty of your skies isn't something I disagree with Carlo! However, F-35 rants based upon estimation or upon his dislike of the aircraft's shape is something every military analyst should avoid!

[Pilotasso]

F-22's are innadequate for australian purposes. F-35 is the way to go.

 

Further, they may push the F-22 as much as they want the US still wont export it.

 

Its funny though that KOPP also says the PAK-FA is already better than the Raptor.

[GGTharos]

Wanting Raptors (ie. the best you could get) isn't bad, I agree - but what's the point if you can only field one squadron of F-22's instead of 3 squadrons of F-35's? It is self-defeating because you can only cover 1/3rd the airspace.

 

And yes, his rants are based on nothing. If you take a good look at his articles, he likes to attribute all these 'passive anti-stealth measures' to the russian planes and 'super long ranged missiles' (which, if you look at real data, his ranges are exarrated 2x+) as if the F-35 had no such capabilities at /all/.

 

Truth be told right now the F-35 will be the top dog in terms of SA and passive, active, and network-centric data gathering. You'll be flying 'labels on' all the time, and your labels will reach really really far :D

 

Couple this with AIM-120D and AIM-9X, and even the PAK-FA or F-22 will be facing a dangerous opponent. But Kopp just doesn't get it.

 

^^^^

But wanting Raptors for the prevent future liberty of your skies isn't something I disagree with Carlo! However, F-35 rants based upon estimation or upon his dislike of the aircraft's shape is something every military analyst should avoid!

[Vekkinho]

In fact yes, the F-25 would be the way to go for Aussie airspace, if you look at the past (and present) RAAF is equipped with F/A-18A and B and F-111C aircraft and there's no F-15A and C there!

 

Having F-35 in the future would probably be a good idea to replace it's Hornets and Aardwarks (both at the same time due to it's superb MF capabilities) instead of F-22 that has no "role" in current aspect of RAAF politics!

 

Worshiping the F-22 isn't something you should follow to make your country safe.

 

I'm a big fan of Bugatti but what's the point of having it for my daily needs?!!

Edited February 19, 2010 by Vekkinho

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

Australian airpower is a bit of a joke in the industry, they are just Raptor lovers pushing their agenda.

What is their motive? Is Dr. Kopp real doctor of science? Where did he get his degree and on what subject?

[Mugatu]

What's the bet the F-35 ends up costing more than a Raptor and gets cut even further. I'm with Carlo bring on the F22 and UCAVs.

[Lucas_From_Hell]

In fact yes, the F-25 would be the way to go for Aussie airspace, if you look at the past (and present) RAAF is equipped with F/A-18A and B and F-111C aircraft and there's no F-15A and C there!

 

Actually, the Aussies have the Super Hornet, and well, those can ruin your day.

[topol-m]

The Super Hornets are great aircraft. I don`t see why Australia would need anything more.

[Pilotasso]

IF they want F-111's range they have to come the closest thing out there: F-35, Not F-22 nor Superhornet. Both vastly outclassed for long range deep penetration strikes.

[tflash]

With Super Hornet the Aussies will soon forget about the old-school F-111 that basically needs its range because it has no state-of-the-art stand-off weapons nor the avionics to guide them; it also lacks current ECM technologies that would enable it to penetrate defended airspace. Its a blast from the past, only Carlo Kopp can't let her go.

 

Super Hornet also buys the Aussies decision time on the yet unproven F-35, it would indeed require Pak-fa to enter the south-pacific theatre to change the game, so there is no hurry.

[Mugatu]

Your are wrong there they have been upgraded far beyond the original capability.

 

With Super Hornet the Aussies will soon forget about the old-school F-111 that basically needs its range because it has no state-of-the-art stand-off weapons nor the avionics to guide them; it also lacks current ECM technologies that would enable it to penetrate defended airspace. Its a blast from the past, only Carlo Kopp can't let her go.

 

Super Hornet also buys the Aussies decision time on the yet unproven F-35, it would indeed require Pak-fa to enter the south-pacific theatre to change the game, so there is no hurry.

[zakobi]

Yep. Besides the free-falling/gliding GPS-guided bombs, which are the only A2G weapons that Raptor can carry at the moment, PAK FA's arsenal will include much wider range of A2G weaponry, such as: GLONASS-guided free-falling/gliding bombs(JDAM'ski and JSOW'ski), tactical AGM's, ASM's and ARM's.

 

BTW, Kopp's article about PAK FA provides pretty good coverage of the subject. (even if you don't trust his POV and conclusions in general).

 

Question now could be: "What can the Indian version carry, which the russian can't?"

Maybe they'll make a modified version to carry cruise missiles, like they did with some of the Su-30MKI's