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| Science & Technology |
| Raptor hits bulls eye on Mach 1.5 bomb run |
| 2006-06-13 |
| EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., June 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jet scored a direct hit with precision-guided bomb during a recent high-altitude, supersonic test flight. The milestone test announced Monday was called the highest and fastest delivery of a JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) ever carried out and involved a Raptor screaming along at Mach 1.5 at an altitude of 50,000 feet. The test saw a 1,000-pound Mk-83 JDAM dropped from 24 miles away use Global Positioning Satellite signals to zero in on what was termed in a news release as a "small ground target." A similar JDAM bomb was used in the precision attack that killed al-Qaida's Abu al-Zaqawi last week. Beautiful pictures removed by mod because they blew page formatting. Sorry |
| Posted by:DanNY |
| #19 Or an unmanned plane designed for just a single cargo bomb, a giant bomb instead of much of its fusilage. It could take the bomb to great altitude, then crash dive, For a moment, I thought we were discussing 9/11. Missed the unmanned part. |
| Posted by: john 2006-06-13 21:49 |
| #18 thank you bombay! kool job, I'd love to just walk through the machine and assembly rooms. I'll have to wait just to see it fly at airshows. ** 6r and Alaska Paul, I'll take Mach Kerblooie! woof! woof! grrrrrrr! for a thousand! »:-) |
| Posted by: RD 2006-06-13 21:37 |
| #17 Raptor is amazing, I am proud to help produce some of the components for this bird! |
| Posted by: bombay 2006-06-13 20:05 |
| #16 In honor of our fly gals: |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-06-13 19:38 |
| #15 Raptor is one awesome fighter. It has great stand off capability meaning safety for fly boys (and gals). |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-06-13 19:22 |
| #14 Skidmark got it. Our fighters are now (small, guided) nuke capable. Bwahahahahaaah! |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2006-06-13 18:40 |
| #13 That's a nuclear release, boys. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2006-06-13 18:05 |
| #12 crosspatch: granted, something the size of a C5-A that flies like a cruise missile is one thing, and definitely payback for 9-11, but I add the altitude and very high speed angles for the sub-orbital "rods from god" effect. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-06-13 16:38 |
| #11 Then you would have the suborbital bomb that would be mounted on a missile and hit the target at Mach Kerblooie! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-06-13 16:36 |
| #10 Or an unmanned plane designed for just a single cargo bomb, a giant bomb instead of much of its fusilage. It could take the bomb to great altitude, then crash dive, dislodging the bomb at high speed and veering off. The bomb itself could have a ramjet engine to accelerate its descent to tremendous speed before impact. That's essentially what a cruise missile does. We have the technology to build absolutely huge cruise missiles if we wanted to. We could make them the size of a C-5. Imagine a missile coming at you that has three MOABs inside! |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2006-06-13 16:22 |
| #9 Easily defeated by thousan..... woof! woof! grrrrrrr! |
| Posted by: 6 2006-06-13 16:22 |
| #8 In the future, I imagine a very high altitude bomber, unmanned, that could make some very interesting things happen. For instance, having 30 500 pound JDAM iron bombs hitting almost the exact same point with say a 1 second interval between them. Like a gigantic jack hammer. Or 50 independently targetted 250 lb JDAM iron bombs covering an area perhaps 10 miles in circumfrence. Or an unmanned plane designed for just a single cargo bomb, a giant bomb instead of much of its fusilage. It could take the bomb to great altitude, then crash dive, dislodging the bomb at high speed and veering off. The bomb itself could have a ramjet engine to accelerate its descent to tremendous speed before impact. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-06-13 15:13 |
| #7 It'd probably take ten minutes to get there after release! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-06-13 14:52 |
| #6 Delivered in 10 minutes or the next one is free! |
| Posted by: Spomose Angick9582 2006-06-13 14:44 |
| #5 The test saw a 1,000-pound Mk-83 JDAM dropped from 24 miles away use Global Positioning Satellite signals to zero in on what was termed in a news release as a "small ground target." If I'm reading that right, the reason for the high altitude and high speed is to give the bomb enough momentum for a nice looooong slant range. That would let them JDAM something without flying anywhere near it--say, from outside the engagement envelope of the defensive SAM site, or from the airspace of the next country over, or some such. Cool. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-06-13 12:21 |
| #4 Almost 10 miles up, 1 1/2 times the speed of sound, and directly hits the target. Gotta love it! |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-06-13 12:10 |
| #3 Was the bomb stil supersonic at impact? No warning at all... |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-06-13 11:58 |
| #2 Good news. Needed to verify the release at Mach 1+, as this seriously interupts airflow at time of release. This will allow much faster time on target if we really need it. |
| Posted by: SOP35/Rat 2006-06-13 11:32 |
| #1 Dead terrorists now available with |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-06-13 11:27 |