By now you've probably heard that a U.S. fighter shot down a Syrian jet about a week ago. What you might not know is that before the F/A-18E hit its target, it missed‐and it missed with the best, newest U.S. missile.
On June 18, just moments after a Syrian Arab Air Force Su-22 attacked Coalition forces, a U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet strike fighter rolled into a firing position and opened fire. The Super Hornet locked onto the Su-22 "Fitter" and launched the Military's most advanced short-range air-to-air missile, which promptly missed. While the plane was eventually brought down by another, different missile, the question remains: why did the AIM-9X Sidewinder miss?
The Sukhoi Su-22 is a Cold War-era attack jet designed to strike targets on the ground. A single-seat aircraft, like many aircraft designed in the 1970s it had "swing wings." Cutting edge for its time, this feature allowed the plane to maximize its combat range. Known as "Fitter" to NATO, the Su-22 was designed solely as an air-to-ground aircraft with little to no air-to-air capability. It was produced in large numbers and widely sold abroad. The design is obsolete, and while many air forces still fly the Fitter, it isn't by choice.
The Super Hornet, meanwhile, is the U.S. Navy's top-of-the-line strike fighter. The Super Hornet is armed with both the infrared guided AIM-9X Sidewinder short range air-to-air missile and the radar-guided AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range missile. It's a potent combination of air-to-air missiles, representing the best of American military technology.
According to CNN, the Navy Super Hornet locked onto the Su-22 Fitter at a range of 1.5 miles. The Super Hornet launched an AIM-9X, and the Syrian pilot loosed flares to lure the infrared guided missile away from his fighter. The trick worked, and the American missile missed. The Super Hornet then launched an AMRAAM missile which, using radar guidance, is unaffected by flares. This time the Fitter went down.
So why did the AIM-9X miss? A contributor to Combat Aircraft magazine proposed a plausible theory: While the 9X is designed to resist the allure of defensive flares, but it may have been too specialized in rejecting American flares. Contributor Angad Singh tweeted a story originally written by aviation authority Bill Sweetman about American tests of Soviet aircraft during the Cold War.
During the 1980s, U.S. Air Force maintained the top secret 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron. Flying the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, the 4477th operated Soviet fighters collected from around the world, often captured by allies, to determine their capabilities. According to the story, the Air Force received a flare dispenser that had been on a Su-25 ground attack jet shot down over Afghanistan. The dispenser was quickly attached to a MiG-21 operated by the 4477th and taken out for testing against the latest American infra-red guided missile, the AIM-9P.
What happened next surprised the Air Force. The AIM-9P Sidewinder, designed to see past flares, was readily diverted by the Soviet flares. The problem was that the -9P was too attuned to the characteristics of American flares it had been tested against and not against the Soviet flares, which according to the squadron commander between 1985 and 1987 were "dirty, and none of them looked the same."
Did something like this happen in the skies over Syria? The AIM-9X, a relatively new missile, should have easily taken down the aging Su-22 Fitter. A lot of air forces, particularly America's NATO allies, rely on the AIM-9X as their short-range missile. The news that it was unable to shoot down a 30-year-old fighter jet will be disturbing to many.
#1
Not really. Most IR missiles can be faked out by flares. A lot of the chance of success depend on aspect ratio, intercept paths, etc. If the 9X came in from the front and the jet broke so the flares are the only thing the missile really sees, any IR missile will fail to track. A behind shot is still be best chance at a shootdown with an IR missile.
#4
Article: According to CNN, ... The Super Hornet launched an AIM-9X,
CNN: Immediately after the Syrian Su-22 fighter jet dropped its bombs, two American F/A-18E Super Hornets, flying from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, engaged, firing a AIM-9 Sidewinder -- a short-range air-to-air missile -- at the Syrian plane from about half a mile away, two US officials told CNN. New details on US shoot down of Syrian jet
#10
...There's been some evidence that the Hornet driver may have been up against or inside the -9's minimum limits - if that was the case, when the Fitter driver saw it he dumps flares and starts to maneuver, and he's got a better than usual chance of breaking the lock.
Not like it really helped him much in the end.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/27/2017 18:55 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Adventurous pilots split-essing,
Decisively diving but guessing,
Without any retries,
The seats of your Levis
Might find this manoeuvre distressing.
#12
On top of his loop, he was chucklin',
"So far, so good." Suddenly, Stricklin!
The buzzard had landed.
And where was it stranded?
A large garbage barge outta Brooklyn.
#2
Put differently, the private sector builds off the foundation created by the government.
So Obama was right - You *didn't* build that!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/27/2017 8:05 Comments ||
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#3
The internal combustion engine was designed for peaceful purposes but it was also used for tanks and aircraft. Water can be drunk but it can also drown you.
#5
George needs a refresher with the history of 'technology'. Technology has a long tale of development and dependencies much of which starts before the 20th century and government as we see it today.
Does war kick innovation into overdrive - sure. Which came first, the chariot or the wheel? The church bell or the cannon? The telegraph or the internet? The war horse or the draft horse? The microprocessor or the loom?
#7
For me, the interesting part of the article comes near the end.
New generations of technology are needed to raise productivity. If the model that has been in place since before World War II continues, then another generation of entrepreneurs will take advantage of military research and development, deploy it, and announce how much they dislike government interference in their work. Selling products is important, but we need to understand the role that war plays in consumer products. For the pacifists who love technology, and the libertarians who love it at least as much, there is a deep irony at work.
Consider all the SJWs in the tech world who might not have a job without all that icky military spending.
[TownHall] If Gov. Bruce Rauner and his legislature in Springfield do not put a budget together by Friday, the Land of Lincoln will be the first state in the Union to see its debt plunge into junk-bond status. High taxes, huge government, cheap, illegal alien labor and Chinese imports. Those are the keys to success.
Illinois has $14.5 billion in overdue bills, $130 billion in unfunded pension obligations, and no budget. "We can't manage our money," says Rauner. "We're like a banana republic."
Speaking of banana republics, Puerto Rico, which owes $74 billion to creditors who hold its tax-exempt bonds, and $40 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, has already entered bankruptcy proceedings.
The island's imaginative 38-year-old governor, Ricardo Rossello, however, has a solution. Call Uncle Sam. On June 11, Rossello held a plebiscite, with a 23 percent turnout, that voted 97 percent to make Puerto Rico our 51st state.
"(T)he federal government will no longer be able to ignore the voice of the majority of the American citizens in Puerto Rico," said Rossello. Washington cannot "demand democracy in other parts of the world, and not respond to the legitimate right to self-determination that was exercised today in the American territory of Puerto Rico."
Had the governor been talking about the island's right to become free and independent, he would have had a point. But statehood inside the USA is something Uncle Sam decides.
#1
The Fred says yes. Obama ran up the debt like a gambling addict with a credit card in Las Vegas. You'd almost think he believed in the Cloward–Piven strategy.
#2
But statehood inside the USA is something Uncle Sam decides.
I'm sure the whiners will try another end around in the judiciary (which just seems to love the accumulation of power), but Congress has repeatedly set requirements for statehood.
#3
Yes it is. Unless we can control our spending and keep the entitlements where they are or cut them, we are in for a world of hurt down the line. You can already start to see the fabric starting to come undone and if it isn't patched or the pressure reduced, it will tear and then all hell will break loose.
#7
The federal & state debt levels are now so high there seems to be no way they will ever be paid down. Unless perhaps a meteorite composed of a huge amount of precious metals and rare earths wipes out DC during a joint session of Congress.
We are a federation of banana republics. Yes, we have no bananas.
#8
It is if the Federales bail them out. Let IL declare bankruptcy and the creditors try to seize state assets. Let them both feel pain, esp so that creditors become more careful to whom they lend.
[American Thinker] The top management of the Secret Service is going surprisingly easy on a senior agent ‐ one with daily managerial leadership responsibilities ‐ who publicly proclaimed on Facebook last October that she would rather face jail time than take a bullet for Donald Trump, along with other posts opposing him. Trump Derangement Syndrome among the Praetorians is a mortal threat to the incumbent in the office of Commander in Chief.
In fact, she continues to receive her salary and move forward toward the rich retirement package that awaits federal employees, allowing them extended vacations with no financial worries so long as they shall live.
If the Secret Service were serious about sending a message that agents may never allow their personal political views to affect their protective efforts on the behalf of their assigned responsibilities, there are serious actions that could have been taken, despite the fact that "Secret Service employees are federal workers with multiple layers of job protections and legal due-process rights."
[Breitbart] A majority of Americans believe that the "Deep State" is trying to "unseat" President Donald Trump, according to the most recent Harvard-Harris poll.
The poll asked respondents: "Specifically, do you think the so called ’Deep State’ ‐ the collection of intelligence agencies and holdover government workers from the Obama administration -- is trying to unseat President Trump using leaks of classified information?"
Fifty-four percent of respondents answered "yes" while 46% believed the Deep State is not trying to unseat Trump, who has repeatedly asserted that he is the victim of a "Witch Hunt."
The Deep State has leaked to establishment media outlets like the Washington Post and New York Times to undermine and smear Trump and his advisers, some of whom are reportedly being investigated by the FBI for their ties to or meetings with various Russian officials. These outlets have written stories, based on anonymous Deep State sources, that, among other things, have suggested Trump revealed classified information to the Russians and called former FBI director James Comey a "nut job."
Over the weekend, Pat Buchanan said there is a "classic struggle... between the incoming Trump presidency, which is really embattled in its first five months, and what might be called the Deep State, which is the permanent government in Washington, D.C."
#1
Sure seems like it from here in Podunk. I cannot recall ever seeing the press and government careerists in such fury over every little thing, like the president's 2 scoops of ice cream. The have gone insane. They need to start locking people up for leaking.
#2
Trump’s top White House advisers are “becoming increasingly convinced that they are victims of a conspiracy against Trump’s presidency, as evidenced by the number of leaks flowing out of government — that the crusade by the so-called ‘deep state’ is a legitimate threat.”
One doesn't need a 220 page Harvard study to tell them this. I'm only surprised the 54% is not much higher.
[RUDAW.NET] With the Islamic State's (ISIS) removal from Mosul imminent the militant's only real base of operations will be the city of Hawija, west of Kirkuk.
The militants have retained that enclave to date primarily because Baghdad and its American backer prioritized the Mosul operation. It's presently unclear which forces will remove them when the time comes.
“From what the Iraqi forces have said Hawija might be the last bit of Iraqi territory to be liberated,” Iraq analyst Joel Wing of Musings of Iraq, told Rudaw English. “After Mosul is finished the joint forces will go after Tal Afar then western Anbar, and then Hawija at the very end.”
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
By now you've probably heard that a U.S. fighter shot down a Syrian jet about a week ago. What you might not know is that before the F/A-18E hit its target, it missed‐and it missed with the best, newest U.S. missile.
[TownHall] If Gov. Bruce Rauner and his legislature in Springfield do not put a budget together by Friday, the Land of Lincoln will be the first state in the Union to see its debt plunge into junk-bond status.
[RUDAW.NET] With the Islamic State's (ISIS) removal from Mosul imminent the militant's only real base of operations will be the city of Hawija, west of Kirkuk.
