man reading this is 50% watching 2 kids fighting and trying to get their parents to say one of them is right and the other is wrong and 50% aircraft that arent actually a flanker lmao
Sukhoi Su-27/30/33/35/37 Flanker series & Su-34 Fullback - History, Design, Performance & Dissection
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I clarified in detail that I need to add fuel time this update. I listed possible reasons completely seperate to fuel consumption. I also clarified that you do not play the game buy only GE aircraft to test fly them. You do not actually play the aircraft you spend money on.
So, you would not be able to determine if the Su-27SM does in fact need more fuel time in actual gameplay. This is why you rely on Datamine to tell you what has changed. The issue is Datamine does not catch every change & GJ can make changes to their own game that are not reflected in you weakr datamining.
Do you need further assistance in understanding this?
Do you even have the SM?
Thank you for finally sharing these @BBCRF.
These American & Western European players are under the assumption that the cobra is useless in combat & supermaneuvrability is a gimmick. Why are they so quiet all of a sudden?
It’s almost like you & I were telling the truth from the beginning to these Western Pop culture drones who live on propaganda. There is no reason to lie to them whatsoever.
We are the only two Flanker fans not subject to American Propaganda who maintained that the cobra/dynamic decelerations are useful in combat. I respect you the more for posting these.
Oh, Is that right? You love just making up details huh?
The Flanker can swing its nose in angles of attack in higher speeds greater than all 4th generation Western Fighters. It can cash in that stored energy for shots that are otherwise impossible for conventional fighters to make who must wait until they can capture the Flanker with their HMS & high off boresight capability.
This is the exact reason why 5th generation Air Superiority fighters of every superpower nation are required to be supermaneuverable.
The Flanker is a special, exquisite design & aerodynamic marvel that can perform unconventional flight performances in both defensive & offensive combat tactics.
Hope this information helps.
There have been several major advancements in missile technology in the last few decades which have made any kind of WVR combat almost complete suicide.
Super maneuverability was relevant during a very short period where we were still using 70s era technology well into the 80s and 90s.
The R73 was a phenomenally radical advancement for its time that western nations tested and played around with but was pushed aside due significant reliability and technological issues at the time, which when used with a Cobra manuver was extremely effective in specific situations.
The last 20 years has seen the introduction of ASRAAM, MICA, IRST and AIM9X, which while all have varying degrees of capability and WEZ.
The combination of high off boresight, lock on after launch, advanced forms of datalink and 360 degree tracking on systems like the F35 means that you no longer have to point the nose in the direction of the threat to reliably engage it, we can engage threats directly behind or below without even having to make a single offensive manuver.
Supermanuverability has been a plaything toyed around by Western nations long before the Russians ever utilised it, and the conclusion was always the same.
Any advantage gained by being able pitch your nose beyond the flight limits of the aircraft, were immediately followed by an extreme vulnerability due to loss of airspeed.
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Thats what the Americans thought after the Korean war with the F4 Phantom.
They learned a very hard lesson in Vietnam.
That is why to this very day WVR combat is extensively trained upon in post graduate programs such as Top Gun & the USAF Weapons School.
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Because it is, most of the time. It is an energy dump to attempt to put the target in your weapons envelope that you only have one chance of doing. It should not be your first choice in combat.
Because there isn’t a need to derail a thread making counterclaims to every single point when it won’t be productive.
Wild. I didn’t know this thread doubled as a crusade against “Western Propoganda”.
If pilots do what they are supposed to do and stay below the Weapon Engagement Zone, these tricks are near useless. You have at least stated the risk, you are expending energy for this shot. If it fails, you will find yourself losing shortly afterwords.
It is still bound by the laws of physics. Outside of a cobra envelope, it certainly has extraordinary turn-in capabilities at speeds. The Flanker must use this initial advantage to get a dogfight kill as it would be losing energy rapidly as it prolongs.
Apparently, the F-35 does not agree with this statement. And even through High Alpha research vehicles like the NASA F-15 and F-18, thrust vectoring has not been retrofitted to these aircraft. So either the U.S. is ignorant about the benefits of thrust vectoring or the U.S. does not see reasonable benefit to adding that for modern warfare.
And then when it comes to Red Flag exercises, it is all BVR kills, sans when the stealth fighters feel like doing a gun kill on A-10s and cargo aircraft.
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But thas just for 2000s and beyond, with the technology that we have in war thunder wvr is still relevant so i agree with ziggy on the relevance of supermaneuverability for the current state of the game, that will change when they start introducing stuff like the raptor, felon or just 4.5 gen stuff tho imo.
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The problem with the F4 phantom and vietnam was that the armchair generals thought that all engagements would occur at high altitudes and would only be BVR combat against hoards of soviet nuclear bombers. It was an unproven concept that has no basis against reality.
Vietnam was instead low altitude hit and run tactics against US bombers and fighter patrols.
Technology right now is proven and effective at what it does and what it needs to do, and the lessons learnt in Vietnam are still having a major effect on decisions and tactics made today.
BFM is still taught all over because we know and understand that we have limited stocks of these advanced missiles and aircraft.
Now its useless only most of the time? What happen to completely useless?
You guys are on coping campaign right now. I hope you both are aware.
Wrong. That is why you have HMS & high off boresight capability.
Additionally supermaneuverable fighters must be equipped with high thrust to weight. Exceedingly powerful dual engines. It is a requirement I listed for supermaneuvrability previously. You are not falling out of the sky in a dogfight with fighters like the Flanker.
Have you ever seen it perform? They literally can perform with R-27ERs strapped to them. You know how large and heavy those missiles are?
Are you not acting like an Armchair general right now?
It’s only useful in a very very specific WVR scenario, and even then it is entirely countered by jamming the WEZ of the missile (tactic is to force a rolling scissors)
You mean dogfights?
Ditto
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I have not once declared that any technology & tactic is useless. Rather I never underestimate a person or weapons ability to kill.
Always overestimate & prepare. That is a US doctrine by the way.
It is “most of the time” as I put into consideration there are times that it may be successful. In modern combat, it is completely useless.
HMS and high off boresight is the “weapons envelope” sir. I also never discounted the Su-27 having powerful engines. I do however point out it is heavier than comparable aircraft, which is always going to be detrimental in a heavy turn, good engines or not.
That’s great and all, I never stated it is unable to do so with a weapon load.
Understanding the nuance that was the 60-70s mentality of U.S. Air Force at the time is important to understand why WVR combat fell behind on training.
Why? Low observability & the fog of war will inevitably place aircraft in close quarters engagements at one point or the other.
That is a fact here & now. It will remain one long into the future.
That is why the only 3 superpowers in the world have invested heavily in the capability.
You also think that flare & decoy technology stops advancing as well? Think again.
That is why ability to carry many missiles is a critical need. Something the Raptor & F-35 fails at.
I get the point you’re making here but this doesn’t count the fact that other nations also produce and advance technologically? You stated the various missiles of western countries but clearly there are other competitive and in some cases better missiles (admitted by the US themselves, hence why they are developing better tech themselves)… and i’m also confused on why we never consider THE OTHER face of the medal… yeah the US is developing the AIM-260 but are we just going to ignore the already existing counterparts and their upgrades?
A small example would be China developing a different version of the PL-15 that is supposed to be fitted inside the J20 and other stealth programs, with the major advantage of maintaining that range (or boosting it) while adding 2 more missiles to the missile bay, extending it to 6 PL-15s and 2 PL-10s.
I don’t really have any knowledge about Russian missiles but from this forum is possible to see that Russian missiles (long range) are more than just capable missiles.
On the WVR scenarios… i agree that certain planes like J-20, F35s etc… are supposed to AVOID these situations… the tech is too valuable and even if you can resort missiles that can go 360 you shouldn’t find yourself in a scenario where a single mistake can lead to you losing, even if the odds were in your favor.
This doesn’t mean that tech like TVC is useless, 2D TVC helps with IR stealth too, and pitch (potentially roll too) maneuvers without using control surfaces, at the expense of engine TBO and thrust. So there’s fair advantages, with fair trade-offs.
This is clearly not to spark debate since this is supposed to be a flanker based forum but just to consider the bigger picture i guess?
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Low observability only protects aircraft up to the “burn-through” zone. The zone is still a considerable distance away. Radar missiles can still be employed against these aircraft within that zone.
The U.S. has only used it in the F-22. Where Russia is refitting their aircraft with it, the U.S. has not done the same.
I have no idea where this is coming from, but I can almost promise you are not going to be able to lecture me about this. And I wasn’t aware that the F-22 carrying 8 missiles concealed was a detriment vs the Su-57’s 6.