Congress didn’t get bribed to take the F-18 over the F-14. The F-14 program was facing severe problems as of 2000. First off, the production line was dead and gone.(This is the same reason why the F-15C 2040C was not built and the EX chosen over it even as interceptor) Grumman going defunct and being merged into Northrop also didn’t help the F-14 situation.
Furthermore, some of the F-14 airframes were aging badly, reaching end of life.
To make matter worse, especially in a time when post cold war defense budget was going down, the Super Tomcat program cost was ballooning out of control and the F-18E/F was the cheaper solution while maintaining CAG effectiveness. Lastly, the F-14 spare parts were running dry, and the Navy was moving forward with a single plane CAG doctrine to reduce cost and simplify logistics big time.
The F-18 already had production lines ready and the F-18E also shared spare parts with the legacy hornets to immediately simplify integration.
Well yeah there is hope, but only so much of it.
TBF, all the nice AESA/PESA features we have today were added alongside su-30, THE mainstream PESA carrier at the time. So theres that.
Gaijin’s code cant really handle modern aircraft all that well and so a lot of it is bodged. So to get certain figures correct, others need to be left underperforming or overperforming.
For example, the Rafale’s are missing a lot of drag, Tonkas have way too much drag, Typhoons have too much AoA, etc etc
This will be very useful to detect other stealth planes at longer range. Refer to this chart made by specialists in the domain and posted by a Gaijin tech moderator to get a better idea of how much the F-22 radar will help:
No idea, this is what xeno_quaza, the tech dev, said about it when he posted it:
“For an example of how RCS effects detection range, please see this chart, it’s not perfectly accurate, but it was made by someone far more knowledgeable then me based off of several books on the topic and their background in radio engineering. And is from everything I know, about as accurate a chart for this kinda thing you can get without going into full simulations. And also is about comparable how warthunder handles RCS too, to my knowledge”
There are few options to help the US tree that won’t upset other mains.
They could add the AIM-120D and AIM 9X but other mains would demand the same missiles and their own. Then we’re right back in the same situation where other trees get the same or better missiles on better platforms because the US went to 5th gen instead of 4.5 gen.
They could add the foreign planes like the Saudi or Qatari EF, but that will just piss off certain trees.
They could add the F22, but again, people will complain.
They could add the AIM-260. Here’s an F18 that looks to be carrying an AIM-260.
That image is quite interesting. That is most likely an AIM-260 as it is missing fin in between that other AIM-120 have. That’s the first image that i have ever seen of it
i see ton of players at top that have no idea how to use top tier jets or radar would be nice if gajin add more more tutorials that will improve player skill at using top jets !
If they’re useless why are they still on production aircraft the? Why even bother to produce aircraft with them? If it was a majority downside for high speed maneuvering people wouldn’ produce canarded aircraft, theres obviously a benefit that you’re simply electing to ignore
Because Irkut still needs to make planes in order to stay in production, they don’t want to close down the production line. If it wasn’t for the su30 they’d be useless, only other plane they make is the yak 130. Knappo makes the actually useful planes in the su34, su35 and su 57
You’re mixing up low-speed / high-AoA controllability with supersonic control authority. They are governed by very different aerodynamics.
Case in point, even the regular F-15C/E retain high speed controllability. It’s in fact one of its great strength.
At high supersonic speeds, control comes mainly from:
Tailplane authority
Dynamic pressure (q) which is extremely high at Mach 1.5+
Control surface size and leverage
Structural stiffness and hinge moment capability
In fact, at high supersonic speeds, canards become less influential relative to the tail to the point of mattering very little.
Full-authority FBW and the all-moving tails are what give the Rafale, Eurofighter, and Gripen great control at Mach 1.5, NOT their canard. The F-15 also turns so well at these speeds despite having no canard because of huge all-moving stabilators, strong static stability, and massive wings + body lift.
