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On 12/21/2017 at 4:48 PM, Mr Matt Foley said:

 

I would venture you are correct. I wouldn't expect snake fangs, wild hogs or in your case......Eagles. To say we are excited and proud to make the cut would be an understatement.


Oh I don't doubt the pride and excitement is massive!  I know Kingsley has been looked at as a F-35 base once the Eagles go away..so I doubt the current Eagle tail flash would stay around either. 

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On 12/27/2017 at 12:48 AM, MarkW said:

Pappy, gotcha, the little piston thingy.  I thought you meant the overall profile shape, which hasn't changed.  But that actuator has gone from down to up.

 

G'day Mark,

 

 No not just the piston thingy, the whole headbox shape is different. 82Whitey51 had posted some pictures of the F-35 seat in an earlier post but the whole PB ransomware issue meant that the links were broken. He has kindly re-sent the pics to me and is happy for these to be re-posted here. The lower edge angles upwards to allow the oxy bottle to nestle underneath

 

Notice in the attached pic below that the headbox has a triangular shape in side profile. Compare this to the pic in the earlier post and you can clearly see that the headbox is no longer the same,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

IMG_2099_zpspleyi6a8.jpg

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At one time, back during the JSF competition, Lockheed was considering a version of the Zvezda K-36 seat for their production version of the jet.  We even had a real K-36 seat for evaluation during the design phase.

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13 minutes ago, habu2 said:

At one time, back during the JSF competition, Lockheed was considering a version of the Zvezda K-36 seat for their production version of the jet.  We even had a real K-36 seat for evaluation during the design phase.

 

Wasn't this ruled out due to weight concerns?

I believe that the current MB Mk.16 seat has now been re-designated US.16 and that when low speed/low occupant weight issue was being sorted, the ACES 5 seat was considered as well,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

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  • 4 weeks later...
1 hour ago, 11bee said:

 

I guess Rafale botched some of their entry paperwork as well, so it's not looking too hot for them

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On 12/25/2017 at 10:49 AM, Murph said:

So the Canadian gubbimint can't figure out how to replace the F-18, but they can spend time and effort on this.

 

1cMoHmV.png

 

Gotta have priorities.

 

 

Pull up a chair Canada, Have a beer and if you are on blood pressure meds, make sure you are caught up:

 

https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/files/pdf/MLICommentary_Shimooka_Jan2018_webreadyF.pdf

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1 hour ago, 11bee said:

Navy (and undoubtedly others) getting a nice SEAD enhancement.   I would think that with this new weapon, the F-35 will become the ultimate Wild Weasel. 

 

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17947/navy-orders-development-of-new-air-defense-blasting-missile-that-will-fit-inside-f-35

 

 

The Marines plan on using it as a Prowler replacement. The more this kind of stuff gets developed the more simplified and "one stop shop" the aircraft becomes. Even within individual services. 

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2 hours ago, TaiidanTomcat said:

 

 

The Marines plan on using it as a Prowler replacement. The more this kind of stuff gets developed the more simplified and "one stop shop" the aircraft becomes. Even within individual services. 

 

Wonder if this missile will fit in the B's weapon bay?

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13 minutes ago, cf18hornet said:

 

 

Amazing! There was going to be a capability gap between now and 2025 that required the immediate purchase of an Interim Fighter. Now, the CF-18s are going to last until 2032, with no interim fighter purchased!

 

 

 

 

 

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 I'm just gonna throw this out here, and I maybe spit balling, but when you draw an absolute line in the sand that cannot be crossed, and then arbitrarily move it for political convenience does not somehow call your credibility into question?

 

 Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing politicians of redefining military requirements based upon which way the wind is blowing. We all know that doesn't happen.

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1 hour ago, MarkW said:

 I'm just gonna throw this out here, and I maybe spit balling, but when you draw an absolute line in the sand that cannot be crossed, and then arbitrarily move it for political convenience does not somehow call your credibility into question?

 

 Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing politicians of redefining military requirements based upon which way the wind is blowing. We all know that doesn't happen.

VwF92Pj.jpg

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11 hours ago, TaiidanTomcat said:

 

You can practically here the Sea King crews locking up their duck tape now. Surely there is only so much to go around

Sea Kings are going out of service now - retirement is scheduled for December of this year, so there will be surplus duct tape.

 

http://skr18.ca/

 

Cheers,

 

Scott

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On 2018-01-28 at 10:52 PM, TaiidanTomcat said:

 

 

Amazing! There was going to be a capability gap between now and 2025 that required the immediate purchase of an Interim Fighter. Now, the CF-18s are going to last until 2032, with no interim fighter purchased!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totally embarrassing, the Liberals have never cared about the Canadian military. The Hornets are old and tired.

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18 hours ago, Scott Taylor said:

Sea Kings are going out of service now - retirement is scheduled for December of this year, so there will be surplus duct tape.

 

http://skr18.ca/

 

Cheers,

 

Scott

 

I’ll never forget then Defence Minister David Collenette in 1995 announce on national tv that no Sea-King will fly past January 1/1999. 

 

He said it it would be replaced by then.

 

25 years after that announcement, a quarter century later, the Sea-King is replaced (with an aircraft that shouldn’t have been selected).

 

Mulroney announced the purchase of the replacement EH-101s in 1987. Chrétien immediately cancelled that order in 1993, and paid a huge penalty to cancel.

 

27 years from the cancellation and the Sea-King is finally retired. What a smozzle.

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For those interested, this month's Combat Aircraft has a rather detailed article on VMFA-211's experiences with the jet.   Often these articles are just fan boi pieces but this one is pretty balanced.   Some notable points -

  • WIth the arrival of 3F software, going to see more pylons and external stores mounted on the jets, especially AIM-9X training rounds so they can more fully train for A2A missions.  Question for those in the know - how hard is it to upgrade the software on these jets?   I always assumed that it was nothing particularly involved but that doesn't seem to be the case.   Sounds like aircraft with the latest version software are taking a long time to get into service. Are the only jets with 3F new build aircraft coming from the factory or are their plans to retrofit this to earlier jets already in service?  How do they upgrade to the new version?
  • The Marines (and other services) are critically short of fast jet pilots.  Also would love to see more contracted adversary jets with better radars and higher performance.  
  • The EOTS didn't seem to be highly regarded, the commander indicated it was nothing better than an early generation targeting pod.  Given that the hardware in this system is getting pretty old, wonder if there are any long term plans to upgrade this?
  • He didn't state which version helmet they were flying with but said that it's night vision capability still needed work. 
  • Interesting discussion on the B-model's ability to easily land on a moving deck, as well as some info on LO repair procedures.   Regarding maintenance, I've wondered for a while what the manpower was for a regular line squadron, article states that it's only slightly larger than a Harrier unit and they only utilize a limited number of civilian tech reps.   All other maint is done in-house.  That's good to hear. 

Anyway, there is much more to read about, definitely worth picking up the magazine. 

Edited by 11bee
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