Nied

OK here's the relevant 'graphs from the Air International article. Looks like I was right the second time instead of the first, Block 20 F-22s will be introduced in 2007, not this year. The article then goes on to describe the planned upgrades in the next two blocks (including electronic warfare capabilities in the Block 40 version that would allow an F-22 to perform the roles of an EF-111 Raven and a Wild Weasel at the same time). Apparently Block 20 has been bought and paid for, it just has to be installed:

Bah! Carpets absorb dust and stains. Wood is shiny and cool and much easier to take care of (it can be vacuumed too just not with a beater bar). And just to make this Anime or other Sci-fi related does anyone remember if Tenchi's house in Tenchi Muyo had wood or carpeting for it's floors?

Well they aren't as close as the UK or Japan but I certainly wouldn't say they're unfriendly. Besides George Bush looked into Putin's soul and saw that it was good!

Aparently the hurdles for this program were exagerated by the GAO report. Last month's issue of Air International mentioned the Block 20 spec including COTS architechure. Now that I think about it, it's possible that the Block 20 spec wont be introduced until next year, I'll have to check that when I get home from work.

I wonder how much that will affect the decision to produce a new avionics set for the F-22, and what the cost will be for that (since they only have enough chips for the first set of fighters) 390835[/snapback] The Block 20 planes being rolled out later this year feature COTS avionics architecture. Most likely the current buy of chips will be used as spares for the earlier aircraft until they are upgraded.

Exactly. Militarily, the Typhoon or the Super Hornet are probably best for Japan. Geo politically the Raptor is probably best. As you mentioned it can be used as a bargaining chip to resolve other issues, it's a great way to strengthen ties to a traditional ally, and it constrains the freedom of action of a strategic competitor (the PLAAF is going to think twice about attacking a mainland Japan guarded by F-22Js). To top it all off it makes Raptors cheaper for us to buy as well.

It's not that I don't want to sell to any Arab country because they're Arab, but because I fear for their stability. The House of Saud is a monarchical dictatorship that's built it's power up by fomenting religious radicalism and now that's turning against them. Frankly I don't want King Bin Laden commanding squadrons of Islamic Republic of Arabia Air Force F-22s against his neighbors or us. I could see maybe selling them to the UAE if they wanted them, but I wouldn't personally unless I got some guarantees that they'd introduce some democratic reforms. The reason that Japan doesn't buy Russian fighters is that technically speaking I believe that Russia and Japan are still in a state of war. Russia still occupies several of the northern islands. Generally you don't buy military equipment from your enemy. Just because two countries are friendly with us doesn't mean that they'll be friendly to each other. Hell one of the reasons the ROKAF is buying F-15Ks is to counter JASDF F-15Js. Even funnier is that Greece is buying brand new Block 50 F-16s to counter the numerically superior F-16s of the Turkish Air Force, this despite the fact that both are members of NATO, and thus are obligated to defend each other in the event one is attacked!

I'm a little squeamish about selling F-22s to Israel (considering how much of the tech we sell to them somehow winds up in Chinese hands), ditto with Saudi Arabia (though that's more because I fear an Ali-Cat repeat). Both countries seem happy to go with other airframes though (Israel is keen on the F-35's STOVL capabilities and the RSAF is buying Typhoons). If the F-15FX is yet another F-15K iteration than I imagine the Japanese won't save much money buying it over the Raptor (IIRC current fly-away cost of the F-15K is $90 million or so F-22 is $110-120 million though that could go down with export orders). Like I said my money is on the Typhoon or the Raptor: the Eurofighter consortium is offering indigenous production and all sorts of other sweat deals, while the Raptor is the most powerful fighter on the face of the planet, the Japanese like to have that kind of thing. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the RAAF taking a second look at the Raptor if the Japanese bought a fleet. They've never been completely happy with the JSF and a Raptor with underwing pylons would make an extremely good long range anti-shipping platform to replace their Aardvarks (I'm fairly certain it would do a good job taking over for their Hornets in the ADF role too).

Here's the best picture I could find online:

It looks like a ship from the very very old game Wing Commander: Privateer. IIRC the ship in the game was a freighter that had a large egg shaped bow section with a small cylindrical section behind that that had three engine naceles attachted to it.

I imagine that the F-15FX is simply Boeing's latest version of the F-15I/K/SG: an F-15E with all the latest and coolest gadgets built in. Personally my money is on a Typhoon-J, though I hope that they'll buy an F-22J.

Actually I beileive the ship in "Pinapple Salad" is the detachable bow section of Laplamiz's Queadol-Magdomilla command battlecruiser. Observe:

To which the other kids replied "Yeah right Joel, that's stupid!" I laughed my ass off at that one. Incedently my roomate in college was actually Paul Dini's step brother, I never actually got to meet Paul himself though.

The Zentradi Gun destroyer was also featured prominently in Episodes 27 and 36 of SDF: Macross.

This shows up in Exsedol's re-counting of Zentradi history during one of the re-construction episodes in the original series. I do believe it's the only other image of SA ships in all of Macross continuity (ironically I pilfered it from Robotech.com). as you can see most of their ships are broadly similar in appearance to ASS-1. It appears there's an SA gunboat in the center of the image, some sort of design with an offset bridge in the foreground, and another SA ship below and behind the gunboat. There's also a Zentradi picket being destroyed and, in the lower right hand, a Thuverl Salan battleship.

Skull Leader beat me to it. The VF-1's twin tailhooks always bugged me, as it's one of the more unrealistic features on what is otherwise a very well thought out design. I can't imagine how they could ensure both hooks catch the same wire, and I wouldn't want to be one of the poor bastards on the deck if only one caught. The Vf-0 has a much more logical and prominent single tail hook on it's backpack. It does appear that all later VFs must have tailhooks as well, as even new ships like the New Macross class have arresting gear strung across their decks.

It's always been a pet theory of mine that the "Renegade Power Armors" (another Dave Deitrich brain bug) that Isamu fights at the beginning of Macross Plus are actually the SA's version of the Neusjadeul-Ger. The styling of that mecha certainly looks closer to the Varauta's than the Zentradi's (aside from the basic form obviously).

Actually JB0 I think you just fell into a trap set by one of my pet peeve sites Dave Deitrich's Macross Mecha designs. Like the RRG it fills in it's own (mostly well reasoned) BS to fill out the descriptions of most mecha and ships, but unlike the RRG it doesn't point out where it's BS and where it's official. I haven't found anything in the official continuity to support his claim that the ASS-2 was never found again (incidentally I do believe that term ASS-2 is his creation as well). If you can point me to some piece of info supporting this that's not on Dave's site I'd love to see it.

Sculltelbut from some tanker crews over at F-16.net is that the USAF would like to replace their KC-135s with some kind of 737 derivative (I guess that would be a KC-40). Considering the size and range of some of the newer models that might not be a bad idea as a one for one stratotanker replacement). A big 737-900ER based tanker ought to be able to do the same job as the -135. I could see a plan where the oldest Startotankers are replaced by KC-40s over several years until the last few squadrons are replaced by 777 KCs that also start replacing the KC-10.

Ah, the Andrews AFB Joint Services Open House. I used to go to that every single year before I went to college. Probably one of the best Airshows you can see on the East coast (those congresscritters need to know what they're paying for). Especially when you take into account all the neat equipment they fly in from Pax river (I remember seeing a pre-production Super Hornet with all sorts futuristic dummy weapons hanging off the wings back in '94 or '95).

The Meltrandi version is from the DYRL continuity, where the ASS-1 is an early model gunboat. It's been theorized that this ship class exists in the official continuity as a design fielded by one of the factions of the stellar republic, and that the SA design is actually a re-modeled version of it (somewhat similar to how the Varauta mecha are re-modeled VF- and VA-14s).

The TV version of ASS-1 (essentially identical to the re-built Macross but without a bridge module) has been retconned into the design you show above (which really isn't that bad considering that there's only one shot where it's clear that the ASS-1 is identical to the Macross). While you do a good job of pointing out the similarities to the ASS-1 I'm inclined to believe that the ship Vrlitwhai and crew encountered is a different class (certainly the engines appear to be different).

F-19 doesn't exist, never did. The way the F-19 myth got started is that someone noticed the lack of an F-19 between the F/A-18 Hornet and the F-20 Tigershark. Since there was supposed to be some super secret stealth fighter being flown by the Air Force at the time, people made the logical assumption that it must be called the F-19. Of course that was wrong, Northrup (designers of the F-20) wanted a really cool designation for their brand new futuristic re-tread of an old fighter and asked if they could skip F-19. Never one to pass up an opportunity to make money for a contractor (Eisenhower might have had something there) the DoD obliged. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if the Pentagon worked very hard to push the whole F-19 myth to help cover the F-117, very similar to how they pushed that "switchblade" article in PopSci to misdirect people from the Bird of Prey. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole Aurora project turns out to be something similar.

Here I had been thinking that the VMAQ squadrons had been dis-established. I don't see why they shouldn't be though. The Navy has jammers, and is the Marines need jamming the General or admiral in charge will assign a jammer. That's the reality of modern joint operations, it doesn't matter which branch is doing the mission, just that its getting done. Of course if that branch doesn't like doing the mission that's another story (see USAF and CAS). The biggest difference between the MV-22 (Marines) and the CV-22 (AF) is an extra fuel tank on the CV. Considering that the Marines would most likely be launching from an LAU that doesn't seem to be too big of a problem. They want it but I don't know how much they need it. The Marines have got along quite well for years with CTOL aircraft, I can't imagine they wouldn't continue to do great with the F-35C. Which wouldn't get you a lick more of airframe life, nor would it reduce the cost of ownership. You need either re-built or new built aircraft if they're going to last any amount of time, and once you factor in the extra costs of maintaining those older airframes, the Raptor comes out costing the same but with much more capability. Who's? Like I said most of the CONUS operations you're going to see over the next few decades are going to be Noble Eagle style 9/11 prevention operations. Like I said take a Learjet hang a sidewinder and a .50 caliber machine gun under the wings, put a bunk in the cabin and give it IFR capability and then have em fly racetrack over the major cities for 12 hours a stretch. That would be far cheaper than any dedicated fighter, and far more useful to today's climate. No they're not scouts, and while they've been pressed into that service while while the ARH and the firescout come online they weren't bought for that purpose. What's more UAVs can do the job even better than a dedicated scout (instead of having four guys to look at computer screen in the Helicopter while being shot at you can have 12 guys sitting safe in an air conditioned trailer look at that same screen).

F-15S/MTD were just technology demonstrators to validate stuff that was due to go into the ATF. That and the fact that they were insanely expensive and hard to build (if laid all of the welds in each of the MTD's nozzles end to end they'd be over a mile long).