hellohikaru

Just being nitpicky, Iranian=IIAF/IRIAF Israel=IAF. Anyway the Israelis didn't outnumber the Syrian fighters during the Bekaa Valley. Its not like they have 100 F-15s or anything. But the presence of AWACS, complete neutralisation or suppression of the ADA and overall better weaponry and training gave them the upper hand in the Turkey shots and not numbers. And yes the Iraqis pilots are not that good, at least no better than the post Shah era. Saddam is known to have purge his personnel including pilots.

Are there any notable differences between the SV-51 Gamma type and the tanned colored SV-51 Alpha ?

Agree. But then Hasegawa would need to make new molds for it, no quite the same as releasing new decals. The VFX-2 suits are so different from previous generations of suits. Looks kinda retro. They did a new pilot for the vf-22S, why don't do the same thing for the vf-19A? Because the VF-22S was a macross 7 release which had Max and Milia piloting it. The VFX-2 VF-19A is from some obscure video game.

Agree. But then Hasegawa would need to make new molds for it, no quite the same as releasing new decals. The VFX-2 suits are so different from previous generations of suits. Looks kinda retro.

DH What about the IRIAF F-14 deployment of AIM-9 and AIM-7 ?How well are they employed and i am sure they will resort to older AIM-9B and 7D versions as their stocks get depleted. And any word on 20mm attacks ?

F-8C kills by VF-24 Renegades F-8H kills by VF-51 Screaming Eagles I am not surprised the F-8D model didn't score since only 2 units flew it, Sundowners and Black Knights. One of the kills was achieved partially with Zunis rockets.

Something interesting was that during the Yom Kippur War, the Hancock was sailing to Israel to deliver its complement of aircraft to the IAF. But since the tide of war shifted in favor of the israelis, the Hancock returned without delivering its embarked planes. It would have been cool to see Crusaders in IAF markings and camo. Oddly enough i can't find any reference to the F-8J scoring kills. I heard of F-8D and E models getting the kills though. There are even F-8K and L variants which are basically refurbished C and A models respectively. Mostly dealing with the pylons and cockpit gauges and lighting. H was a refurbished D with engine and pylon upgrades.

ahh...F-8J Crusader. Basically an uprated E with wing drop tanks and the French boundary layer control wing. I heard it was initially plaque with all kinds of problems including carrier suitability. Must have been the best Crusader in a dogfight. DH Are there pics of the IRIAF Tomcats in the blue/sand camoflauge ?

@Jediknight Real life has been killing me. I finally got some free time to finish it off.

Yeah..the paranoid Mullahs repeatedly pudge the ranks of the IIAF. I guess there aren't any more officers of Lieutenant Colonel and above after the purge. Some were released from prison only to die in the war. Sounds abit like what happen to talented pilots in the hands of the Saddam regime.

Mi-8 kill was made using a Sidewinder shot not vulcan. Not too sure about the F-16A kill but i heard it was done by a very junior IAF pilot. I think the west tend to over underestimate the Iranian's capability to maintain/refurbish their planes. The already produce their own Cobra and F-5 through reverse engineering. Plus the political cover-up like the Grumman engineers sabotaging all the Iranian Tomcat thing. Don't you think they assign armed guards for such high value assets ?

Notice the prefix VAB. That means it is a Variable Attack Bomber....not just a pure bomber like the VB-6 Koenig Monster or a multirole attacker like the VA-3. Perhaps it can even carry a heavier freefall bombload than VA-3/VF-17. I guess it would have perform the same role as the Strike Valkyrie but relying more on long range missile barrages than guns.

Maybe the Japanese girls really want to get a gaijin boyfriend/companion. Some i spoke to mentioned their preference for gaijin especially caucasians over japanese men.

F/A-22 vs F-15E striker and long range strike. Whos the better striker? At the moment i am not exactly impressed by the Raptor's ability as a striker since any plane including the F-35 can deploy JDAMs. I don't think the weapons bay can hold the oversize PGMs. If stealth is no concern then i vote for the F-15E. F-2 vs whichever block F-16C is the most ground capable whos better at striking? Falcon-Zero has more payload, more range. However it doesn't have as much weaponry choice as the F-16 because it was meant for striking landing ships and close air support. Mitsubishi F-1 vs F-104S which is the better fighter? Definitely the F-104S. Better performance, radar and Sparrow missile. Since you mentioned the 104S version(not the ASA) then the gun is ommited. F-1 has very limited capability in all areas and underpowered too. Sea Vixen vs A-4. strike battle. Sea Vixen is a most peculiar looking aircraft, fugly in some ways too. The pilot seats offset to the left side of the nose, the radar operator on the right. I don't think its much of a striker, more of a night fighter/interceptor instead. No comparison here.

SDK That is an old pic when Boeing was still running its X-32. The production version was a very different looking aircraft. Notice that the mockup has the conventional configuration. This was the one in AFDS. Still fugly. DH So you got Farzad Bishop's book. Anything about Iranian using Russian missiles and engines on their F-14 ?

Dutch AF F-32 mockup

This illustration shows a completely different looking battroid without the shield. Head appears to be borrowed from another mecha.

You are right the VAB-2 is not related to the Nightmare. Looks like the RPG sites got me confuse for a bit there. The RPG site has a VAB-2 battroid illustration that seems a bit gundamy. http://unsd.macrossroleplay.org/vab-2.html emmm..Kawamori does really like the ray sharp flying wing designs. SB-10 Star Wing comes to mind.

The VAB-2 Series is the predecessor to the VF-17 armed with all missile armament.

DH I notice that the USAF never really use the triple Maverick launcher for the F-16. This means the Viper normally carry only 2 since the wing tanks are always carried.

When did this Raptor crash occur ?

EDIT: Flagon vs 104 I will go for those not answer by the other guys. Mirage IVP vs F-106 ? Are you kidding The IVP is a bomber and recon platform...lumbering. F-106 will prevail. vs the Mirage 2000 is a completely different thing as the 2000 was designed as a pure fighter. M2k has advantage of superior dogfight missiles, HOTAS, HUD and better cockpit visibility. At least the 106 has a m61 but lack of HUD and poor visibility does limit its chances in a knife fight. F-104 vs Su-15 Flagon The Su-15 inherits many features from the Su-9/11 Fishpot series, including wing/control config, engine and even radar/missile armament. Early versions had delta wings like the Su-11, later versions with cranked deltas. I guess the Flagon would have been an awesome interceptor but with a wide turn radius. Wing loading is definitely very high for this plane. As an interceptor only the S variant of the Starfighter betters it with Sparrow/Aspide. The Flagon is huge and carries more fuel than the Starfighter thus having longer range. In a dogfight the F-104 would probably win as the Flagon isn't much of a dogfighter though it could use AA-8 Aphids. F-105 vs Super Etendard SEtendard has a more modern avionic suite compared with the Thud but the former has much better raw performance. If i were the Thud i would BnZ vs the Setendard since the Thud doesn't retain energy as well as the french plane. As for strike the Thud is superior in many ways too. Its payload is probably 8 times more. The Etendard carries only 2 weapons plus tanks or 1 Missile plus 1 tank and 2 defence pods except for the shortest range missions. All in all i am hardly impressed by its capability as a striker. F-16A ADF vs A-4F My vote is for the Falcon. Better visibility, HOTAS, HUD and raw power. F-100 vs F-86 The F-100 is an improvement over the F-86 is every respect except handling. The F-86 is also agile as hell and F-100 is more of a fighter bomber. I suppose in a dogfight the F-86 can win the Hun is stupid enough to get into a slow turning although it will be harder to down the Hun with those small guns as you need many many more hits. 1 or 2 hits from the M39s will saw the F-86 in 1/2. F-106 vs MiG-21 As i said the 106 has not much in terms of dogfight weaponry except the gun. If you compare with early model 21s then it will be a draw..vs MF and beyond i buy the Fishbed.

But the Super Hornet is also a brand new aircraft with very little commonality with the Legacy Hornet. It would have cost much more to design the enlarge hornet than it would have to make a third generation Tomcat. The F-14 is already big and has the room for growth that the Hornet lacks. I guess this would have save cost since it only involves upgrading the airframe access panels, moving parts here and there. Pretty much like how MiG-29A became MiG-29M. If the Tomcat was allowed the engine and avionic upgrade that it deserves i don't see how it could have not met the multirole requirements like the Shortnet. Some of the F-14s didn't even have up to date EW gear during Desert Storm. And a well-equipped Tarps F-14 is still a better recon platform than the Shortnet with similar equipment. But i know you are going to bring up the UAV thing again. Look at the AF...no money to buy engine parts for the F-15 fleet but hav the resource to fund nonsense like the YAL-1 ABL and anti-missile defence shield.

I see dark clouds ahead. http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bb...;f=121;t=002011 Looks like the hobby is being killed by greedy corporations like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Even Ace Combat 5 and AFDS had to pay the licensing fees for using the names. What ever happen to free publicity ?

Shin Why don't you try nucleartiger's suggested forum...it seems they talk alot about diecast stuff over there.