kiravuo@kampi.hut.fi (Timo Kiravuo) (06/23/89)
From: kiravuo@kampi.hut.fi (Timo Kiravuo) In article <7632@cbnews.ATT.COM> tzung@CS.UCLA.EDU writes: >Sweden JAS39 ??? single F404 crashed once The JAS Gripen is designed for the Scandinavian needs. It is small and designed to work on not too good runways. This really leads me to the subject. Finnish Air Forces today. Or rather the defence situation in air. We have a small airforce, restricted to 60 fighting planes at most. This was set at the peace conferences after the WWII. It has been decided that the role of the airforce is to keep air superiority. Ground support can be done at the spare time. This makes sense, considering the small size of the airforce. Since we try very hard to stay unpartial, we also like to equip our armed froces both from the east and the west. From the east wi have Mig 21 Bis -planes, which are getting old. From the west we have Saab Drakens, which are outdated, too. We also have British Hawk trainers. Then there are cargo planes, some transport helicopters, etc. usual stuff. Sidenote: some of our career officers have received training both in the west and the east, makes for interesting comparisons. In the next decade Finland has to buy a completely new set of fighters. From the east it will possibly be the new Mig 29. From the west there is more competition. Swedish Jas, seems like a good possibility, but it may not be ready in time. The US F-16 is unfit to our conditions. It is too much high tech, requiring too much ground crew and especially too good air fields. This needs a bit more explanation. We can expect to use the normal airfields oynly at the peace time. And it is very difficult to fit a carrier in the Baltic Sea. :-) Since we have paved highways all over the country, those will be used as airfields at the war time. This has been tested and it works. But this sets some requirements to the planes. For example with some Soviet planes it is possible to direct the air intake to the top of the wind at takeoff, to avoid debris. US planes are not designed for this kind of operations (according to my knowledge, might be wrong). So, at wartime our airforce shall go hiding in the bushes. And so shall the rest of the army, but that's another story. The most likely choice for the new plane from the west seems to be the new French Mirage (can't remember the model now). This will be seen in the future. -- Timo Kiravuo Helsinki University of Technology, Computing Center kiravuo@hut.fi kiravuo@fingate.bitnet sorvi::kiravuo work: 90-451 4328 home: 90-676 076