macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod) (04/12/89)
From: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod) In article <5472@cbnews.ATT.COM> asulaima@udenva.cair.du.edu (SULAIMAN) writes: >... Normally the bombers will >get tagged heavily by CAP from CV but if you are in Murmansk or thereabouts >you just don't have that luxury as Sov MIGs start racking up F-14s on their >cockpits! Really? I thought that the Soviets employed a lot of Suhkoi interceptors behind the tripwire. Anyway, what sort of planes, and their capabilities, will US pilots face during: 1) A Warsaw Pact invasion via West Germany? 2) A NATO invasion of the USSR? I am reading a book about the Red Flag maneuvers at Nellis AFB, in which it is said that the F-4, F-14, F-15, F-16, and F-18 pilots train with F-5Es painted up in Warsaw pact colors, claiming that they closely approximate, in size and performance, the MiG-21. However, I saw a posting here suggesting that the MiG-21 is obsolete enough to be withdrawn from Warsaw Pact service. Where do we stand in terms of air superiority now? According to the book on Red Flag, each of the "teen" planes has some trump card, like the F-15's radar, or the F-16's 9G turn capability, but it's not clear who or what is king of the mountain. Then again, the Soviet planes seem (from my limited reading) more specialized in their mission profiles. Seems like our procurement procedures militate aginst specialized aircraft. Look what the put the poor old F-111 Aardvarks through - everything but washing the dishes and taking out the trash. BTW, the F-111 was the butt of the best computer programming joke I ever heard. It goes like this: the 'varks were the beneficiaries (?) of the first really smart onboard navigational computer. During its trials, it was installed on six F-111s, and they departed from someplace like Clark AFB. They enabled the computer and carried on. Everything went fine until the six flew over the equator, at which point they all went inverted as neat as you please. This was probably with Fortran - with ADA, they will probably turn inside out or something. MIchael Sloan MacLeod (amdahl!drivax!macleod)