RE: Donald Trump Thinks that the F-35 is Invisible to the Naked Eye...
November 18, 2018 at 11:13 pm
(This post was last modified: November 18, 2018 at 11:22 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(November 18, 2018 at 1:51 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I wonder when the last time was that two supersonic jets engaged in an actual "dogfight?"
Actually, supersonic fighter jets rarely engage eachother at supersonic speeds. Most jets need afterburners to go supersonic, afterburners will go through a fighter’s entire fuel supply in a few minutes, and acts as magnet for any heat seeking missiles for miles around.
Also When fighters do engage eachother, rules of engagement usually do not allow them to shoot missiles at each other from beyond visual range for the fear of friendly fire. Also the dynamics of real air combat is such that the practical range at which an air-to-air missile can actually hit an maneuvering enemy fight who doesn’t wish to be hit is far, far shorter than the straight line range proudly proclaimed in missile vendor’s Brouchures. So in actually practice, when supersonic fighters tangle, the fights are almost always subsonic, and devolve quickly into visual range dog fights.
One other dirty secret, many fighters that are allegedly Mach 2 supersonic, can’t ever come close to match 2 while carrying any missiles. So Mach 2 is only flying unarmed while running away or serving as targets or live bait.
