Re: EF-22 Spark Raptor

On Sep 16, 9:36 am, Jeb in Richmond <jeb.h...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'd fill the Sidewinder bays with clip-in side-looking AESA modules
instead; more room for power and processing modules, and if the
engineers could figure out how to bulge them without upping the
observability profile, you could get even closer to 360-deg coverage
on the horizontal plane and below. You could even build a module for
the ventral bay that might incorporate cameras for a recce mission; it
wouldn't be a perfect Blackbird replacement but it could do tac recon
a whole lot faster than any UAV.

Tac recon is looking more and more like a UAV mission.

The big unsolved problem is the SAM hunter, which requires a jammer
and a weasel.

At the moment the team for this is Growler and Super Hornet, but
they're way not stealthy and the ALQ-99 is getting outdated.

The Navy swears that the NGJ will be carried by the JSF, but it
doesn't have the crew or the electrical power for the mission. (My
current image of this has the F-35B engine shaft sticking into an
electric generator in the "fan" bay.)

So why not make a EF-35 along the lines of the F-15E evolution?

Take the F-35, give it a second F-135 in a side by side configuration
and extend the cockpit for a WSO. Enlarge the wing into a full delta
with wingtip stabilizers that have AESA jammers built into them with a
rear AESA between the engines for 360 degree jamming. Expand the
weapon bays so they can each carry a BLU-113 or an AARGM in addition
to an AMRAAM or six AMRAAMs (total) for an air to air mission.

Supercruise, long range (from the huge wet wing), bunker buster and
SAM hunter all in one platform. If the wings fold then it can be a
multirole carrier aircraft.

-HJC
.

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