Dragon029
Posts: 76
Joined: 10/31/2015 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Tookatee That's poor logic to exclude those weapons, said weapons are still retained in large numbers across the country, on all aircraft carriers, and in other nations where they were exported/license to be produced. The aircraft can carry said munitions so I see no reason why that should be limited, as Skyhawk88 and I have said it simply allows for more options with the aircraft. I'm generally in favour of giving players / designers more options (I'm one of the guys that was salty about database editing being 'fixed' years back), but frankly, where do you stop? I also don't see how you can say that but also argue that having the ASRAAM excluded from US, etc F-35s makes sense. quote:
You are literally talking about entirely different weapons than the JDAM series of bombs (also I don't know if you've seen the F-35 in the database or even the sources on your chart, but it can and DOES equip the GBU-31 already which makes that whole statement invalid), those weapons have drastically different flight characteristics than JDAMs (of which are nearly identical to the LDBG variants of the Mk series of bombs.) Also it's the 21st century, ballistic bomb computers can be and are programmed with a wide variety of munitions. GBU-12s are just Mk82 bombs with a guidance kit, just like how GBU-38s are Mk82 bombs with a guidance kit. I also never said that the GBU-31 wasn't a weapon integrated, I was pointing out how different variants of the Mk82/83/84 bomb series are going to fall differently. And yes you're absolutely correct that ballistic bomb computers can be programmed with a wide variety of munitions, but not by pilots - they can't just key in drag coefficients, etc at a whim; these things have to be added to the jet's software by engineers, and that simply just hasn't happened because no F-35 operator has plans to use unguided bombs on the F-35. quote:
The exact same thing applies here, the F-35 is configured to release JDAMs (and therefore the normal Mk series of bombs) from it's external pylons in a safe manner. In fact, that line of reasoning is partly why I specifically stated in my original post to not include creating clones of the JDAM internal loadouts. It is configured to release JDAMs, but JDAMs have lift-generating strakes (at least when the tail is being actuated), additional parasitic drag, what I believe to be slightly larger tail fins (correct me if I'm wrong though), and something like 5% additional mass. Plain Mk-84s likely could be jerry rigged up and released, but I'm just not sure it'd be as accurate as (eg) an F-16 which has been specifically integrated it. Another thing to note too is that the only external bombs that have undergone separation testing is the GBU-12 / GBU-49. GBU-31s and GBU-32s have been carried externally for flight sciences testing, but not dropped. quote:
ORIGINAL: ARCNA442 This graphic posted by Dragon029 inspired me to look at the current F-35 database entries and I found several significant errors. Note that I only looked at the USA variants and not the foreign ones. IIRC those edits have already been put in the to-be-changed queue, but in case they haven't, I agree with those changes. Block 4 upgrades (that add weapons like the JSM and SDB-II) will be a bit iffy because they're now doing an iterative update process (where every 6 months a new software update is released, some of which will include weapon integrations), but if we wanted to pick a single date to represent "the" Block 4 F-35, 2023 would be best, as that's when Lot 15 jets are meant to be delivered, and Lot 15 is intended to be the first batch that includes upgraded sensors and avionics (a new DAS with apparently 5x the sensor resolution or roughly 2x the detection range performance, a new core processor, cockpit display, memory system, etc; the Advanced EOTS might also be incorporated at that time, increasing detection range via higher res sensors and the additional of additional colour TV and SWIR (in addition to MWIR) sensors).
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