|
mlmp08 posted:THAAD does its first exercise to Israel. Seems kinda wasteful to be shooting million dollar missiles at $5 "terror" kites.
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 09:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 07:11 |
|
|
https://thenewsrep.com/114852/reports-allege-us-deployed-4-retired-f-117-nighthawks-to-syria-and-iraq-in-2017/ Was there ever any truth the the Nighthawks over Syria?
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 12:14
|
|
|
Vahakyla posted:https://thenewsrep.com/114852/reports-allege-us-deployed-4-retired-f-117-nighthawks-to-syria-and-iraq-in-2017/ The only reason I would imagine using an F-117 over an F-22 is flying them over potentially hostile airspace to collect MASINT using an old platform so as to not provide much useful information in return. Syrian radar operators likely wouldn't have the same discipline as Russians (even though Syria hasn't shot down any 777s yet).
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 12:21
|
|
|
BadOptics posted:Seems kinda wasteful to be shooting million dollar missiles at $5 "terror" kites. You're thinking of iron dome
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 12:37
|
|
|
The cost of missile just has to be less than the protected object/human.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 12:45
|
|
|
Vahakyla posted:The cost of missile just has to be less than the protected object/human.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 13:16
|
|
|
F-117s seems like it would be too much of a hassle to dig out of mothball for something like that. They required controlled environment hangars and all that because they were so maintenance intensive. Do they even still have that many staff and crew for them? Seems like floating a B-2 over would be simpler.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 13:17
|
|
|
It would be totally bananas for them to use a system retired for a good decade or so when we have current planes that do everything better.
Alaan fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Mar 6, 2019 |
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 13:47
|
|
|
The Nighthawks are retired, but they aren’t retired. It isn’t that uncommon to see them zipping near NTTR or Star Wars Canyon.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 13:51
|
|
|
What if they're being used as cover for another program?
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 13:57
|
|
|
There's a big difference between doing testbed work and a combat deployment of a full flight to foreign bases.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:01
|
|
|
I have zero qualifications to have any opinion on the matter, but my guess is there's about a 85% chance the F-117 is just totally made up either intentionally as cover/obfuscation or as someone bullshitting/joking around, a 13% percent chance it's a misunderstanding, and a 2% chance they actually combat deployed.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:14
|
|
|
glynnenstein posted:I have zero qualifications to have any opinion on the matter, but my guess is there's about a 85% chance the F-117 is just totally made up either intentionally as cover/obfuscation or as someone bullshitting/joking around, a 13% percent chance it's a misunderstanding, and a 2% chance they actually combat deployed. They combat-deployed enough to get shot down in Serbia. Because lol, US technology is invincible so why even care about basic opsec it's not like primitive Soviet-sourced missiles can possibly do any damage to the invisible flying triangle, let's just fly in broad daylight without escort on the exact same path for several days in a row.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:18
|
|
|
Bulgaroctonus posted:Is there any equivalent to Command and Control from the Soviet side of things? Not sure about the Sovietvside, but the Secret State by Peter Hennessey covers the British side of things.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:19
|
|
|
Cat Mattress posted:They combat-deployed enough to get shot down in Serbia. Yeah, I mean the alleged 2017 deployment in Syria.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:21
|
|
|
BIG HEADLINE posted:The only reason I would imagine using an F-117 over an F-22 is flying them over potentially hostile airspace to collect MASINT using an old platform so as to not provide much useful information in return. Syrian radar operators likely wouldn't have the same discipline as Russians (even though Syria hasn't shot down any 777s yet). Yeah I think I'm going to agree with this one. The F-22 and F-35 are more stealthy by a decent margin than the F/A-117. It has to be doing some type of data gathering. Maybe seeing how the RAM is holding up on the systems? This is weird though. But probably no more weird than taking the SR-71 out of retirement for a few years.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:24
|
|
|
Cat Mattress posted:They combat-deployed enough to get shot down in Serbia. Yep, the high level of stupid on this one should have gotten people court martial-ed at the very least.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:24
|
|
|
BadOptics posted:Seems kinda wasteful to be shooting million dollar missiles at $5 "terror" kites. They aren't. (Not this one, anyway.) The "HA" in THAAD is high altitude. Couldn't shoot down something that low even if you wanted.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:30
|
|
|
EvilMerlin posted:Maybe seeing how the RAM is holding up on the systems? Why care about testing an obsolete RAM formulation on an obsolete airframe in an adversarial environment where the test feedback is 'did we get a missile shot at us or not?'
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:34
|
|
|
darnon posted:Why care about testing an obsolete RAM formulation on an obsolete airframe in an adversarial environment where the test feedback is 'did we get a missile shot at us or not?' Who knows.... I'm just shooting out guesses. The F/A-117 is using stealth technologies from the 1970's. I have no clue why they would bring these back into service. A lot has changed in comms and avionics since they were "retired" in 2008. I do have to admit the Seahawk (proposed Navy version of the 117) was drat cool looking https://tacairnet.com/2013/12/29/f-117n-seahawk/ 
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:39
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:52
|
|
|
I know right??? That thing is sexy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 16:06
|
|
|
Kebbins posted:Just got back from seeing Blackbird #30 in Tucson. Did some other dorky cold war stuff and I gotta say the Titan Missile Museum has one of the coolest, most unique, and most thoughtful souvenirs I've ever seen at a museum gift shop. That looks identical to one of the elevator service keys I have on my keyring at work. It would not surprise me in the least if they are literally the same bitting.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 16:07
|
|
|
BadOptics posted:Seems kinda wasteful to be shooting million dollar missiles at $5 "terror" kites. THAAD can only target ballistic missiles. Patriot is what you want to use when you need to shoot multi million dollar interceptors at low dollar targets.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 16:42
|
|
|
Thats mostly just Saudi Arabia now too, Israel put together Iron Dome so it’s only 5 figures per $8 mortar
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 17:36
|
|
|
Not buying the Syria story. I have no doubt they're still flying in the NTTR and whatever that range to the west is called...too much evidence. But actually deploying a handful? Again, what's the point? The F-117 doesn't have collection systems so data gathering becomes rather complicated, involving a specific constellation of multiple aircraft across the area. Not something to be undertaken lightly, but drat that'd be fun to plan.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 18:03
|
|
|
I still buy into the dumb rumor that they’ve been turned into stealthy cruise missiles or something
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 18:11
|
|
|
On the other hand they did deploy those NASA canberras for some bizarre reason.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 18:16
|
|
|
hobbesmaster posted:On the other hand they did deploy those NASA canberras for some bizarre reason. Comms packages. Putting a big ole, high endurance, high altitude aircraft up in the air for comms relays cam be effective. The WB-57 was only one of several aerial platforms sharing that comms mission.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 18:20
|
|
|
Terrible Robot posted:That looks identical to one of the elevator service keys I have on my keyring at work. Yeah it's also entirely possible that the original key mechanism was removed and replaced with something more generic from Ace Hardware during the deactivation of the silo. But I'm gonna pretend it's the real deal 
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 19:21
|
|
|
The keys don’t really matter though right, it’s the codes that do?
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 19:22
|
|
|
hobbesmaster posted:The keys don’t really matter though right, it’s the codes that do?
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 19:36
|
|
|
Rent-A-Cop posted:Those are from the time period when the code was apparently 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0. So I would not be at all surprised if the keys were nothing special. I mean the codes that are sent in to program the targets. The 000000 thing was something you punched in to get to the real code entry. That’s why it was set to a trivial code - you had to enter it to get to the real password. It’s like freaking out that you knew that a valid username is “root” while the password is a x.509 cert that couldn’t be guessed before the heat death of the universe.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 19:41
|
|
|
IIRC one condition of the F-117's retirement in 2008 was that the aircraft had to be maintained in a flyable state in case they were needed, which involves taking them out and flying them around every now and then to keep all the internal systems cycled and I gather it has something to do with keeping composite material from getting brittle or something. Only in like 2016 did they actually start actually-retiring the aircraft at a rate of a few aircraft per year, so it's likely those "maintenance flights" are continuing. Now considering how paranoid the Russians are, it's quite likely they staged that photo to gently caress with them and the Russians now think the entire F-117 fleet is still fully operational and hidden inside Patriot launcher boxes in Poland.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 21:39
|
|
|
Captain von Trapp posted:They aren't. (Not this one, anyway.) The "HA" in THAAD is high altitude. Couldn't shoot down something that low even if you wanted. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 22:24
|
|
|
hobbesmaster posted:On the other hand they did deploy those NASA canberras for some bizarre reason. Speaking of... https://www.click2houston.com/news/nasa-plane-makes-hard-landing-at-ellington-field-airport-due-to-gear-issues Looks like one had a gear failure.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 22:28
|
|
|
BadOptics posted:Seems kinda wasteful to be shooting million dollar missiles at $5 "terror" kites. That's still orders of magnitude more economical than most nations, which spend billions on militaries, yet don't even go to wars. Use it or lose it. I don't think a missile that has spent 30 years in storage has much of a resale value.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 23:25
|
|
|
mlmp08 posted:Comms packages. Putting a big ole, high endurance, high altitude aircraft up in the air for comms relays cam be effective. The WB-57 was only one of several aerial platforms sharing that comms mission. "comms packages" You forgot the quotes. Syria had/has lots and lots of modern Russian radar systems scattered around. Seems like an ideal data collection opportunity.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 23:27
|
|
|
I really don't know what I'm talking about, but this points out that if you need to drop a 2000lb bomb from a stealth platform, your options are a B-2 or a re-commissioned -117. And if the thing you're dropping a 2000lb bomb onto is moving and require an LGB, your only option is the -117 (or you can try your luck with a new JDAM and hope its AI figures out the moving target) Although I can't think what moving target would require a 2000lb bomb instead of a 1000lb one. Maybe ISIS had a few Maus tanks or something?
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 23:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 07:11 |
|
|
Murgos posted:"comms packages" If it was flying collection packages, and people here have knowledge of it. They probably wouldn't be writing about it here.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2019 00:04
|
|