Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

F-22 in production ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Air Force by John Rossino) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady Is the old dichotomy between fighter jets and bombers becoming obsolete in air forces across the world? Yes, according to a new study, which argues small and highly maneuverable air-to-air combat planes may indeed be on their slow way out to be replaced by a new multi-role, stealthy, long-range aircraft the size of a bomber. Yesterday, Breaking Defense reported on a new provocative paper, “Trends in Air-to-Air Combat – Implications for Future Air Superiority,” which analyzed “over 1,450 air-to-air victories” in the last 50 years across the globe. The report concluded that new technology “has fundamentally transformed the nature of air combat.” “Aircraft performance attributes essential for success in air-to-air combat during the gun and early missile eras such as high speed, good acceleration, and maneuverability ar

F-35 in wind tunnel tests ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz-Stefan Gady The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not receive the software package required to operate the Pentagon’s top close-air support bomb until 2022, according to military.com. The article also stated that the JSF office already had discovered earlier that the precision-guided air-dropped Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) does not fit onto Joint Strike Fighter Marine Corps variant without modifications to the aircraft’s weapons bay. Yet the Department of Defense will wait until the F-35 B (the Marine Corps variant of the F-35) reaches initial operability before modifying the F-35’s armament bay, since the weapon will be useless without the right software package. The various systems of the plane require more than 10 billion individual lines of code, all of which are broken down by the developers into individual blocks numbered 1 to 4, then further subdivided into

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20131102/DEFREG02/311020005/USAF-Pilots-Develop-F-22-Rapid-Deployment

As many may not be aware, one of my interests is strategic and defense affairs. I am specially interested in combat planes. My interests were kindled at an early age when my father first bought for me The Encyclopedia of Combat Planes from one of his tours. My interests were further enhanced by the Wings program which had complete history shown on Discovery channel. Here i am trying to make a list of my most favorite aircrafts. When one talks about combat planes, one can never ignore the contributions made by the Americans and the Russians. They are the world leaders in Aeronautics. While the Americans concentrated more on the aesthetic aspect of the plane, it was all about getting the job done for the Russians. The Russian planes were rugged and tough. The Americans concentrated more on making high end and high tech planes. I have curtailed my countdown to planes that entered services after the 1950's. It is done to limit the planes that I can deal. In the first part, I am deal