The SAAF Forum

wolfman you are a wolf for sure

if there is a greater than 95% chance thata bullet will strike the radar target at any given moment; the computer fires the gun automatically.

Apparently,"... ... the really cool thing about the Gripen in a dogfight is its gun, the onboard computer takes over to fly the plane and aim the gun. Not exactly proven in combat yet, but seem to work wonders on drones. ...

I am more interested in WWII aircraft, statergy and tactics used than in modern individual aircraft performance.

So please correct me here.

An aircraft using its own radar gives its position away to the enemies passive counter measures. So unless backed up with a missile like the old Phoenix this radar reach can also be an own goal.

Or

I take it that one Gripen could light up its radar and data link to the others that have not and are a distance away, giving them the enemies postion etc. Which is basically what an AWACS does for the USAAF & NATO aircraft.

So does this J-10 have a data link as good as the JAS-39

Q. How can you compare F-16 and Su-30?

Ans. These aircraft can be compared in many ways. Su-30 MKI has powerful radar but it can be detected by the AEW&C systems and the F-16s will thus be aware of its presence. Apart from that both aircraft can carry latest weapon systems. Su-30 MKI has the capacity to carry heavy loads and more fuel but this can be countered with the help of AAR. In the same manner Chinese F-10A is also an excellent platform in countering this threat and can carry heavier loads than the F-16.

Yes, Wolfman
Theoretically that might be true, but remember, the aircraft parameters limit G-load to 9g. Most pilots are trained to withstand that, now-a-days, as most aircraft are limited to that. They do it with the help of their modern g-suites of course. I’m sure the flight control will stray with-in the flight parameters....

9g's is alot of force on the body, easy capable of blacking out a pilot with a G-suit. I heard from experienced pilots that have combat experience that 9g's in a centrifuge is very different to 9g's in a combat situation with a stressed pilot, were the pilot is using alot more oxygen then in normal situations, which puts more stress on the pilots body making a blackout very possible even on the best pilot with a G-suit, and remember every pilot has different tolerances.

wolfman can you listen to me for a moment. i think ceiling is of paramount importance. with a ceiling of 50000ft thats not enough to gurantee you that you are going to fly above all kinds of weather so in worst cases you forced to find your way around thereby losing the precious fuel.

also ceiling is important when you are chasing high flying fighters like the j-10 its better to be more or less on the same level than look up i m not sure if the beloved gripen has a look up look down radar.

The Mk 4 will involve both new software and hardware, the last primarily involving extra signal processing and high-frequency signal generation capacity.

It will replace the current Mk 3 configuration of the PS-05/A, that became available in 2005, along with the E18 edition of the Gripen operational flight programme (OFP) software. (Sweden now has the E18:9 version of the OFP, the Czech Republic E18:7 and Hungary E18:3).

The Mk 3, equipped with a new signal/data processor based on Mercury processor technology, already features certain SAR/GMTI/ GMTT capabilities as well as air-to-ground ranging and sea surface modes. For air-to-air, the Mk 3 has "full look-up look-down capability" plus multi-target track-while-scan, PTT and STT, short-range auto-acquisition and tracking and a beyond visual range (BVR) missile datalink capability for Raytheon AIM-120B (added as part of the E15 software in 2003) and MBDA Meteor air-to-air missiles. The radar targeting modes are also integrated with the Gripen's intra-flight datalink so that radar tracks are automatically shared with the other JAS 39 aircraft in the flight.

By 2008, an interim air-to-ground update is to be fielded as part of the new E19 software release. (The first Gripen to use E19 is actually the first South African aircraft, which already has E19 fitted and was shipped from Saab to South Africa on 16 June 2006). The interim radar update is aimed at better preparing the JAS 39C/D for providing air support to the Swedish-led Nordic Battlegroup - a 2,000-strong rapid reaction force to be on standby for a crisis response operation under the EU flag during the first half of 2008.

The Mk 4, which Branzell described as a "big step in the continued development of the PS-05/A", will be introduced as part of the next E20 software edition. The contract currently under negotiation is, for the time being, "just for the SwAF Gripen fleet" (how many aircraft will receive the upgrade package has yet to be decided) and not for the international Gripen users. "The Mk 4 radar is not in their current contracts; if the Czechs, Hungarians or South Africans want it their contracts will need to be modified," a senior Ericsson Microwave Systems executive told Jane's.

According to the company's future fighter radar roadmap, the Mk 4 is to be further upgraded to Mk 5 standard by 2012, when an active electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna (for which a source of transmit/receive modules has yet to be identified, with European and US alternatives being considered) is to replace the current mechanically scanned antenna.

"Our objective is to place the AESA antenna in front of the Mk 4 and to run the new system with upgraded software that is based on the experience we have been gathering in our NORA [Not Only Radar] technology demonstrator programme over the past few years."

One of these demonstrator programmes has focused on SAR/GMTI techniques, using a PS-05/A derivative flown in a container in the back of a SwAF C-130H Hercules. "Results have included geo-positioning of targets and geo-coding of SAR images," Branzell said.

The other demonstrator has concentrated on long-range detection and tracking of air targets in support of the future MBDA Meteor missile, he said. For this set-up, Ericsson Microwave Systems has been using an AESA antenna assembly that the Swedish company has acquired from Raytheon. The trials array comprises approximately 1,000 transmit/receive modules, Branzell said.

The Raytheon-supplied AESA was placed in front of a monopulse radar configuration, the combination being capable of beam agility and flexible beam forming, Branzell said. "We have used both wide beams and narrow beams, the latter for long-range detection and tracking. The SwAF has supported these trials by providing a bunch of Gripens to test the radar's multi-target tracking capabilities."

Further into the future (2015), the company envisions replacing the Mk 4's back-end with a new NORA radar system. This would be a full, multi-channel AESA system, of which the array can be subdivided into multiple sub-apertures capable of adaptive beam forming for jamming suppression and digital beam forming of multiple beams for multi-tasking.

"NORA has to be a multifunctional sensor," Branzell said. "Tactical requirements for it include ensuring dominant battlespace awareness; air target tracking and fire-control for BVR weapons; all-weather precision ground target capability; track identification through non-co-operative target recognition [NCTR]; low probability of intercept [LPI] through a low radar cross section and flexible energy management; and electronic warfare inclusive of offensive jamming."

By 2018, the next step would be to evolve the NORA sensor into a multifunction sensor that will combine active and passive radar, communications, electronic warfare and jamming. This future all-in-one sensor is currently known as EIRA for Ericsson Integrated RF Avionics - a designation that is likely to change however with the pending incorporation of the Gothenburg-based radar house into the Saab Group.

The Norrbotten wing of the Swedish air force has agreed to pay Bohmans Hönseri AB the sum of 6,100 kronor ($775) to compensate for the loss of the hens.

The hens were crushed to death in a panicked mêlée when the Jas Gripen fighter aircraft flew at an altitude of 50-100 metres above their coop at the farm in Jörn near Skellefteå in the far north of Sweden.

Farmer Åsa Karlsson, in her complaint to the armed forces, confirmed that the hens were scared out of their wits by the roar of the low flying fighter jets overhead. The brood ran towards a wall of their enclosure and 31 birds fell victim in the surge.

The sum was agreed between the parties based on a calculation that the hens had a further seven weeks to live and would have been expected to produce a harvest of 14 eggs per week.

i beg to differ wolfman. you are right most weather occurs at 36 000 ft thats why passenger jets are no longer troubled by weather like they used to but the possibility of weather occuring at higher tha 36 is not as little as you might think. weather maps before af447 crashed suggested there was huge activity at more than 50000 ft.

also the higher you go the more SAMs will find it harder to hit you. have you heard the case of an asian airforce which flew above an enemy country at very high altitude and all they could do was watch