Fred J. McCall wrote:
"Damo" wrote:
:"John Schilling" wrote:
: Likewise, if your idea is that it doesn't matter how easy an individual
: missile is to find and kill because you are going to saturate US/NATO
: style air defenses with numbers, you don't match it against the present
: standard of an F-15 with four each AMRAAMs and Sidewinders but against
: an F-22 packed to the limit with air-to-air Stingers; fourty-five stowed
: kills at 0.8 Pk per shot, if my math is correct.
:
:I was under the impression (mistaken?) that the F-22 can only carry 4
:air-to-air missiles, if it carries more it loses what stealth it had and you
:might as well send in F-15s??

I think you're both wrong.

1) When did Stinger get cleared for carriage in an F-22 (and in such
ridiculous quantities, too)? That would be merely insane, since the
Stinger isn't even an air-to-air weapon (and you certainly couldn't
jam 45 of them in anywhere and be able to shoot them).

2) The F-22 carries 8 AAM rounds internally in pure air to air trim:
6 AIM-120C in the main weapons bay and an AIM-9X in each side bay.

The F-22 isn't cleared for Stingers. John is talking about
a hypothetical but reasonable design extension.

Stinger is used in air to air mode, there's a separate product
version for it even (ATAS Block 2). It's used and qualified on
US Army helicopters.

There exist multiple rocket pods firing rockets with similar
body diameter to Stinger; modifying the pods to actually fire
stingers would be a minor modification. Building a new pod which
volumetrically filled the F-22 weapons bay, was extended out
for firing and then retracted back in, is not trivial but
not a particularly difficult project. I am taking John's
count of how many missiles would fit in such pods on faith;
he knows how to do math.

Similar retractable rocket pods, firing unguided rockets then
but operationally very similar, have been used in USAF interceptors
of the past.


-george william herbert