Fred J. McCall wrote:
(George William Herbert) wrote:
: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.

Against other helicopters. An F-22 is just a bit of overkill for
hunting helicopters.

The thread was specifically on, how does the US respond
intelligently to the swarm of a tenth of a million cheap
cruise missiles fired by the Swami of Elbonia in response
to the 1st Armored, 1st Cav, 1st Inf, 3rd Inf, 7th Inf,
103rd Airmobile Armored, and a host of other units
swarming across his border.

The intelligent response is, of course, that the USAF
on hearing of this threat fits tens of Stingers in
pods to all the fighters they have available;
in twenty years, that will be F-22s and F-35s.
And lasers, no doubt. But lots of Stingers.

There aren't enough helicopters in the world,
probably, to justify fitting that many Stingers
to a F-22 or F-35, though I wouldn't say it would
*never* come to pass.


-george william herbert