"Lyle" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 10:40:42 GMT, "Thomas Schoene"
wrote:

Henry J Cobb wrote:
What good would it do to carry a short range air to air missile in
such a way that it increases your radar return to the extent that the
enemy will now be able to engage your fighter beyond the range of
that missile?

Well, JSF will carry external bomb loads from time to time. If it's
already
hauling bombs externally, it makes sense to hang self-defense missiles
there
too. In theory, this will happen only after the enemy air defenses are
beaten down, but I'd really hate to be wrong.

I'm also curious how you reached your conclusion about detection vs
firing
ranges. I'm sure you have no detailed knowledge of JSF's radar
signature,
ASRAAM's effective range, or the detection ranges of enemy radars.

wouldnt the Aim-9x have a lower RCS then the Aim-120 anyway, so how
much increase to the planes overall RCS would a Sidewinder put on a
plane anyway.

A lot. Consider that they have been dillying around with how to cover joints
at fuselage openings to maintain the stealthy characteristics of the F-117,
B-2, etc. Recall the account from the head of the Skunk Works during the
F-117 development who noted that an incorrectly set fastener blew the RCS
out of of the steathy mode during an early test. *Anything* protruding
outside of the aircraft will tend to increase its RCS--they spend a great
deal of effort finetuning the exterior design to acheive a low RCS, and new
appendages would trash a lot of that effort. As to comparing it to the AIM
120, why? As long as the missiles are carried internally, what is the point?

And take into account by the time you get in range to
use the Aim-9/ASRAAM your stealth is meaningless cause everything is
visible/IR target tracking. JMO

At night? Approaching the target from the side or quarter, outside of any IR
seeker coverage (but inside the coverage of the radars of his supporting
AWACS or ground-based systems)? And do all frontline fighters have a good
IRST? Nope. Or if you are carrying the AIM-9 as a self-defense only measure,
and your real mission is to strike the airfield that the defending aircraft
is loitering about? How about the fact that your "meaningless" stealth may
still be effective against shorter wavelength systems (like a weapons
guidance package)--you still want to toss that out the window?

Brooks