"Kevin Brooks" wrote in message
Henry, how on earth can you be a big fan of the Super Bug, with all of its
shortcomings? You don't like the F/A-22, you don't like the F-35, you
ridicule the USAF in general...yet you think the Super Bug is the creme de
la creme? It'd take three tankers to keep the Bugs within radio range of the
F/A-22...

And the gent (mercifully plonked a while back) who took exception with the
bit about the E-8 being involved has obviously not read the standoff
distance that this *test* was conducted at--about 100 km for the E-8, which
gives you plenty of leeway to keep the GMTI birds away from the teeth of the
threat (and it was mentioned that the Global hawk could also perform this
kind of support).

Brooks

Your "fact(?)" based assumption that the E-8 (and other "support"
aircraft) will *always* remain safely ensconsed in airborne
sanctuaries is not borne out by recent history brooks:
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?...7&archive=true
To fly that many combat missions, pilots relied on Air Force tanker
aircraft to keep their planes juiced.

Air Force strike planner Col. Mace Carpenter said one of the war's
"real heroes" were the air tankers that kept fighters and bombers
fueled to penetrate deep into Iraq and drop ordnance.

Army units moved so fast that fighters were having problems going from
Saudi Arabia, where the tankers were, to south of Baghdad to destroy
the Iraqi forces. So commanders made the bold decision to move tankers
over Iraq to make sure the fighters could fuel up.

Many of the lumbering tanker aircraft were fired at by both artillery
and surface-to-air missiles. Carpenter said that commanders were
willing to risk a tanker and its crew to get the fighters to Baghdad
and protect the fast-moving ground forces.

Pilots flew vulnerable tanker aircraft with no radar-warning
equipment, chaff or flairs to evade missiles.

"These guys were gutsy," Carpenter said.

Commanders expected to lose at least one tanker, but none of them was
hit.

....Given the limited numbers of C4ISR aircraft that will be bought,
and the even fewer that will be available to be deployed in any given
AOR, their vulnerability may well make them a real albatross for a
commander instead of a real asset.