Lockheed Polecat.
There were two airframes. One was outside and wrapped at a LM facility. It's gone now.
US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
Lockheed Polecat.
There were two airframes. One was outside and wrapped at a LM facility. It's gone now.
Discussed over last weekend on the Breaking News thread - in summary, highly doubt its happening
I doubt it too. The production line has been mothballed. What would they do, sell some second hand USAF fighters? What about the other countries which manifested an interest at the time but didn't get any like Japan or Australia? Plus 50 fighters? That is about a third of what the USAF currently has total and I doubt they are all operational.
I know Trump would likely sign on something like that but it just doesn't make sense. If the US had the 6th generation fighter in production sure, but not like this. Sounds like an empty political gesture to ensure the US can sell the F-35 to the Gulf petrostates which otherwise might be tempted to buy Russian or Chinese 5th gen aircraft. Egypt already got tired of US sanctions and limitations on equipment and started buying Russian gear again. Turkey might be next. Had the US kept the F-22 production line open with foreign sales back then none of this would have happened. Back in the 1980s or was it 1990s when Saudi Arabia wanted a twin-engine fighter aircraft the French developed the Mirage 4000 to meet their specific requirements. The US torpedoed the deal by offering the F-15 to Saudi Arabia which meant the demise of the Mirage 4000. But this is not like that. A F-22 production line doesn't exist anymore.
I know Trump would likely sign on something like that but it just doesn't make sense. If the US had the 6th generation fighter in production sure, but not like this. Sounds like an empty political gesture to ensure the US can sell the F-35 to the Gulf petrostates which otherwise might be tempted to buy Russian or Chinese 5th gen aircraft. Egypt already got tired of US sanctions and limitations on equipment and started buying Russian gear again. Turkey might be next. Had the US kept the F-22 production line open with foreign sales back then none of this would have happened. Back in the 1980s or was it 1990s when Saudi Arabia wanted a twin-engine fighter aircraft the French developed the Mirage 4000 to meet their specific requirements. The US torpedoed the deal by offering the F-15 to Saudi Arabia which meant the demise of the Mirage 4000. But this is not like that. A F-22 production line doesn't exist anymore.
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It is. But it's a couple of decades late.
We know the Russians have Avangard so the warheads won't necessarily have ballistic trajectories.
The Chinese also have similar warheads like in the DF-17.
This is all a cat and mouse game that will only lead to increased military spending in the longer term.
It all started with the withdrawal of the US from the ABM Treaty.
Just look at this chart.
The next iteration of the missile, Block IIB, if it's made, is basically totally different from this missile and won't even use the same launch tubes.
We know the Russians have Avangard so the warheads won't necessarily have ballistic trajectories.
The Chinese also have similar warheads like in the DF-17.
This is all a cat and mouse game that will only lead to increased military spending in the longer term.
It all started with the withdrawal of the US from the ABM Treaty.
Just look at this chart.
The next iteration of the missile, Block IIB, if it's made, is basically totally different from this missile and won't even use the same launch tubes.
SM-3 was not designed for endo-atmospheric engagement and is therefore unsuitable against hypersonic gliders. But it's still an immensely relevant defense system and will remain so until adversaries transition all their BM warheads to HGVs.
What about the test environment?
I can conduct successful intercept an ICBM in 2 days if i you let me fire it. For this you don't need decades.
Without test environment data, i find this of little relevance considering the fact that any country with 100% confidence in it's BMD shield will opt for first strike.
Oh, so you are a qualified ICBM operator? Wow!
Can you share a list of missiles that you have intercepted in your career?