{"id":189275,"date":"2010-04-24T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T00:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/04\/24\/usaf-decides-to-shoot-self-in-foot\/"},"modified":"2010-04-24T19:02:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T00:02:00","slug":"usaf-decides-to-shoot-self-in-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/04\/24\/usaf-decides-to-shoot-self-in-foot\/","title":{"rendered":"USAF Decides to Shoot Self in Foot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Because of delays in the F-35 program, there will be a shortfall in fighter strength for the USAF over the next few decades, so they are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/story.php?i=4566507&amp;c=AIR&amp;s=TOP\">looking at service-life extensions for existing F-15s and F-16s<\/a>, and they have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSN3015665320100330?type=marketsNews\">flatly ruled out any purchase of new build legacy fighters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The idea here is that if they buy them, Congress might be tempted to cancel their white elephant.<\/p>\n<p>BTW, speaking of white elephants, it not looks like the USAF will have to have its other white elephant, the F-22 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aviationweek.com\/aw\/blogs\/defense\/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&amp;plckScript=blogScript&amp;plckElementId=blogDest&amp;plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&amp;plckPostId=Blog%3A27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3A39df4196-72dd-4601-b2ec-7784bff0ffc6\">will have to be escorted by F-15Cs upgraded with AESA radar, since the F-15&#8217;s larger antenna size allows for greater jamming capability<\/a>.  Basically, bigger antenna means more AESA modules which means more power and more range, and the AESA functions as a jammer.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the F-15, &#8220;have the persistence [because of larger fuel loads] to stay there while the [stealthy fighters] are conducting their LO attack&#8221;.  Note here that the F-15C is about \u2153 smaller than the F-22A, but apparently out-ranges, or at least out-lasts, it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because of delays in the F-35 program, there will be a shortfall in fighter strength for the USAF over the next few decades, so they are looking at service-life extensions for existing F-15s and F-16s, and they have flatly ruled out any purchase of new build legacy fighters. The idea here is that if they &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1006,1025],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-military","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}