Author Topic: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...  (Read 1192736 times)

Offline Volkodav

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #525 on: April 04, 2014, 06:32:33 PM »
USMC or South Korean?

Offline LemonJello

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #526 on: April 04, 2014, 10:13:56 PM »
I have to admit, my stomach got a little queasy and I swear I could smell engine exhaust just looking at those pictures of the tuna boats coming ashore.  Nothing like a little nausea to make a Marine eager to charge into a beach assault when the ramp goes down...

Offline Kerick

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #527 on: April 05, 2014, 01:18:23 AM »
The local population must just love it when this display is going on. I bet the base gets about a million calls!

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #528 on: April 05, 2014, 04:09:39 AM »
USMC or South Korean?

Both - it is a photo from U.S.-South Korea joint landing operation drills in Pohang March 31, 2014.  The "Donut" shaped explosions are part of the smokescreen,  they look cool never-the-less.
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Offline PR19_Kit

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #529 on: April 05, 2014, 07:12:45 AM »
Odd that they ALL blew smoke rings at exactly the same time...........
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Offline Kerick

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #530 on: April 05, 2014, 10:02:54 AM »
Odd that they ALL blew smoke rings at exactly the same time...........
I was thinking the same thing.....

Offline Volkodav

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #531 on: April 05, 2014, 11:09:19 AM »
I have to admit, my stomach got a little queasy and I swear I could smell engine exhaust just looking at those pictures of the tuna boats coming ashore.  Nothing like a little nausea to make a Marine eager to charge into a beach assault when the ramp goes down...

I believe it was one of the design requirements to ensure the marines were very keen to debus, no matter what they were facing.

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #532 on: April 06, 2014, 02:32:56 AM »
Odd that they ALL blew smoke rings at exactly the same time...........

Not really...if they were all fired at the same time.
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Offline taiidantomcat

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #533 on: April 07, 2014, 11:23:30 PM »
Odd that they ALL blew smoke rings at exactly the same time...........

Not really...if they were all fired at the same time.

They all turn into the beach at the same time as well... Radios are awesome (when they work)  ;D
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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #534 on: April 08, 2014, 03:44:43 AM »
A photo I found just couple days ago... In front of MiG-21F-13 is 1968 Miss Yugoslavia and also the World's Miss Photogenic. Not bad for the communist country in those days, huh!?
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Offline The Big Gimper

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« Last Edit: April 08, 2014, 05:52:05 PM by The Big Gimper »
Work in progress ::

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Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #536 on: April 12, 2014, 05:14:05 AM »
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #537 on: April 13, 2014, 07:23:23 AM »
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline kengeorge

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #538 on: April 14, 2014, 03:05:56 AM »

Offline Diamondback

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #539 on: April 14, 2014, 03:07:26 AM »
Sniper-XR on the right, possibly ACMI instrumentation pod to port.

Offline kengeorge

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #540 on: April 14, 2014, 06:09:50 AM »
The picture piqued my curiosity, as its the first B-52H I've seen with extra wing pylons. Wikipedia says the Sniper pod weighs in at 440lb (199kg).
So what could be the capacity of those pylons & what else would fit, AMRAAM's maybe? (335lb for an AIM-120) AAM armed BUFFs?

Ken

Offline Diamondback

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #541 on: April 14, 2014, 06:27:26 AM »
Doesn't have the interface for AMRAAM (and no air-attack-capable radar... a deficiency easily rectified if the cheap stupid bastards in the Pentagon and Crapitol would quit sucking their turds and get a clue) but ISTR that BUFFs HAVE captive-carried Sidewinder training rounds in exercises before.

While I've never seen an exact number,I would suspect those pylons can handle far more than they've ever been seen doing, if the electronic interfaces were upgraded. (Only the starboard is wired for sensor pods, for one.)

Offline Acree

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #542 on: April 14, 2014, 06:53:35 AM »
Those pylons were originally designed for AN/ALE-25 forward-firing chaff dispenser rocket pods. Each pod was about 13 feet long and weighed about 1100 pounds. They contained 20 Tracor AN/ADR-8 2.5-inch folding fin chaff rockets that could be fired either manually or automatically by the AN/ASG-21 fire control system]. For many years they have been used only occasionally to carry ACMI pods (Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation).  ACMI pods are similar in size and shape to AIM-9 without fins.  Certainly weight-wise they are capable of hauling AIM-9, AIM-120, or just about whatever you want (within reason).  As I retired from BUFFs almost 20 years ago, and I have not kept up with updates, so anything is possible currently. 

Chuck

Offline Diamondback

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #543 on: April 14, 2014, 07:03:10 AM »
So a Triple Rail Adapter (DRA, but stick a third rail on the bottom) for AAM's or a combined LAU-115C with shoulder-rails top for AMRAAM and modified BRU-55 bottom for 500# JDAM or SDB isn't out of the question... we'd just need to find somewhere else to stick the targeting pod, or integrate it in place of one of the LLLTV turrets on the chin for the "ball" and stuff the guts from the "tube" inside the skin.

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #544 on: April 14, 2014, 04:14:37 PM »
and no air-attack-capable radar... a deficiency easily rectified if the cheap stupid bastards in the Pentagon and Crapitol would quit sucking their turds and get a clue

So we are a fan of Dale Brown are we…what a pity the real world works differently and people have to do cost benefit analysis of upgrade/acquisition proposals and have other conflicting priorities than upgrading a 50+yr old airframes with equipment that it might just possibly use once in a million years….

Oh and by the way tone it down a bit would you. The regular 'tough talk' is getting somewhat tiring.
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Offline Silver Fox

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #545 on: April 15, 2014, 10:30:20 AM »
Air-to-air capability would most likely come as the side-effect of a radar replacement. By side-effect, I mean a radar that offered tactical advantages in the BUFF's normal role... but the software of the radar offered other capabilities.

Of course, it's not just the radar; you have to trial flight the weapons config, do ejection tests, launch tests, verify the flight envelope with captive carriage, test missile exhaust gas impinging on the turbine engines, reprogram the weapons computers, train crews and finally reach IOC.

To do on an airframe that is in a "let's keep it as long as we can" phase makes no sense. If the USAF committed to maintaining BUFF's until 2050 with a major upgrade... then things get interesting. I doubt we would see an AAM capability unless the world situation changed drastically. A "latent" capability perhaps, but a real honest-to-God capability... big doubts.

Interesting that the pylons are still in use though. They could see use with some of the small, low collateral damage, missiles now being fielded. That would give the BUFF a flexible response capability to pop-up targets.

Offline Diamondback

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #546 on: April 15, 2014, 11:23:33 AM »
Baseline, seems like (again, with some rewiring and finding somewhere else to stick the targeting system) you could stick a strongback for four SDB's there... I don't know about an Official Rated Limit, but it seems to me that the wing should be good for a revised pylon to take two such strongbacks, possibly four in a two-by-two layout if replaced with a longer pylon.

Not sure about Hellfire/Brimstone or APKWS or DAGR, given that by the time they went into terminal approach from launch at BUFF altitude assuming an Iraq/Afghanistan mission profile they'd be well into unpowered glide--then again, that altitude would mean extra glide range... the problem is getting outside reach of any onboard designator unless someone on the ground or in a FAC gives a "buddy lase".

For the record... I don't know if it has any bearing here, but when I was putting together plans for a Prowler WHIF the first thing on the wish-list for the crewdogs I talked to when I asked about "blank-check, your only limit for upgrades is structural strength and available technology, what would you want added?" was "give us some means to SHOOT BACK"--ditto a lot of the then-current and former B-52 crewdogs I interviewed in the prep phase on THAT research project. I'm not proposing per se to load up a BUFF as a "missile truck" here, just to add some options when trouble comes to THEM since we can't assume that every war will see the US enjoying the luxury of absolute air dominance like we have in the Desert Storm-to-now timeframe. With the Tomahawk being marked for retirement and no replacement known to be waiting in the wings that removes the "Massive Cruise Missile Laydown Wasting Enemy AF on Ground like the IJNAF vs Brereton in 1941" card from play...

Offline jcf

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #547 on: April 15, 2014, 12:35:14 PM »
A forward firing, 'Look Ma, I'm a fighter plane' application just seems silly for what would be a defensive
capability. More logical to resurrect sommat like Bushfire.

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Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #548 on: April 15, 2014, 01:05:17 PM »
A forward firing, 'Look Ma, I'm a fighter plane' application just seems silly for what would be a defensive capability. More logical to resurrect sommat like Bushfire.
I bet that would have been one heck of a floor show for anyone watching from the rear quarters when they touched off one of those things in flight :)
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Offline Volkodav

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Re: Just some cool photos...nothing more, nothing less...
« Reply #549 on: April 15, 2014, 06:36:54 PM »
Wasn't the A-12 intended to carry AMRAAM for self defence / self escort?  It makes sense that the future USAF bomber have AIM-9X / ASRAAM / AMRAAM / Meteor carriage LO and ESM protect it from most threats, missiles from the rest.