Iran unveils new indigenous stealth fighter “Qaher 313″
theaviationist.com
theaviationist.com
http://i47.tinypic.com/24zxgsw.jpg
The avionics seem to be what you would get in a Cessna or other small plane. The airspeed indicator marks the never exceed speed at 260kts.
Based on the interior picture it also looks like the fuselage is made out of molded chopped strand mat fiberglass, the same type of material you'd find in the hull of a boat rather than an aircraft.
Yes.
How about Infrared Telescopes operating above the atmosphere? Right now, all fighter aircraft need to burn liquid fuels to extract energy in the form of rapid thermal expansion of gasses, which spew out the back or which operate turbines to run fans.
Large IR telescopes could be used to spot IR sources moving rapidly against the background, which could be localized and targeted by hypervelocity missiles. Stealth planes have a very reduced radar cross section, perhaps the size of a bird, but if you know exactly where the plane is, a radar guided missile could be made to home in on even a bird-sized return in the immediate vicinity.
Such telescopes could be deployed on suborbital rocket planes that can overfly the area on a moment's notice. They could also be placed on circling high altitude drones.
I'd bet that someone at DARPA has already gone through this thought process, and a program to disrupt 5th generation fighters already begun. (Not necessarily with this idea, though.)
* The IR part would be vulnerable to countermeasures ( flares etc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CH-46_Sea_Knight;_Flares.j... )
* The communication between the telescope and missile would be vulnerable to jamming.
* The communication between the telescope and missile would have to be very fast to make the missile catch up to fast manuring jets.
* If you IR telescopes would be space based they would be more expensive then jets, meaning you probably want have enough of them.
* All high altitude and space based weapon system are very vulnerable to a nuclear weapons. When a nuclear weapons is detonated in low earth orbit there are almost no atmospheric pressure to compress the explosion and little gravity to lower it. Instead the gravity will bend the explosion around the earth, radiating near earth space and high altitudes. Because of this just a single nuclear devise can take out must the world satellites and high altitude airplanes. (This is one of the reason last resort type nuclear weapons don't uses GPS/GLONASS/Galileo satellite navigation. Satellite navigation is amused to be destroyed early in a nuclear war). While a full nuclear war is not very likely, detonating a single nuclear devise like this maybe be more acceptable if attacked.
Fighter jets on the other hand is a proven and efficient weapon against other jets.
- The IR part would be vulnerable to countermeasures
- The communication...would be vulnerable to jamming.
- The communication...would have to be very fast
- IR telescopes would be ... more expensive than jets
- ...space based weapon system are very vulnerable to a nuclear weapons.
Fighter jets on the other hand are a proven
and efficient weapon against other jets.
- Line-of-sight communication by lasers.
I would turn and pull up so the missile must chase me, then deploy my military grade smoke generator :) ( edit: here I am: http://www.dontgivvafuq.com/misc/pics/nam/uh1/uh-1_smokescre... )
I would turn and pull up so the missile must chase me
Also, if the incoming airplanes are on a stealth strike mission, their cover has already been blown.
Lasers make missiles unnecessary, counter measures impossible and the only hope is to slip through unnoticed.
But working common lasers make almost every area of military activity now a totally different game.
The SA-3/S-125 Neva soviet surface-to-air missile system are rumored to have something that resembles such a radar. The Yugoslavia army used one to shoot down an Americana first generation stealth fighter in 1999[1]. It may have been the radar, but there are also reports that the bomb-bay doors was opened, raising its radar signature.
High frequency radar are also very vulnerable to clodering. The version that is known to exist can only be used if the plane is flying above the missile battery. If the radar is illuminating the plane in such a way that there is a mountain or other terrain behind it, there will be to much noise to make out the plane. But breakthrough in digital computer based system is expected to change this in the future.
1. Its a model only, the video says so itself.
2. If Iran makes a airplane, no need to think it will use it on west automatically. This news just happen to come at when both sides have tensions. Peace people!
3. If you look at it from a technological perspective, making such an airplane, despite the international embargoes, is a big feat.
The odd shape would be really interesting to analyse for its aerodynamics. I hope someone can do a detailed analysis.
4. Imagine, if you are a country, would you really post pics of a new 'advanced' jet you just made? you wouldn't and they didn't. This is a rather diplomatic approach to make us reflect, how ready are we to jump the horse. But again, this does not prove in anyway that Iran's nuclear intention is peaceful or not.
Lets not have another war in our lifetime anytime soon please. Live and let live!
The video says "all stages of design and build .. are complete".
1. the one shown up and close in pics (model) 2. the real plane flying for few seconds and only doing 1 maneuver (flip)
This hardly worrisome considering we're already working on third generation stealth technology. We also have the best pilots in the world, and technology that makes this plane look like a fourth year engineering student project.
By what measure?
(I don't know if that's true or not, just that's what I would gather as the source of such a statement)
Right now the U.S. has the institutional knowledge within the military, the industrial base to build craft, repair those craft, make custom tools/mods to those craft, well-trained and very experienced pilots, well-trained and very experienced aircrew, aircraft maintenance techs, etc.
The latter means that the U.S. has a ready base of available personnel to use as expert instructors, as policy makers (in and out of the military), to feed back into the industrial base, etc.
So it's not at all that other countries can't do it, but the investment needed to do so efficiently is just so massive nowadays.
This is a great talk about how US pilots have beat the vectored thrust SU-30 with non vectored-thrust F-15s with superior piloting:
1. The "good" corruption. Think US congress pork barrel politics. It makes doing the right and progressive thing more expensive but it does not prevent it happening. So we grow richer.
2. The "bad" corruption. The tribal politics of mid-african nations is a well studied affair (building roads to one part of a country and not to the opposing tribal areas etc). This corruption stultifies actual growth.
(there is a point honest...)
The aircraft exists as a marker in a game of internal Iranian politics, and while there are many possible explanations I fancy the "bad" corruption one - it takes a special kind of distance from reality to imagine this will fool anyone with skin in the game - and that distance from reality tends to come from arrogant under educated privilege
In short Iran looks like it may be suffering from bad corruption. Which is interesting - there has so far only been one way to grow a global superpower - democracy, science and forcing the politicians to pay lip service to both. Both China and India are vying for that new role. We may see an answer to which of the three you can do without soon.
In reality, there is no good corruption.
However, I do agree the the craft shown in flight looks and sounds like a model r/c jet. If the craft is really this size, it cannot carry much of anything to the enemy. It is more of recon fighter.
It's stealth abilities are also questionable.
Ultimately what kills F-35, etc. is drones. Over the next 20 years I think we'll see all air to air go to drones (for performance) and air to ground (for expendability, size, etc.). The F-35 would be the last major offensive aircraft, if it does happen.
However, the article is weird - "And, above all, the aircraft is way to small"
The point of a stealth fighter is in being stealthy. Being small may therefore be a good thing.
And as long as it can strike and deliver missiles, how relevant is its size?
Also, aybe it will be cheaper to make, something especially important for a country under embargo. Quantity is a quality it itself - and making 10 small planes might be better than making 3 average sized ones.
There is another critic about the lack of advanced computer electronics in the cockpit. Who knows, maybe the iranians learnt a thing or two after the stuxnet centrifuge stories, and this makes the plane less vulnerable to viruses and software attacks??
Size doesn't matter with stealth technology at all - it's all about which way EM radiation bounces off it.
It looks like a JJ Abrams prop to be honest. Actually not even that credible.
Regarding virus and software attacks on aircraft (military at least) - it's all a load of JJ Abrams style "let's inject a virus into the core" horse shit.
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Shame because I reckon we're overdue some positive news about Iran instead of all the propaganda we've been getting drip fed in the west over the past couple of years.