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[–] [S] 9 points 1 day ago* (7 children)

Unquestionably the most "top gun" skill in modern warfare with regards to fighterbombers is intercepting high numbers of relatively slow flying (remember, slow flying compared to an f16) flying bombs with a nose chaingun.

Most other useful skills for pilots are more boring than an action movie, but not intercepting slow flying bombs using just a nose chaingun... that pretty much always looks like an action movie manuever even when done as safely as possible.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    Pierre Sprey was finally right after all

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (4 children)

    TIL:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Sprey

    advocated the use of energy–maneuverability theory in fighter jet design.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    He was also part of something called The Fighter Mafia who insisted that fancy missiles and radar were useless and planes should only have guns and rockets.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)
  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago* (1 child)

    It was, but I think his theory was based on true fighter combat.

    There hasn't been a proper dogfight in ages. And I don't think there will be - the only modern limitation of a fighter is the pilot - 9gs. Because of that hard constraint, his formula faces an optimization problem.

    Edit: side note, why the fuck do I have this seemingly endless slightly useless knowledge, but I can't tell you fuck all about the tech stack I have to work with at my job.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    The pilots are doing the hardest part - flying the plane. And target designation.

    I speculate that Target acquisition and the firing solution are almost certainly software. Even if its 1980s software, any speed greater than stall speed will make visual identification of a drone within the M61 vulcan's 3km range impossible.

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