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From: biow@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Biow)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Mig-29 operated by Iraq
Keywords: AIM-54, olive drab fuzzy bananas
Message-ID: <1991Jan19.043516.6511@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 19 Jan 91 04:35:16 GMT
References: <1991Jan15.021838.23936@cbnews.att.com> <1991Jan17.053752.29563@cbnews.att.com>
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From: biow@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Biow)

In article <1991Jan17.053752.29563@cbnews.att.com> davisp@skybridge.SCL.CWRU.Edu (Palmer Davis) writes:


>In article <1991Jan15.021838.23936@cbnews.att.com> jtgorman@cs.arizona.edu (J. Taggart Gorman) writes:
>>I know [Fulcrums] wouldn't be a match against a 100nm Phoenix missile, but 
>>against some poor F-16 only armed with Sidewinders, it might be a deadly 
>>furball.

>Other way around.  The AIM-54 is big and relatively unmaneuverable; it's
>intended to shoot down targets that are also big and relatively unmaneuverable,
>like long-range bombers and ASMs.  (And carried by the big and relatively
>unmaneuverable F-14.)  If the MiG saw the missile in time (or even had a
>working RWR), it would stand a much better chance of dodging it than an AIM-9
>from an F-16 or other UN fighter.

I couldn't resist a reply to this underestimation of the F-14. Any modern
missile has, given certain conditions (launch altitude, airspeed, attitude,
target angle, target aspect, target speed, etc.) a max range, beyond which it
will drop out of the sky prior to impact, or else won't be able to track 
the target. It also has a no-escape range, within which it will kill a 6G maneuvering target. Although missile maneuver
ability helps, speed and engine burn time/power count too, on both ranges.
To write off the Phoenix against maneuvering targets is a mistake. My machine goes down in 60
seconds. More tomorrow.

Chris
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