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Air Force Question Thread

Why we never see fighter jets on patrol over Lahore. Is Lahore a no fly zone for them in peace time? Or they fly so high that its not possible to spot them or hear their roar? Years ago I went to Karachi and fighters jets were quite frequently seen there.
Only time I see fighter jets in Lahore is twice in September. Once they arrive for air show display and once when they leave back. And that too didn't happened this year. Only other time I saw them was post Mumbai attack in 2008 when India was threatening then fighter jets did a low fly past over Lahore for public moral lifting. Shaking almost every window in Gulberg area by roar.
 
No libyan Jett in Pak at 71 War only Jordan send jetts
Man I just cant remember but I believe if my memory serves me right, I did se a painting of Libyan F-5's In Masroor ik for a fact that Turks sent over there F-104's---- any ways there is a PAF saber with I believe 4 air to air kill an is in Winnipeg.

A coupe of turk Star fighter's in Canada as well and Turk F-5's.
 
How does dropping external tanks feel like? I mean other than adrenaline push ( if dropped due to combat initialization), does the jet get lighter and more manoeuvrable (would be same after weapons) ?

Also, at what flying speed should a missile be released such as A2A or A2G munitions? Is there a minimum speed required?
 
How does dropping external tanks feel like? I mean other than adrenaline push ( if dropped due to combat initialization), does the jet get lighter and more manoeuvrable (would be same after weapons) ?
You are driving with 4 people in the car, how would the drive feel if 4 of them get off? Any decrease in load will make the plane more responsive and maneuverable.
 
How does dropping external tanks feel like? I mean other than adrenaline push ( if dropped due to combat initialization), does the jet get lighter and more manoeuvrable (would be same after weapons) ?

Also, at what flying speed should a missile be released such as A2A or A2G munitions? Is there a minimum speed required?
I think @TsAr put it in simplest words for anyone to understand, but i'll go one step further from a infamous (or notorious) incident that took place last year.

27th Feb, 2019 - Wg Cdr. Abhinandan Varthaman failed to drop his External Tanks during combat.

Alan Warnes & Kaiser Tufail give a clearer picture... Just click play on vid (below)

I can't speak on a missile being launched A2A, I think someone with more knowledge would have a better idea. I will say this that I doubt speed would truly matter in the event a BVR is being launched.

As for A2G, I don't think would be wise to overshoot something that isn't moving.
 
How does dropping external tanks feel like? I mean other than adrenaline push ( if dropped due to combat initialization), does the jet get lighter and more manoeuvrable (would be same after weapons) ?

Also, at what flying speed should a missile be released such as A2A or A2G munitions? Is there a minimum speed required?
The speed will determine the range of the smart munition higher the speed the better the range. anywhere between 450 Knots - 500 knots I believe will be an ideal speed (at least in dcs) but theoretical you can drop munition at what ever speed you want.

You can discover the answer to the fuel tank question. Take a nice heavy object and run and whilst running drop it (make sure you dont hurt yourself) and you will have an answer.
 
How does dropping external tanks feel like? I mean other than adrenaline push ( if dropped due to combat initialization), does the jet get lighter and more manoeuvrable (would be same after weapons) ?

Also, at what flying speed should a missile be released such as A2A or A2G munitions? Is there a minimum speed required?

Depends on the type of munition.

For a BVRAAM, the end goal is, your missile has as much kinetic energy as possible by the time it meets its target. Most BVRAAMs have a engine burn time of only a few seconds, meaning they undergo rapid acceleration however, for most of the flight time, they are not powered. Now, lets use a simple example to visualise the effect of speed on a missile:

F-16 lets say it is travelling at 250kts. Now, the missiles motor causes it to accelerate to 1000kts, now, if we look at the total speed, we get 1250kts at its peak, since the missile does not need to accelerate from 0, so you have a advantage of 250kts. Overall the missile travels faster right vs a non moving object(this is an entirely hypothetical example).


In the terminal stage of a missiles flight, it has the least kinetic energy of any flight profile, this means, you could potentially outmaneuver it, this would be the best time to try, as say something like a sharp climb could be hard for the missile to follow as all it is experiencing is drag and lift, no thrust, however, your fighter is able to constantly output thrust. Therefore, by maximising the missiles kinetic energy, you increase the energy available to the missile by adding whatever speed you were flying at, to whatever speed the missiles motor can bring it to, giving your missile every little bit of extra chance to hit its target- another way to look at this is the Probability of Kill, or pK, simply put, the more KE a missile has, the higher its pK, regardless of other factors such as a dense ew environment or adverse weather conditions.

Missiles use every trick to maximise their range and pK, including lofting, where they climb to a higher altitude, where the air is thinner, therefore less drag and less counter forces, i.e less air to push against the thrust of the motor, enabling them to produce more speed per unit thrust or whatever, enabling them to be faster at time of interception. It also gives the missile an opportunity to pick up more speed if it needs to descend to meet the target at its calculated point of impact.

Same principle applies to glide bombs or any sort of ER bombs, Higher launch altitude= less air= less drag=more speed= more range.

For dumb bombs without any sort of range extender kit, it doesn't matter nearly as much, if not, at all.
 
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What is the difference between UAV and UCAV. I am asking this because many times, drones are catagorized as UAV although they are armed with munitions and weapons.
 
In simple terms, an UCAV is also an UAV, however not all UAV are UCAV.
 
What is the difference between UAV and UCAV. I am asking this because many times, drones are catagorized as UAV although they are armed with munitions and weapons.
C in ucav stands for Combat, armed uavs come under ucavs, recce uavs, so single use designs, uav's
 
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