[Goose]

Speaking of Jury rigging western weapons onto Migs, apparently AMRAAMs may be next?


https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/07...s-00085877

I would be amazed if this works. We have to be real here. The HARM has been less than a game changer in Ukraine because they have to be fired either as a pre-planned mission or in "sic em" mode where the HARM acquires it's own target. The Ukrainians can't designate a target from their RWR and tell the missile "kill this threat". This is the best way to defend the aircraft. "sic em" mode might kill something but not what is about to kill the launch aircraft. Probably it won't acquire and will hit nothing. It is also very vulnerable to ECCM in this mode, false targets and the like.

We don't know about JDAMs yet, but for sure the high precision operations require good interface to the aircraft avionics. It is very nice, especially in "pop-up" mode when the airframe can fly the maneuver for you or at least gives you a "green light" to let the bombs go. Yes, you can do all this "by hand" but you have to be real good to make it work at maximum ranges. How that will work  in "real life Ukraine" is TBD.

The AMRAAM is essentially useless if it doesn't have at least an initial steer from the launch platform in terms of where the target is and when to "go active". That is the interface to the radar that the article talks about. Ideally, the AMRAAM also gets "mid course corrections" from the launch platform, which requires a data link. The NASAMS systems of course has all these capabilities. The MIGs of course do not, and something will have to be "jury rigged" to do it. Ukraine never had any R77 missiles (developed after fall of Soviet Union), so their MIGs don't even have that interface that could possibly be employed. An AMRAAM is a BVR missile. It's organic radar has no chance of acquiring a target at long range. It needs to be steered to relatively close range by the launch platform. That doesn't require continuous data updates, but it does require at a bare minimum a good initial "firing solution". I think it might be easier to just train the pilot to fly an F-16 than figuring out how to make this work :-).

[Goose]

Speaking of Jury rigging western weapons onto Migs, apparently AMRAAMs may be next?


https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/07...s-00085877

I would be amazed if this works. We have to be real here. The HARM has been less than a game changer in Ukraine because they have to be fired either as a pre-planned mission or in "sic em" mode where the HARM acquires it's own target. The Ukrainians can't designate a target from their RWR and tell the missile "kill this threat". This is the best way to defend the aircraft. "sic em" mode might kill something but not what is about to kill the launch aircraft. Probably it won't acquire and will hit nothing. It is also very vulnerable to ECCM in this mode, false targets and the like.

We don't know about JDAMs yet, but for sure the high precision operations require good interface to the aircraft avionics. It is very nice, especially in "pop-up" mode when the airframe can fly the maneuver for you or at least gives you a "green light" to let the bombs go. Yes, you can do all this "by hand" but you have to be real good to make it work at maximum ranges. How that will work  in "real life Ukraine" is TBD.

The AMRAAM is essentially useless if it doesn't have at least an initial steer from the launch platform in terms of where the target is and when to "go active". That is the interface to the radar that the article talks about. Ideally, the AMRAAM also gets "mid course corrections" from the launch platform, which requires a data link. The NASAMS systems of course has all these capabilities. The MIGs of course do not, and something will have to be "jury rigged" to do it. Ukraine never had any R77 missiles (developed after fall of Soviet Union), so their MIGs don't even have that interface that could possibly be employed. An AMRAAM is a BVR missile. It's organic radar has no chance of acquiring a target at long range. It needs to be steered to relatively close range by the launch platform. That doesn't require continuous data updates, but it does require at a bare minimum a good initial "firing solution". I think it might be easier to just train the pilot to fly an F-16 than figuring out how to make this work :-).