Re: The Phoenix
Allow me to address this. The Phoenix is a good longrange missile, but it was designed to intercept Bear bombers in the seventies and just doesn't do well against fighter aircraft. BTW, 120 miles range is optimistic - 75nm is probably a better estimate.
The reason it wouldn't do well against fighters has to do with the physics of how the missile travels; all of the missiles fuel is burned in the first 15 seconds of flight where it quickly accelerates to a peak velocity of mach 5 and an altitude of 100,000 feet. It's all downhill
from there...the missile trades altitude for momentum until it gets into proximity to the target and detonates. The problem against fighters, especially at long range, is that the missile has lost so much energy by the time it gets into proximity that an experienced fighter pilot would have no trouble outmaneuvering the missile.
Bugaboos include the unusual attack profile of the missile (the missile literally falls from the sky, and a pilot could very well not notice the incoming missile until it was too late) - and the F14 has available a very good radar mode that does not trip most RWRs.
As to the relevance of dogfighting, the existance of the F22 and the Eurofighter both give credibility to the continuing viability of ACM. Both have incredible short range missile systems (the AIM-9X and the brit equivalent, can't remember the designation offhand) with "over the shoulder" launch capability and vectored thrust which gives unparralled maneuverability.
Very interesting topic, btw, I could go on for quite a while. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
EDIT> the brit system was the Python, I believe.
[ 01-21-2003, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: Sir Krustin ]