[CaptJosh]

They will not be flying at all. The RAH-66 "Comanche" program for building a new scout/light attack helo was scrapped. Which is stupid because the Kiowas are really starting to show their age.

As for the different sound, they have a 5 bladed rotorary wing instead of a 4 bladed one, and the tail rotor is a ducted design made by Bell aircraft, IIRC, and it's called fantail. It's designed to cut back on noise by eliminating the way a normal tail rotor chops through the wash of the rotary wing. And they are fast. They can get about 165 knots before they start having issues with blade stall. The main reason they were cancelled is that someone decided that 65 million per bird was too much. Yet they'll pay a billion a plane for the B-2 "Spirit" bomber. Congresscritters ain't any to bright sometimes...

[Deepblue]

Not to mention 6 billion per F-22. The chairforce is allowed to spend money up the wazoo but the Army doesn't get squat.

[aipz]

Now that's really strange...
Let's face the facts - this program was developed by the US military for more than 10 years and was supposed to be the next generation multi-purpose strike/recon helicopter  utilizing stealth technology extensively... And now suddenly the funding is suspended...

This doesn't really make sense because  so many money went i it!
Even if each helo was supposed to cost 65 mln dollars the money spent on the RAH-66 Commanche programme wouldn't be wasted at all considering the high-tech development possibilities of the whole programme... They could simply reduce the number of craft to enter service or postpone the active service entering date if the defence budget was so tight...

My country doesn't have such problems as the Mil Mi-24 D Hind will still be it's main attack helicopter for quite a while
Given the fact the defence budget is WAY lower than in the US...
( don't even ask for a comparison )

[IceFire]

Commanche was more in line with the Havoc or Hokum designs...

The Apache is still the best gunship around but for other helicopter duty...the Russian birds are now the best designs around.  Pretty impressive in terms of speed, manuerability, aerobatics and even firepower.

[CaptJosh]

Comanche was never supposed to be a gunship. It was primarily to be used as recon, with the ability to suport Cobra and Apache gunships in a light attack role when using the EFAMS winglets.

It also was supposed to have enough teeth to be able to fight its way out if a hairy situation developed during recon, a major improvement over the OH-58 Kiowa, even the D varian that had some weapons.

Furthermore, it had an artillery spotting role.

It wasn't as good in the low observability dept as some folks wanted, but it was a damnsight better than Apache ever dreamed of being. Apache was designed as a heavy attack role. With that in mind, low observability ends up going out the window. Even so, Apache has a smaller radar cross section than any rotary wing aircraft its size.

[Shrike]

Originally posted by Deepblue
Not to mention 6 billion per F-22. The chairforce is allowed to spend money up the wazoo but the Army doesn't get squat.

What have you been smoking?

[WeatherOp]

Originally posted by Shrike


What have you been smoking?

Exactly what I was thinking too. 100-200 million apice DB.

[TrashMan]

Originally posted by MatthewPapa
F-14s are my favorite aircraft as well. the tv series 'robotech' got me hooked on them. too bad they are being retired in like a year

I still weap when I remeber the Super Tomcat project was abandoned.. that would have been one mean, mean machine..

Meh..A F-14 beats a hornet every day of the week.

[TrashMan]

Originally posted by Kosh

You're forgetting 2 big factors. One of them is the people, the other is geography. Occupying a nation that is physically as large as the US is extremely difficult. Also pacifying a nation of 1.3 billion people (many of whom are very nationalistic) is damn near impossible. People here might not like the party, but they really would not like a foreign invader.

I think you're confusing defending from an atack from China and invading it.
Now China couldn't stand a chance if it tried to attakc the US.. What would it do?
Put billion people in boats and make a mass invasion of hte US soil? What doesn't drwon by the Pacifc would be wiped from the face of the world by the US Navy.

now, if US would to invade china - the sheer number of chineese would make it extreemly difficult. Not that the US lacks the tech or the know-how, but the democratic system and ground troop size are a hinderance...

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by TrashMan


I think you're confusing defending from an atack from China and invading it.
Now China couldn't stand a chance if it tried to attakc the US.. What would it do?
Put billion people in boats and make a mass invasion of hte US soil? What doesn't drwon by the Pacifc would be wiped from the face of the world by the US Navy.

now, if US would to invade china - the sheer number of chineese would make it extreemly difficult. Not that the US lacks the tech or the know-how, but the democratic system and ground troop size are a hinderance...

He is referring to the US invading China.  

The US doesn't have 1.3bn people.  'the party' is also the Communist party, being the only party.  Plus he's currently in China, which is sort of important for the 'here' part.

[Shrike]

Originally posted by WeatherOp
Exactly what I was thinking too. 100-200 million apice DB.

And less the more procured.  A lot of that cost is due to the high fixed R&D costs that need to be amortized.  As more airframes are bought the per-unit cost will go down.

[WeatherOp]

The price is gonna decrease over time as the price of the materials drop as well.

However, I think they need to buy less Raptors and by more of these. Best looking fighter since the F-15.

[Shrike]

The JSF that lost the competition?

Admitedly it looks better than the Boeing one.  Gods, what an ugly fighter.

[aldo_14]

I still think the Harrier looks better than either of those 2 ones, anyways.

[Corsair]

Originally posted by Shrike
The JSF that lost the competition?

Admitedly it looks better than the Boeing one.  Gods, what an ugly fighter.

That's the Lockheed one... the one that won.

[aldo_14]

x-32 (loser) on left.

[Mongoose]

Now the X-32 might well qualify as the ugliest fighter ever produced.  The thing looks like a pregnant sow.

[achtung]

For me the best looking fighter is either:



Or

[Flipside]

The X32 has insufficient greebling to make it acceptable to any modern airforce, even the Stealth bombers have more Greebling than that!

[Deepblue]

Whoops. Looked at the wrong price... That was one of the developmental costs...