What is the best AAM available today and why is it the Meteor?
>>65602415>why is it the MeteorNo, PL-17 is far much better. and cheaper to boot.
>>65602421You can't compare these because they serve different purposes, that's like comparing the AIM-120 and the AIM-174B.
>>65602425Anon, both are top of the line AAM.
>>65602415What's the best platform to launch an AAM from? When you're talking about longer engagement does it even matter, as in do most of currentish jets have a data link for external targeting?
>>65602475Pretty much every modern jet fighter can transmit and receive targeting information if that's what you're asking.
>>65602415Didn't the Air Force begin officially buying AIM-260 this year?
>>65602415Pl-16
>>65602501No, that happened in FY2024. However this year has seen much more information about the program come out including the first sighting of it in the flesh.
>my fox 3 goes 100km!>well MY fox 3 goes 150km!>oh yeah? this super DUPER fox 3 goes 200km!>mine is 5 meters long!>mine has a ramjet!>mine is dual pulse!>mine weighs 900 kilograms!When is ECM / DEWs finally going to end this faggot meta? At least BVR with fox 1s require you to joust and can generally be kinematically defeated. This is completely soulless
>>65602542Sorry pal but the golden age of BVR is never-ending, we're not going back to literal Vietnam.
>>65602542Nothing 5th gen or after is getting locked at anything approaching the stated maximum ranges of these things. These only become a major threat to fighters if space based AMTI works as well as they hope it will, or if you’re stuck running 4th generations the next couple decades like the French. Even then, the kill probability on these hasn’t been great in the Ukraine war, and there’s active investigation into smaller missiles that can be used to shoot these down mid flight for protecting tankers. If that works out they’ll probably work their way down to fighters fairly quickly.
>>65602542This muttmerican is afraid that the rest of the world will out pace them in BVR missile rnd, mao.
>>65602564People tend to overestimate stealth when it comes to BVR, while LO aircraft invoke a significant debuff to AAMs if everyone magically got 5th gens tomorrow it wouldn't usher in a new age of dogfighting.
>>65602542Aim54 phoenix was designed to be used by massed bomber formations targeting carrier groups. For example if you have a group of 50 Tu22s with nuclear tipped cruise missiles, only 1 getting through is game over for thr carrier. Having extreme long range fox 3s with TWS is important for countering these formations before they can launch their missiles.
>>65602605There are plenty of recent examples of non stealth aircraft being shot down at very long ranges, yet every stealth aircraft that has ever been so much as damaged has had it happen well within visual range.
>>65602719>every stealth aircraft that has ever been so much as damaged has had it happen well within visual rangeHuh? That's just wrong. The Serb F117 thing was radar, that F35 was an IR missile at a few thousand feet or something....
>>65602731In what fucking world is a few thousand feet not visual range? And the F-117 shoot down also happened within a handful of miles of the SAM site, where again you could see the thing with your fucking eyes. AIM-424 is claiming a maximum range in excess of 250nmi, you are absolutely not detecting let alone tracking and locking a stealth aircraft at that distance, because if you can it’s clearly not a stealth aircraft.
>>65602740>again you could see the thing with your fucking eyesAt night? At 8km altitude? At 13km range? With low cloud cover? The version of events you believe is utterly implausible and ten seconds of thinking about it would have helped you to realise why before posting.
>>65602759Dipshit you understand “visual range” refers to distance yes? As in similar to the range you can see with your eyes? And that beyond visual range weapons are those that work at a range the human eye will never be able to spot something no matter the visual conditions? Like the new generation of massive missiles claiming effectiveness nearly 300mi away, not 10km? Show me a stealth aircraft getting hit at even 100mi, like happened to the Rafale. I’ll wait.
>>65602768Let me remind you what you claimed nd wrote, now that you're backpeddling:>again you could see the thing with your fucking eyesIf an SA3 battery from 1961 can detect an F117 at 13km, one imagines that more modern systems are capable of achieving detections on LO aircraft at greater ranges than that.
>>65602780>one imaginesYes you clearly have a very active one. Must come with being born without eyes.i can’t imagine why else you’d be so insistent the human eye can’t see eight miles.
>>65602787>the human eye can’t see eight milesThe human eye cannot see an F117 at night through clouds from 8 miles away, no. You know what did? An SA3 radar.
>>65602792Radar doesn’t give a shit about light level, it cares about distance.
>>65602794Yes and a radar from 1961 saw an F117. I wonder how far away a low frequency early warning radar from 2026 would see an F117?
>>65602415I reckon a guy, or maybe a bird brain, wired into a minuteman would do wonders
>>65602796With the bay open inside what are called visual ranges in air combat. Good luck getting a weapon lock with an early warning radar by the way dipshit. Still waiting for you to show me a stealth aircraft getting hit in bvr
>>65602800>Good luck getting a weapon lock with an early warning radar by the way dipshit.You don't need to moron, you just need it as a tripwire to get an area to switch on closer illuminators with better aspect or to saturate the area with ARH.>Still waiting for you to show me a stealth aircraft getting hit in bvrLike the F117 was?
>>65602803>8mi is bvrI can show you multiple 100mi+ shots against non stealth aircraft the last few years. Yet you can’t show me one stealth aircraft getting hit at even a fifth that distance. Why is that? It’s almost like you have no idea what you’re talking about.
>>65602780No more than 30km, that’s about as good as you’re gonna get.
>>65602796>he’s a low frequency radar midwitOh that’s sad.Low frequency radar is by definition a low tech technology, anon, a 2026 low freq radar will suck just as badly as a 1980’s one at targeting stealth aircraft.
>>65602803This is S400 cope and doesn’t work.While you’ve sent your missile into a giant space of probability the stealth aircraft is already goin to start evading, meaning it will be even more hopelessly off-course by the time it goes pitbull.
>>65602803>like the F117 wasIt wasn’t, and it had it’s payload bay doors open.
>it’s 2026>thirdies are still coping with stealth aircraft by pretending that low frequency radar works.Lol.
>>65602551>we're not going back to literal Vietnam.Woke bullshit, where's the fun when everything is decided by spreadsheets and you can't get scrappy farmers downing top of the line fighters in MiG-17s with nothing but shitty sights and guts or fuckhueg bombers scoring tail gun kills on supersonic fighters
>>65602475The F-15 is the best launch platform for long range missiles because it goes higher and faster increasing the missiles range even further.It's sad stealth has lead to the death of speed and I hope the AF remembers launch plaform energy is free energy for standoff weapons in the future.We are getting the F-15EX for this reason but I want to see a clear sheet go fast design for the 21st century.
>>65602538I thought it was being procured unofficially before this year. Either way, it seems silly to claim that any other NATO AAM is better. I don't see how there's any other option except for brown retards that want to buy into chang's implessive PL-85 hypersanic intercontinental F-47 killer kool-aid.
>>65602415>defeats the judeo-chink imperialism in the eastWell that was easy.>>65602568We've already outranged you chinky lmao.
>>65603728It was classified so we didn’t have exact numbers but iirc it was known to be in LRIP. FY2026 gave unclassified numbers both going forward and for previous years, where the Air Force had bought ~140 between FY24&25. This year the USAF and Navy both budgeted over $300 million for probably around 200 missiles between the two, though this is expected to increase greatly in coming years.
>>65602421nah, the meteor is better than chinkshit, cope and seethe.
>>65602605Radar maths is funny like that. Detection range goes down by the quartic root of RCS reduction, which means that you need a roughly 95% reduction in RCS to halve your detection range, and a 99.99% reduction in RCS to cut down your detection range by 90%. Cutting detection range by 99% (roughly enough to let you close to guns) requires you to have the RCS of an insect.
>>65602415The Meteor isn't American or Chinese; therefore it's a safe edgy option for aging neverserved redditors who want to 'have a discussion' instead of have the best weapons.
>>65604258Good news sweetie. Every 5th gen fighter has an RCS *lower* than an insect.
>>65602415not the best but I uninronically think the R-37 is a good missile
