x_man
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- Jun 29, 2007
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Agree But what will you call F-22 Multi Role Plane???
Nopes...Its not a true MR fighter....With F-15 C / D reaching their airframe life, USAF needed a pure kickass Air Dominant fighter that could serve them for another 30 years ( atleast)...and the answer was F-22 Raptor....designers put all the gadgets and tit bits available in the market at the moment...stealth technology, super cruise, thrust vectoring etc....Its a true air-air fighter...Although it can carry JDAM and some other ordnance but basically it is an Air Superiority fighter....USAF would probably not employ Raptors for a strike role...because there are many other aircrafts that can do this job...
As far as Jaguar is concerned , its not a MR at all...its a strike/attack aircraft ....putting few missiles on it doesn’t qualify it to be a MR....A-5 also carries 2xAIM-9P or Mirage III / V carries Matra R530 ( i am not discussing ROSE modified here ) .. ....does this means that these are also MR fighters...No Sir......Why not, because none of these carry an AI ( airborne interceptor)....The missile they carry are mere heat seeking and for their own protection in case someone decides to give them a chase while they are carrying out their primary task.......
Let’s discuss that what qualifies an aircraft to be called a Multi Role fighter....A multirole combat aircraft is an aircraft that can be used as both a fighter aircraft and a ground attack aircraft.....Along with the decent array of air-ground weapons ( dumb / smart ) , it should also be having a Air Borne radar in its nose along with choice of long range / short rang / heat seeking missiles......and it should also be able to perform all tasks during night as well ....
I like the way USAF nomenclature goes...its very straight forward and even if one hasn’t seen the aircraft, one can tell that what’s its basic role...e.g.
F for Fighters....F-86 , F-5 , F-15 , F-16 , F-22 etc
B for Bombers...B-57 , B-52 , B-1 ,B-2 etc
T for trainers....T-37 , T-38 , T-45 etc
C for Cargo...C-130 , C-5 , C-17...
A for Attack...A-10 , AC-130 , AV-8