Air International - 5 past issues

A lot of detailed info from a new magazine that opswarfare picked up recently at the Bukit Merah library. A quick check shows that Air International is available at the following NLB branches. (p.s. this was another old draft post, brought back to "life")

• Bishan
• Bukit Merah
• Jurong
• Tampines
  

A quick rundown below of some "juicy" bits from 5 past issues.

November 2007
RAF Quick Reaction Alert (QRA)

1. RAF is in charge of Air Policing Area 9
2. QRA comes under command of NATO's Combined Air Operations Centre 9 at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
   
3. 27mm cannon on Typhoon is still not cleared for use
   
4. Falkland islands has a QRA detachment
   
5. RAF participates in NATO Baltic Air Policing QRA, rotating with other NATO partners

Retirement of SEPECAT Jaguar

1. A capability gap created?
2. Comparison of Jaguar with Typhoon, the latter coming off looking quite deficient in air-to-ground capability
   
3. Maybe they should compare with Tornado instead

Indian Air Force at 75

1. 2 SU-30MKI are deployed at Car Nicobar
2. Andaman & Nicobar are just 200km from Myanmar and 100km from Indonesia

Feb 2008
EA-6B Prowler

1. ICAP III program
   
2. ALQ-218
3. ASQ-140
4. EA-18G will add ALQ-227

July 2006
MASC project for Royal Navy (AEW platform for new RN carriers)

Global Hawk numbers

• 7 Block 10
• 6 Block 20
• 11 Block 30
• Plans in place for 26 Block 30, 15 Block 15, for a total of 54
  

French Navy Night-flying

1. Super Etendard Modernise (SEM)
   
2. Sfim CN2H-AA NVG
3. 100 hours of unaided flying (w/o NVG)
   
4. limited field of vision
5. lack of depth of field perception
6. Democles laser designation/targeting pod
7. tactical air navigation (TACAN)
8. accuracy of 0.1nm (0.2km)
9. block 2 (20,000 to 30,000 feet) sanctuary 2 - 22,000 feet

US Navy

1. MH-60S transport
   
2. also with armed helicopter capability MH-60S (AH)
   
3. AAS-44C infra-red sensor, and 8 Hellfire missiles, plus window mount 7.62mm & 12.7mm machine guns
4. MH-60R ASW
   

Export Flankers

1. SU-30MKI Flanker-H of India

April 2007
Constant Peg (once classified aggressor programme to evaluate Russian fighter jets), 4477th Test Squadron, Red Eagles

May 2007
SU-24 Fencer

1. Su-24M Fencer-D
2. further upgrade by Gefest & T in 2000
3. 50-150m height, 1,100km/h, can toss bombs at a distance of 10km from target, with CEP of 10-15m
4. Su-24M2
5. prolonged ultra-low altitude of 30-50m
6. short periods, 10-30m
7. fairly demanding in terms of handling characteristics
8. Orion-A radar, 2 bands, centimetric (B-band) and millimetric (A-band)
9. A-band, higher resolution, shorter range
10. combat debut in 1984, Afghanistan
11. used in Chechnya also