Russian bomber says hi to our carrier
 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/11/rus...ber/index.html

That kind of stuff happens all the time. And its by a lot of nations, not just Russia. Heck we do it too. Remember just a few years ago we flew a P-3 Orion too close to China. I'm just surprised the Navy still flies the F/A-18A model :lol: Nothing like flying outdated airframes when they've spent billions on hmmm the C model, and the E model. You know, over the last forty years since the A model was released lol

From a marine pilot over on FTV6: (In reply to someone stating the obvious that Russia can't afford another arms race)

Things were so much better when the Russians were the enemy. They never hijacked passenger flights and flew them into our buildings like a bunch of pussies. They had honor and strength in their military, and deserved props for it. Plus they make a dayum good wodka!

It's the Navy's own fault. They had a cheap and effective way to extent the service life of the F-14 Tomcat and outfit them as D models, but for some reason they decided to scrap the entire fleet, and spend billions and billions on the Super Hornet Es and Fs. Sure, they're great planes, and yes, they're configurable for multiple roles, but the cost associated with the R&D to do so and the delays mean that only the F/A-18E & F planes in service now have been outfitted as high altitude presicion light bombers, interceptors, and ground support attack planes. The F/A/E-18G has yet to surface, and none of them can perform the heavy munitions role that the F-14 did. The whole idea was to have one style airframe to reduce maintenance costs, and yes that makes sense, but you have to have the airframes in service in order for that theory to work. Instead, the Navy decided to scrap its primary fighter and not provide enough in-service airframes to reduce maintenance issues. now they have to pull out old retired planes. Sounds great. Sounds like the Navy is one step above the Canadian Air Force.

The problem that faced the Soviet Union during the Cold War is the problem thats building for us. They spent so much on military spending, that they ignored domestic issues and bankrupted their country. It's actually a good thing they did in terms of the arms race, because their aircraft were vastly superior to ours, and still are. Their Su-37 Terminator came out twelve years ago, and is much more maneuverable than our F/A-22 Raptor that is just reaching service now. The main reason we 'won' the arms race is infrastructure. The US had, and still has, the best military training program in the world. The Soviet Union couldn't create and maintain a pilot and maintenance training program to provide enough qualified pilots and maintenance personnel. They simply couldn't get all of their planes in the air.

There has also been a lot of talk about Sukhoi getting the contract to build Russia's next air superiority fighter. I'm guessing it'll be airborne within the next three years.

Here's a quick vid of the Su-37. Its a pretty sick plane.

http://www.strategypage.com/military...742333043.aspx

"Eh lieutenant, what were you doing there?"

"Communicating. Keeping up foriegn relations."

great movie!

Looks like the F-16 Tomcat. Hope they have lots of BARF bags in the cockpit.

you mean an F-14??, but it doesn't at all....its fixed wing, and its WAY more maneuverable.

I'am thinking the one that was in TOP GUN. Same dual rear tail fins. Those wings do move.

sorry dude...SU-37s don't have moving wings, and the F-14 was in top gun, they do have the moving wings. The correct term is escaping me right now...I'm sure one of the military guys can correct me

Right Bubba, I was just saying that the F-14 had variable swept wings(I believe that is the term), not like the SU-37s fixed design. Thanks for the correction on the F-14-F-16.

You know... the bird

cool.....vectored thrust? that russkie must have had one nasty g-force suit on. i saw on some military show that russia now has a 2 man side-by-side bomber, big enough and with enough room behind the seats for a cot, hotplate, and crapper.

That was always my favorite plane in all the ace combat games :)

Yes, I believe its the Su-34, its in the Ace Combat Games as well. its ment for long range bombing, not for fighting, but thats still cool, but its gotta suck to be that close to the guy takign a crap on the plane lol. Russia did have an awsome aircraft development. While we were studying stealth technology, they were working on faster, adn more maneuvorable planes. the Mig-31's were noted at being able to briefly touch Mach 3 in one of my books. To me, I dont call ti the Cold War, cause...well there was no blood shed, not battles goign on, so it wasent a war, it was a stailmate, because both countires knew if one fire on the other, the other had jsut as many missiles pointed at them, but it did boost our development of weapons.

personally mine was the S-37 berkut, and the YF-23 Black Widow.

The Berkut in real life is the Su-47. It was a forward swept wing version of the Su-37.

Yep, the latest version has fully independent 360 degree thrust vectoring on each engine. The F/A-22 only has vertical vectoring. The Su-37 also has an intelligently controlled computer target acquisition system that can track, target, and take out any ten targets at once, both on the ground and in the air.

oh and the side by side bomber is the Su-32. Heres a good video of Sukhoi's planes at a demonstration in 2005. You can see the independent thrust vectoring in action around the 1:00 mark. The Su-27 Flanker is in there, the Su-47, the Su-30, the Su-32, and a few other planes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zxb0Q6hZgA

Read it, trust me, some serious stuff.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DN

and...

http://aeroweb.lucia.it/rap/RAFAQ/six5th_5.html

Funny how the Russians have all this tech but they still can't keep their servicemen from dismantling expensive equipment to sell for food money.

http://wmilitary.neurok.ru/su34.html

It is a Su-34. A Su-32, and Su-34 are essencially the same plane, they look the same, but the Su 34i s actually bigger. The Su-32 is known as the Fullback, and the Su-34 is known as the platypuss. The Su-32 you can stand up in, but does not have the stove and Toilet, that was built into the Su-34.

Cool, I knew about the Su-32 but not the Su-34.