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  1. M

    Warbirds Thread

    F-15's have enough range to fight from the other end of our country. Still, they are being just "considered" now, sticker shock may stop them, considering the cheaping out on further F-16's.
  2. M

    Warbirds Thread

    https://interestingengineering.com/military/norway-land-f-35-on-highway And you think Sweden is somehow harder to threaten or pressure? That is, besides the logistical problem, with such small production scales you don't even know if the planes and parts will exist in the numbers needed even...
  3. M

    Warbirds Thread

    Not stalled anymore. It has a flying prototype since last year, and half a year ago in-flight radar testing was announced with at least 4 planes available now and 2 more planned to be completed this year. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/03/205_346489.html Seen a lot of strange...
  4. M

    Warbirds Thread

    Or make your own stealthy options like Japan and SK do.
  5. M

    Warbirds Thread

    In that case Sweden is about the last country you should look for them in. Sweden stopped selling weapons to Saudis (of course on left's request) but USA didn't.
  6. M

    Warbirds Thread

    Yeah, if anything killed recon planes, it is drones, which are effectively remote or script controlled recon planes, which helps their mission endurance, cost, and... loss risk tolerance.
  7. M

    Warbirds Thread

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66469620 https://theaviationist.com/2023/08/14/privately-owned-mig-23-crashes-during-airshow-in-michigan/
  8. M

    Warbirds Thread

    It is a shitload compared to the dedicated military ones...
  9. M

    Warbirds Thread

    There are hundreds flying, and newest model is not out of production. Produced CL-415: 1993–2015 / DHC-515: 2022-present
  10. M

    Warbirds Thread

    But there is a shitload of foreign operators of other models used around the world though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-415#Operators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-215#Operators This seems to be the most popular one, mainly made for firefighting but also has SAR and...
  11. M

    Warbirds Thread

    This project shows there is enough. There was just a major break in demand, probably filled with old production, flying boat conversions of lighter designs, helicopters, and Chinese production.
  12. M

    Warbirds Thread

    It's also going to be capable of landing on land like some of the old Catalina variants. Also some smaller transports like this can have floats, even though smaller, as i mentioned they are usually turboprops anyway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-6_Twin_Otter For Coasties...
  13. M

    Warbirds Thread

    Most of larger civilian commercial planes for that kind of stuff are also turboprops for the same performance purposes. Let's be honest, if you shell out for a plane like this and can afford the sheer amount of fuel to fill it, you aren't desperately needing it to be cheap and simple. It's not...
  14. M

    Warbirds Thread

    The figures given for Catalina 2 definitely point it towards being a much better transport than the original one.
  15. M

    Warbirds Thread

    US air force spec ops wanted a flying boat so much they investigated modifying C-130 to be amphibious and trained with Japanese flying boats. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44424/u-s-air-force-trains-with-japans-us-2-flying-boat-as-it-looks-forward-to-its-own-amphibious-plane For...
  16. M

    Warbirds Thread

    Technically they can. Practically, tilt rotors have less range, plus they are much less fuel efficient and less optimized for cruising, nevermind landing on water, which has its own uses in things like rescues. I've seen articles since years suggesting flying boats could be useful to USA for...
  17. M

    Warbirds Thread

  18. M

    Warbirds Thread

    It's that deal. The first 12 will be arriving this year, the rest will be a different variant assembled in Poland since 2025, once done the first 12 will be upgraded to the same variant as the later ones..
  19. M

    Warbirds Thread

    >never Never since they put them in museums at least... They had the non-export Su-17 variant. Why not sent yet? Because the pilots have to fly on something to keep their training hours and qualifications up. According to this, they will go to Ukraine too once at least some recently ordered...
  20. M

    Warbirds Thread

    What protected airspace were NATO aircraft not allowed to enter? Can you show it on the map? I think you have a poor definition of that.
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