Scaled Composites Model 437 Vanguard

kocovgoce said:
That's all well and good, but the Vietnam War showed how bad it was when the F-4B didn't have a cannon for close combat.
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Which was an artifact of the extremely restrictive US Rules of Engagement, requiring Positive Visual ID of a target before engaging.

Today, IRSTs with 20x+ magnification built in are more or less standard equipment on aircraft, so you can visually ID an aircraft at 10+nmi/20km. The only time a gun is still really useful is for Air Policing, as a stream of tracers is a great way to shout "hey, stupid" at a non-responding aircraft.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Which was an artifact of the extremely restrictive US Rules of Engagement, requiring Positive Visual ID of a target before engaging.
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You can blame Johnston and McNarama for that bit of idiocy, their idiotic rules about targets the USAF, USN and USMC could and could not strike greatly prolonged the Vietnam war also preventing the US from steam-rolling North Vietnam.
 
NMaude said:
You can blame Johnston and McNarama for that bit of idiocy, their idiotic rules about targets the USAF, USN and USMC could and could not strike greatly prolonged the Vietnam war also preventing the US from steam-rolling North Vietnam.
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As it worked out, the US forces didn't have a good IFF system till the 1970s, so requiring visual ID also prevented a lot of fratricide.
 
I don't know. It's cool n'all, but I still like ARES better.
 
Training_Dummy said:
Cold beer storage a new DOD mandate for *all* new aircraft procurement programs.
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Unfortunately, the Lockheed Martin CCTDPDS (Common Cold Tap Dispensing and Precision Delivery System) is three years behind schedule and $120m overrun. Program management could not be roused for comment after the latest re-baseline meeting.
 
aim9xray said:
Unfortunately, the Lockheed Martin CCTDPDS (Common Cold Tap Dispensing and Precision Delivery System) is three years behind schedule and $120m overrun. Program management could not be roused for comment after the latest re-baseline meeting.
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Variations have done the rounds - beer, whisky, wine.

'A brewer has drowned in one of the vats!'
'Oh no, that's terrible! Did he suffer?'
'No, he seemed quite happy. In fact he climbed out three times to pee!'
 
Stargazer said:
I believe the Model 437 was conceived as an Optionally Piloted Vehicle, as opposed to the original Model 402 from which it derived.
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Check out the tails.
 
Those vertical tails look different than the rest of the a/c… is that purposeful bc they are configurable, temporary, a WIP or different for the unmanned version?
 

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