The RCAF's Next Generation Fighter (CF-188 Replacement)

[SeaKingTacco]

Phoenix has the AAR rig present on the nose in every single render I’ve seen and has been pushing it as one of their primary advantages over GlobalEye. Seems to be set up for probe-and-drogue refueling.

That is an antenna, not a refuelling probe.

 

[Rainbow1910]

That is an antenna, not a refuelling probe.

Ah my bad, I swore I saw somewhere that AAR was a big selling point for the design.

Any AEW&C design for Canada without AAR is effectively useless.

 

[Baz]

I have been doing the aircrew game long enough to have learned how to calculate how many aircraft you need to own to have one persistent aircraft onstation- the farther away from home plate, the numbers go up fast.

Yeah… that was, for a time, my entire job at AGSIO, notwithstanding I was supposedly the surveillance guy. This was because we went from 8 to 5 Global Hawks and then figured out the impact after the fact. The math becomes weird when the endurance goes over one day.

It was surprising that a lot of people didn’t understand how the aircraft count went up exponentially compared to the transit distance, until it became infinite at the max range…

It was eye opening when we did the math of what a tanker version of the Global Hawk could add…

 

[Baz]

… and I’ll beat the same drum I’ve mentioned elsewhere. How are we (as a nation) discussing the ai frame when we don’t have defence policy or CONOPs. This is exactly what allows”experts” to come out of the woodwork and say “it has to be this, because I’m an expert, and I say so.” It’s not clear to me we’ve actually articulated what we are buying these for.

We need to do better…

Edited to add: speaking of doing better, why is this in the fighter replacement thread? But same logic applies… if we choose to go with a split fleet, we need policy and CONOPs to support that first. Maybe base the 35s in Canada and have them as a NATO asset, with the infrastructure in place in the Baltics? Would the reduce in peacetime footprint cost balance the duplication of infrastructure?

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I hate to interject here, but, can someone explain to me why AAR would be so important for the Globaleye? The platform (Global Express 6500) has a 12,000Km range and can stay up for 13 to 14 hours. Would we operate them from bases so far removed from the location of employment that those figures are insufficient?

I am not taking position for or against any one platform here, just wondering what the justification for AAR would be in the case of this platform.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I hate to interject here, but, can someone explain to me why AAR would be so important for the Globaleye? The platform (Global Express 6500) has a 12,000Km range and can stay up for 13 to 14 hours. Would we operate them from bases so far removed from the location of employment that those figures are insufficient?

I am not taking position for or against any one platform here, just wondering what the justification for AAR would be in the case of this platform.

I think a Global Eye is probably substantially heavier than a stock passenger Global Express 6500. I would guess a range/endurance of only half of that.