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Top gun

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That's a long run for a fighter. - 1971 until 2020.

In my aircraft design class, we joked that F-4 was proof that if we put large enough engines on a rock, it could fly. At that time, we preferred the F-15, F16, MiG-29, Su-27, Su-33 designs for fighters at that time, which isn't fair - as they were newer generation fighters.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

At least he checked the number on the side of it this time after Abesans very dubious similar photo op back in the day where the number was 731 was on the side. A ghoulish and disgusting overlook. What’s 731? Google it.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

In my aircraft design class, we joked that F-4 was proof that if we put large enough engines on a rock, it could fly. 

Our version of the joke was that it was proof that with enough power you could make a Coke machine fly. Nonetheless one of my best days in the Navy was a joy ride in an F-4S. I was waiting orders for flight school and earned my back seat ride by learning enough about the radar to be useful. Hitting the afterburners on take off, oh man what a kick in the back that was. It was a section take off with an A-4 and that Phantom was wheels up nose pointed at the sky while the little Skyhawk was still trundling down the runway. The Phantom was smoother than an airliner and the pilot was so buttery smooth, and the cockpit windows so high in the back seat, I didn't even notice the pilot was doing a gentle 1g barrel roll until I looked up out of the cockpit and discovered I was in fact looking straight down at San Nicholas Island.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

preparing the war...

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Maverick: "I feel the need ..."

Suga San: "... the need for speed!".......

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Suga-san really looks like another ordinary ojisan/grandpa. Never good show. Better hire a good actor for the show.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Suga san you inspire so much confidence, please do more of these for the good of the nation.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Well, Suga san is a dead ringer for Iceman, from a distance, Pluto.

Give Suga san a break, it took 4 hours to navigate the fellow into the cockpit.

Suga san, don't mistaken those yellow/black handles for a sun visor, that's zero to the beyond, in the time it take to say "Air Self-Defense Force review"

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Well they managed to get a smile out of him, even if his eyes are not focussed on anything.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

The jury is out on whether that's is a smirk or a smile (capsized), maybe the yearn to buzz the National Diet Building.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This pic of Suga makes me remember Michael Dukakis in that tank. He doesn't have to worry about voter ridicule though because ..this is Japan.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Now I know what Charlie Brown would look like as an air force pilot.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Highway to the Suga zone...Gonna take

I'll take you right into the Suga Zone.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Revvin' up the cabinet

Listen to the howlin' jobless

LDP under tension

Beggin' you to fix the economy

Highway to the Suga zone

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Suga. Sitting in the cockpit of a war machine aka death from the skies. As if it provides a dignified portrait. What it reveals, is an individual so far divorced from the roots of actual life, that he is along with many of his peers, quite mad.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Abe gets Mario, and Suga gets Top Gun. Jesus!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

"Where's the ejector seat button?"

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Both outdated and out of their league in today's world.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Somebody please inform him, that the current enemies are only 100 nanometers in size and don’t care about any fighter jets or whoever flies them.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I get the argument that B-52s and C-130s, both older than the F-4, are still viable today, provided that the using military can maintain air dominance. But what is the rationale for using a fighter plane that was first flown in 1961?

Glad to read that the F-4 EJ Kai will be replaced with modern fighters next year. Japan should fly fighters that enable it to defend itself.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I never got a chance to fly in fighters, but I got a chance to ride in a C-130 that aimed its nose at the sky and took off like a rocket. Quite a thrill. I have nothing but admiration for the C-130. Saw one once that had over a thousand holes in it, from Vietnam days, and still was able to make it back.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

He looks even scared just sitting in it on the ground.

Heave him out, give him his slippers and a sake and put him in front of a tv watching a Japanese soap.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Are we preparing for war???

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I get the argument that B-52s and C-130s, both older than the F-4, are still viable today, provided that the using military can maintain air dominance. But what is the rationale for using a fighter plane that was first flown in 1961?

It's not so much air dominance that matters as much as what the enemy has in terms of ground based air defenses. Advancements in ground based missiles and especially ground based radars are what is driving the requirement for all aspect Low Observables on aircraft and missiles. With a modern AESA radar and the right air to air missiles the old Phantom could still hold its own air to air, especially with highly trained pilots flying them. But they have no L-O and will be seen coming and engaged by ground based radars and missiles long before they have to worry about fending off the enemies fighter aircraft. Ground to air missiles have an order of magnitude greater range today than the best missiles available when the old Phantom was developed and radars have likewise advanced. That is the problem to overcome today. In the early 1970s a Phantom could drive in on the deck at an SA-6 and the radar would not see it until it was too late. The Phantom would pull a loop over the radar and the radar antenna simply could not move fast enough to track the Phantom. As the pilot completed the loop it would release weapons and destroy the site (that is a real tactic developed by the Israelis during the 1973 war). Todays radars would see and engage that same Phantom a couple of hundred kilometers out long before the Phantom pilot could detect the enemy radar and target it with anything.

But if your enemy is an irregular terrorist force with no air defense weapons a Texan or Super Tucano will get the job done.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Are we preparing for war???

You better be because the Chinese most definitely are and they want to take Japanese territory. Deterrence is always cheaper than the war that results from letting an adversary think you are easy to conquer.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If one is not prepared to defend one's self, then one should be prepared to be conquered.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"You look a little bit like Tom Cruise in Top Gun........You look goood........."

Zed to Sweetchuck
0 ( +0 / -0 )

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