the Tomcat 21 we never got, or did we?/VFX

subject says it all

we lost the XF108 and super tomcat and the A-12(allegedly)

Mach 2 at altitude and would fly at that speed without dashing.

the STC would have been some really cool and even in the drawing you can see the lineage of newer aircraft.




the F111B went to the chopping block as well

Anything F111 is rarer than hens teeth at the moment.They scrapped them pretty well...A lot of why they scrapped things was cost..Was cheaper to start something newer.

a reply to: Blackfinger



there HAS to be something in the works or already flying(other than the F35) that would fill the role of an EF-111

they saw fit to make and fly them for decades and just scraped it.


like the SR71, yes satellites were coming into their own but there is nothing like having an asset go where and WHEN you want is something satellites cant do. So SOMETHING clearly took its place and now with all the hypersonic stuff coming to mainstream i think we might see some of the older models

however that being said if there is some super dark EW aircraft we might never see it or if we do it will be when we are old men.

a reply to: noscopebacon
I reckon it was the aircraft spotted in Amarillo

a reply to: Woody510
Amarillo wing plan doesnt fit a high speed airframe..

a reply to: Blackfinger
I was aiming more at the electronic warfare role than a high speed isr aircraft

a reply to: Woody510

same, the slower the better.


if you can just idle in a racetrack around a target area you at super high altitudes you wouldnt burn you gas away and you would have tons of time to suck up all the info you can and even laze and do BDA for BVR/over the horizon weapons launched well outside the danger zone.

imagine a few F15EX launch all their HARM missiles and guided in by said wild weasel over the area way up in the thin air and the F15's stay well out side the range of SAM's or GPS locations to load into stombreakers or some glide weapon

a reply to: Woody510
Something that is missing from the Arsenal.

a reply to: Woody510

Amarillo was identified, until someone recently decided it was something totally different.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I never was able to find anywhere what that identification was. I missed that somehow. What is it's purpose? What was it designed to do? I always mused that it might be a stealthy transport for DEVGRU operators.

a reply to: Rider

It was a demonstrator for the LRS-B flyoff. It was deliberately allowed to be seen as a “look what’s in our toy box” for certain nations that were acting up at the time.

a reply to: Zaphod58

the question is what are they going to do with it.

where is it now, probably down the street or flying around me right now.

when i got to Germany they made us black out our aircraft on the runway, we had to draw our shades and kill the lights, all of them and couldnt deplane for a good 2 hours.

where i am now there have been a few small leer jets landing with groups of very military looking men with no uniforms.

there is no way they just said scrap it, someone took it for something. there were no losers in that fly off

a reply to: Zaphod58
So was it Lockheeds entry? I must have missed that as well?!

a reply to: noscopebacon

Speaking about Germany as to your current location? Never heard of the country being associated with anything black to be honest.

a reply to: SpeedFanatic

I'm not staying here, the people i work for have business in the black sea area.

Wichita was probably what your thinking of..They both appeared about the same time.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thank you! That's awesome. Helluva way to flip someone the bird. LOL

originally posted by: noscopebacon
there HAS to be something in the works or already flying(other than the F35) that would fill the role of an EF-111

Why? One of the limitations of the EF-111, EA-6B and the EF-18G is the crew. All of these aircraft can carry more powerful jammers, the problem is protecting the crew from effects. I can easily see the next electronics warfare aircraft being a UAV.

Depending on the mission and composition of the strike aircraft, jamming might be on the way out. Stealth aircraft are perfectly able to passively detect radar emissions and kill the transmitter. Many air to air missiles have a "home on jam" feature that makes the jamming mission more dangerous. A pre-strike with stealth aircraft could eliminate enough radars and SAM sites to allow a strike by conventional aircraft.

a reply to: JIMC5499

i have stood next to transmitters out putting 100,000's of watts(tv transmitter) of power. but it was a analogue non digital system and it had a tube.

it made radios not work in close proximity and when you opened the cabinet door you could feel the tingle on your skin.


granted it was not a beam of power it was omnidirectional and shielded


if your pumping so much power out your going to cook your guy and i would imagine a drone would also have communication issue



i could see things like MALD or whatever blasting EM beams all over the place and than use strong transmitters to fuzz out radars that try to lock on but I'm not sure how you would power a drone with a system that powerful.

there are other things you can do with a powerful and coherent radio beam(RADAR) to mess with systems on SAM sites or whatever needed jamming to the point you couldnt find the aircraft even if they launch blindly that's when they could kill the beams or aim it at the SAM and jack the power level to the max and fry the electronics



i guess what im saying is that new radar systems like on the F35 and B21 can be used as a DEW more than just a passive radar.

a reply to: noscopebacon

There's a reason that the canopies of the EA-6B were lined with gold. It was to protect the crew from the emissions from the jamming pods.