the Aurora: too cool to just make up

The Aurora has been an alleged aircraft for over 20 years now, the idea is that this aircraft would be a speedy and hi-tech aircraft that was to replace the aging SR-71 Blackbird, which in it's day could reach a speed of Mach 3.2.



It's alleged replacement the Aurora is rumored to be able to reach up to Mach 8!
As a reconnaissance aircraft this means that it would be able to reach any point on the globe in less than three hours!

It could be used to take photos of certain locations anywhere on Earth the old fashioned way being able to arrive much faster than it would take an orbiting satellite to arrive over a certain subject.

Could it really exist?

People have often theorized that the expensive B-2 bomber development may have been a cover up ($22.5 billion development costs) for the development of the Aurora.

Reports of unusual sonic booms above Southern California have been recorded dating back to mid and late 1991. On at least five other occasions these kind of booms were recorded by at least 25 of the 220 US Geological Survey sensors across Southern California used to pinpoint earthquake epicenters.

Seismologists estimate that the aircraft were flying at speeds between Mach 3 and 4 and at altitudes of 8 to 10 kilometers. The aircraft's flight path was in a north north-east direction, consistent with flight paths to secret test ranges in Nevada.

The Chris Gibson sighting is also often cited.

Chris was in the Royal Observer Corps aircraft recognition team for 12 years up until 1991. Chris told Jane's Defense Weekly that while working as an oil-drilling engineer in the North Sea in 1989 he saw a strange wedge-shaped aircraft flying between two conventional F-111 fighter-bombers and a KC-135 Stratotanker.



The above image is a fake but the wedge shaped aircraft it is depicting could be in some form or another a reality.

Recent Russian defense projects include the development of missiles that can shoot down hypersonic aircraft.

A hypersonic aircraft of this kind as a weapons platform has huge potential for surgical nuclear strike and/or anti-satellite roles.

If it does exist and ever enters service it will probably pop up in various parts of the world far from US air space and will have the North Koreans and Chinese developing equally impressive surface to air counter measures.

Russia's deadly air defence

I wrote before about how Russian fighter jets are still more advanced than American ones already, but the truth is the Americans have twice as much jets in all categories than the Russians do, in my last post about how tanks aren't as important in today's battlefield as air power, I also mentioned how the MiG-23 was an aircraft mass produced in an attempt to help ground forces (which would be in even larger numbers) and how that concept didn't work.

SAM's (Surface to Air missiles) were built widely by the Soviets but never seemed to be very effective when put into combat, evidence of this is the Yom Kippur War in 1973 with Israel against Egypt and Syria, having learned from the Six Day War in 1967 Egypt put literally a wall of SAM's on the border, this did take down several Israeli planes but wasn't half as effective as it should have been.



With only a brief analysis it is clear that Russian radar and missiles have improved to the point that American F-15's, F-16's, F-18's and even the new F-35 aren't capable of surviving against them, the radar signatures of the F-35 are strong enough to be tracked and killed by these deadly systems!

The S-300 is old but still well capable of downing the 25 year old US F-15 Eagles;
many people dispute SAM's since they seem to have a bad record, most of them cite the Yom Kippur and the Iran Iraq War, I already explained the former and the latter would be because the operators on both sides didn't have adequate training.

Now as if shamming the USAF teen series fighters and the new JSF I'm going to put the nail in the coffin of what many believe can counter and/or destroy SAM sites;

Stealth aircraft:



Okay, let me show you exactly how much of a threat Russian SAM's can be to a stealth aircraft.

In 1999 during the NATO bombing of Kosovo Col. Dani Zoltan commander of the 250th missile brigade downed an F-117 Nighthawk with an SA-3.

The SA-3 entered service in 1961 and, while it had undergone some upgrades, was considered a minor threat to NATO aircraft!

NATO didn't even get a chance to bomb the wreckage and the Russians got a look at the wreckage thus compromising the then 19 year old stealth technology.

I hope America keeps this in mind considering the Russians more than likely considered all of these facts when building the S-400 system meaning that the Russian IAD's (Integrated Air Defences) will be twice as deadly.

I'm sure Iran and Venezuela will be thumbing it to the Americans when they receive (both have ordered) their brand new air defense systems in which a lot of work and experience has gone into and knowing the fact that in any American attack several fighter jets and pilots would be lost in the case of war.

Russian aviation still more technologically advanced

source: pandemicstuidos.com

The above image is of two Su-47's, one having downed the new American "Top Gun" fighter the F-22 Raptor and another one firing one of its hard points, the Su-47 Berkut is another one of the examples of prototypes and technology demonstrators made by the Russians since the end of the Cold War.

But here's the thing, there are only two out there, its distinguished by its forward swept wings can hold a variety of different missiles (up to 14!).

But its not perfect and any ole aircraft won't suit the Russians.

Back in the late 1970's the Russians needed something to counter the American teen series fighters (F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon), they came up with a fighter that seemed to combine the three of these, it was big, fast, highly maneuverable and armed to the teeth with missiles, it was not half as nimble as the Russians MiG's were in the 1970's, also it was designed unlike the MiG-29 to perform missions deep inside enemy territory.



The US has pushed the F-22 program forward after the Cold War to counter the new Flanker threat, what is supposed to be is the next generation fighter that is supposed to be a new generation in stealth fighters, but the truth is its fat, slower than the 26 year old Russian Flanker and expensive.

Yet the Congress in the US has been given shallow reasons to push forward on its development, Lockheed Martin have pushed forward 127 F-22's since 2006!

There have been other plans by the Russians for a new front line fighter to replace the MiG-29 and the Su-27 that started in the late 1980s!
Just how far ahead of the US in technological air strength where the Reds planning to go?



The Mikoyan Project 1.44 is another technology demonstrator to face down the F-22 Raptor, although Mikoyan seem to be going forward on this one with ease since they could use the same funds to build a couple more Fulcrums and Flankers instead of spending vast amounts of money on over a hundred big expensive stealth fighters that are unproven (and shiny).

are stealth aircraft proven?

In 1980 during the end of the Cold War the hi-tech f-117 stealth bomber was first revealed to the public, it was supposed to be undetectable to radar and able to penetrate deep behind enemy lines to destroy strategic targets.

It was 1991 it was shown to be top gun in Operation Desert Storm flying raids against Baghdad, not one was lost during the war but the British and French frigates in the gulf could easily detect the "undetectable".

In 1999 during the NATO bombing of Kosovo an F-117 was downed after being detected by an old Soviet radar system, the Russians even got a look compromising the then 25 year old stealth technology, another F-117 was damaged before the end of the war but still made it back to its base.

The F-117 was recently decommissioned a few months ago and also last July a 0.9 billion dollar B-2 crashed in Guam because of water in the sensors skewed the air-pressure readings too high causing it to crash and burn.



The F-22 is supposed to fill the void as an air superiority fighter over aircraft such as the Su-27, and also be a stealth fighter but because of its weight, size, speed and maneuverability it fails at these, already 127 F-22's are in service with the USAF and will soon prove to be another expensive unproven failure.

B-2 Spirit crash in Guam

A waterlogged sensor and an error in temperature readings resulting in this multi million dollar stealth bomber crashing and burning on take off from its base in Guam!