Matxer's SPMBT Tips

[Grumbler]

Except that the B-1 or B-52 can be shot down.

US usually wage wars when they have air supremacy, which helps a bit.

Not in the real world. Or maybe I should say that no B-1 has ever been lost in combat, while the last B-52 to get shot down was over Vietnam. Most AA guns and ManPADs have a max altitude of around 15,000 feet. So a B-52 at 35,000 feet isn't in danger. Some of the big SAMs can get up to 60 or 70 thousand feet, but they are all radar guided and the radar they use can be fooled. A B-2 flies above the detection range of the radar and in a lot of cases above the ceiling of the SAM. IIRC the Soviets has 2 SAMS that will get high enough to challenge a B-2. The SA-6 and the SA-10 and it's offshoots ( SA2000 and 3000 series). Max altitude of the B-2 is classified, but it should at least 80,000 feet, since it has very efficient engines and is 100% lifting body.

[KraMax (SPR)]

B-1, B-2, F-117 - planes are cheat in game :)

[matxer]

[Grumbler]

In theory. In history, no B-1 has been involved in Air to air combat. I'm not sure about the B-52. I think all the B-52 losses in Nam were due to SAM's. I could be wrong about that.

[shortreengage]

And what about fighter interception ?

1) Not simulated in SPMBT

2) Only a fool would send strategic bombers in against QUALITY fighters flown by QUALITY pilots directed by QUALITY command and control system supported by a QUALITY ADA network. The US has not faced this combination since Vietnam. Iraqi and Serb Mig 29s are the best they faced flown by poor/outnumbered pilots.

3) F-117s and B-2s have no place flying CAS in SPMBT. B-52s/B-1s maybe in certain scenarios. Of course this is after they penetrate the battlespace.

4) And what of Tu 16/22/24 and the Blackjack? Not much use in combat so not much data. And again the low quality of the Libyan/Iraqi/Egyptian pilots and low aircraft density comes into play.

[Cross]

Hi Matxer,

This info. is excellent. I noticed that you also play a lot of WinSPww2. Have you thought about, or have you, written something similar for ww2?

I would love to read it...

cheers
Cross

[matxer]

Thanks Cross.
I don't play spww2. The database was corrupted: games than once were recorded as spmbt became spww2.

[Grumbler]

"3) F-117s and B-2s have no place flying CAS in SPMBT. B-52s/B-1s maybe in certain scenarios. Of course this is after they penetrate the battlespace."

Old school. With the JDAM kits anything can fly CAS. From target drones (aka UCAV's ) to 737's. A few years back the Army was looking at kits to put on Fed Ex planes that would allow them to carry up to 120 500Lb JDAM's for CAS.
The idea was they could lease the 737's in time of war, install the kits and cut the Air Farce out of the loop. Not sure what ever happened to that idea. Maybe the wing wipers shot it down?
JDAM's Make a HUGE difference in CAS. A B-52 with 84 750Lb JDAM's can loiter over the battle field for hours ( days if needed). The normal reaction to an air strike is to hide and wait for the fly boys to RTB. Not with a JDAM.
With the new targeting pods, anything that moves within 70 Klicks of the B-52 has about 4 minutes left to live. The B-52 can service 84 targets before RTB.
Sort of takes the sport out of it.

[matxer]

But if JDAM is the supreme conventional weapon, why is the US selling this technology to Saudi Arabia ?

[Grumbler]

But if JDAM is the supreme conventional weapon, why is the US selling this technology to Saudi Arabia ?

Politics. About 1/3 of the support for the guerrillas in Iraq comes from the KSA. The State department is trying the age old middle eastern custom of buying them off. It worked for the Brits and the French, so they figure it will work for the US.
I'm not so sure, since the British and French experience was that the Saudi's didn't stay bought. Anyway, the techs think that they can degrade the JDAM's enough to prevent them being used on Israel OR US troops. I'm not so sure about that, but they might be right. My thoughts are anything that one nation/state can screw up, another can unscrew, and vise versa.
It's like the biometeric passports and ID cards. Joe 6-pack will not be able to fake them, but any terrorist will, since the terrorists get their documents from other nation states, which do have the resources to create fake documents, no matter how difficult that is.
Also keep in mind that JDAM's have changed CONVENTIONAL warfare more then any other weapon. More then the Machine gun or tank, more then gunpowder. Not sure that it matters in the real world. The US Army has lifted the bar so high on conventional warfare that I have my doubts about there being any large conventional battle for the rest of the Pax America.


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/article..._fail.html

This guy is pretty much in the 10 ring. The rest of the 21st century wars will be fought out like Iraq is being fought out today.
With guerrillas, killing them isn't the problem, it's finding them. So logically any farther military advances will be in the field of targeting and recon. We already have many ways of making an bad insurgent a good (dead) insurgent. What we need are better ways of finding them. That is why Robots will become more and more important.
Sensors can be fooled. The most reliable way to find the guerrilla is by sending someone out to die. Better that the someone is a Cyberdyne Systems 1000 then a Alabama moms son mark II.
Sorry I wandered so far afield here.