Article The Warzone, avec le titre : F-15EX Nails Pentagon Test Campaign, Survivability Concerns Remain
https://www.twz.com/air/f-15ex-nails-pe ... rns-remain
The F-15EX has so far impressed in simulated combat, even against fifth-generation threats, although new enemy long-range missiles could prove a challenge.
(...)
“Against the level of threat tested, the F-15EX is operationally effective in all its air superiority roles, including defensive and offensive counter-air against surrogate fifth-generation adversary aircraft, as well as basic air-to-ground capability against the tested threats,” the report notes. The reference to the F-15EX’s effectiveness against fifth-generation threats is especially notable. While it’s unclear exactly what kinds of threats are being referred to, a fifth-generation fighter will typically have a low-observable design, advanced ‘sensor fused’ avionics, and generally high performance, among other attributes. Prior to the F-35, the fifth-generation rubric often included extreme agility and supercruise, but definitions for generations of fighters are highly subjective and change with the times. You can read more about this reality here.
Critics of the F-15EX have, in the past, suggested that the aircraft would not be able to compete on level terms with fifth-generation types, since it’s after all a heavily upgraded fourth-generation design, the first prototype of which flew in 1972. Regardless, the report seems to put such concerns aside, at least in the air-to-air arena, and based on the currently available test data. Furthermore, “The F-15EX was able to detect and track all threats at advantageous ranges, use onboard and off-board systems to identify them, and deliver weapons while surviving,” the report continues.
(...)
More details weren’t provided, although the “advanced, longer-range threat weapons” would appear to be a reference to one or more of the new Chinese air-to-air missiles currently coming online or poised to do so.China is known to be working on further-reaching air-to-air missiles, including the big PL-17, a very long-range missile that may well be intended primarily to target high-value assets, like tankers and airborne early warning aircraft. (...).
As well as the more specialized PL-17, there is also another new Chinese air-to-air missile, currently dubbed PL-16, the design of which seems to have been driven by the requirement for the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter to accommodate six longer-range missiles internally. In the past, Douglas Barrie, the Senior Fellow for Military Aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank told TWZ that the PL-16 will likely feature “an active electronically scanned front end, Mach 5-plus fly-out, a lot of very capable onboard software, and be very resistant to jamming.”
There’s no doubt that China is making rapid progress in air-to-air missiles, with even the relatively well-established PL-15 thought to out-range the U.S.-made AIM-120C/D AMRAAM series. Indeed, the Air Force has publicly said that the emergence of the PL-15 was a key factor in the decision to start the AIM-260 program to provide a longer-range AMRAAM successor.
(...)
More details weren’t provided, although the “advanced, longer-range threat weapons” would appear to be a reference to one or more of the new Chinese air-to-air missiles currently coming online or poised to do so.China is known to be working on further-reaching air-to-air missiles, including the big PL-17, a very long-range missile that may well be intended primarily to target high-value assets, like tankers and airborne early warning aircraft. (...).
(...)
Il y a certains domaines où on aimerait bien en savoir plus...