Matt Gunsch wrote:
Havn't they heard that these are combat planes and are supposed to be able to be shot up and return ? seems like for what it costs to buy one, they ought to be able to fix it.
There's a HUGE difference between being able to just come home after getting shot up and remaining a viable precision weapons platform for continued use after that.
There's no doubt that the Hornet could take a beating and bring the crew home (depends on the damage, of course). So far as a bent jet's use after that...The airframe needs to be straight and have solid integrity in order to be able to do stuff like fly supersonic and pull 9G.
In addition there are issues with the avionics on a jet that's bent -- everything from how the flight control computers process the air data to make the controls move, to how the inertial navigation system provides an "attitude platform" (versus an electrical or vacuum gyro system).
Remember, a modern jet fighter is only partly an airplane -- it is also equally importantly a weapons platform. What I mean is all of the systems on that aircraft that are needed to employ air to air and air to ground weapons with the precision demanded by the current combat environment. Things like the fire control radar, radar warning reciever, inertial navigation system, FLIR systems, datalink systems, etc.
The employment of all that weaponry requires an immense amount of precision in how it is mounted and calibrated. Most of the time that stuff can handle the beatings that it gets from the rough-and-tumble use it takes from normal use. When the whole airframe is out of true, however, that takes a LOT to get all the other associated weapon systems and avionics
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