there has been a certain school of thought that once missiles became advanced enough, any plane would do as a fighter, as long as it could carry the missile and the necessary avionics/radar/etc
taking this to the logical extreme, how about a really big plane such as 747 or B-52 as a fighter?
it could carry enough fuel to reach anywhere in the world and loiter on-station for long periods of time
it could carry MASSIVE amounts of missiles, enough to basically eliminate any airforce in existence
it could carry very powerful radar and essentially be it's own AWACS
but wait you say! wouldn't such a large and unstealthy plane be a huge target and have very low survivability?
most fighters rely on 3 methods to avoid getting shot down: stealth, manoueverability/speed, and countermeasures
obviously 2 of those 3 wouldn't apply to a jumbo fighter, but it has other advantages
1) proactive defense
a) any SAM site that lights up can get pounded immediately
b) any passive launch would be immediately seen and tracked by its powerful radar, enabling counter-battery fire to ensure no subsequent launches
c) it can carry larger missiles than any current fighter. larger missiles = larger range = it can shoot any plane out of the sky before it can get close enough to fire
2) real missile defense
a) like AEGIS cruisers, it could carry and launch actual countermissiles
b) it could also possible carry something similar to the Phalanx CIWS
3) survivability
a) a 747 can fly with 2 of 4 engines blown off
b) there could be a secondary cockpit in the middle of the plane that would enable it to continue flying even if the primary cockpit was damaged/destroyed
basically it would be so big that no one missile (or probably even 2 missiles) could take it down (unless we're talking large anti-ship missiles that usually aren't that good against aerial targets to begin with)
i'm not suggesting an actual 747, but a military plane built along those lines with more redundancy and possibly even bigger and maybe 6-8 engines
ok so i really know nothing at all on this subject and i'm sure if it was a good idea, someone would have already done it, so i'm just curious what problems you see with it
taking this to the logical extreme, how about a really big plane such as 747 or B-52 as a fighter?
it could carry enough fuel to reach anywhere in the world and loiter on-station for long periods of time
it could carry MASSIVE amounts of missiles, enough to basically eliminate any airforce in existence
it could carry very powerful radar and essentially be it's own AWACS
but wait you say! wouldn't such a large and unstealthy plane be a huge target and have very low survivability?
most fighters rely on 3 methods to avoid getting shot down: stealth, manoueverability/speed, and countermeasures
obviously 2 of those 3 wouldn't apply to a jumbo fighter, but it has other advantages
1) proactive defense
a) any SAM site that lights up can get pounded immediately
b) any passive launch would be immediately seen and tracked by its powerful radar, enabling counter-battery fire to ensure no subsequent launches
c) it can carry larger missiles than any current fighter. larger missiles = larger range = it can shoot any plane out of the sky before it can get close enough to fire
2) real missile defense
a) like AEGIS cruisers, it could carry and launch actual countermissiles
b) it could also possible carry something similar to the Phalanx CIWS
3) survivability
a) a 747 can fly with 2 of 4 engines blown off
b) there could be a secondary cockpit in the middle of the plane that would enable it to continue flying even if the primary cockpit was damaged/destroyed
basically it would be so big that no one missile (or probably even 2 missiles) could take it down (unless we're talking large anti-ship missiles that usually aren't that good against aerial targets to begin with)
i'm not suggesting an actual 747, but a military plane built along those lines with more redundancy and possibly even bigger and maybe 6-8 engines
ok so i really know nothing at all on this subject and i'm sure if it was a good idea, someone would have already done it, so i'm just curious what problems you see with it
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