Topic: New Russian Mig 35 OLS System..

[Hexx]

K dunno if anyone here can add anything but..
The new Russian Mig 35whatverthey'reuptoo has somethin called the "OLS" (Optical Locator System)

It seems kinda revolutionary (or, actually very, very, evolutionary I guess)
Now- there have been some claims thta it will be able to detect stealth aircraft (ie your new F22) through IR emissions.
 (there's some info  http://www.aviapedia.com/video/new-mig-35-ols-video )

basically (from link)
Viktor Shargorodsky, NII PP general designer: “Stealth technology today is mostly decreasing it’s visibility in radio bands. But for the optical bands, especially in IR ranges the main parameter is temperature. And you can do nothing about it. Engines have great flow of hot air which can be detected perfectly from the big range if we are behind the plane. If we are going face to face, so first of all we still see some part of this flow and second we can see the front edges of wings which meet air flow and become warm too.”

Been trying to read up on this online, unfortunately all I can find are statements by hte Mig Lovers (Mig 35can see thorugh anything, it's far better than a F22!1) and the
"America's best" crowd ("There isn't a plane in the world that could ever take down an F22 in any circumstance")

Just wondering if anyone ehre has any concept of how efffective stealth would be against something like this, - everyhting I've read about stealth (not very much) seems to be about the radar waves, but since I'm asuming the engineers have heard about IR bands they've had included some kinda protection..

[Just plain old Punisher]

Most heat sensitive sensors can only "see" around 6-10 miles...sometimes more, sometimes less. Keeping in mind, it wouldn't be able to see below the horizon which is 24 miles.

Heck, we had a TV camera slewed to the AWG-9 Radar on the Tomcat for decades and it could visually identify targets 20 miles away.

Modern stealth designs use a variety of technologies to "cool" their thermal exhaust in order to help them fool thermal seeker heads on missiles....so thermal stealthing hasn't been ignored. It remains a very important aspect of the stealth design.

Radar still is the most important and predominant method of detecting aircraft at long range. Mig35's aren't AWACS. You would still need to detect the intruder with ground or airbased radar, and then vector the fighters in onto the intruder. So if you don't detect the F-22 inbound, then you don't vector in the fighters.

That's what people seem to miss a lot of these military forums. They don't understand how the technology is used in real life situations. You don't send up a bunch of Mig-35's and then "searchlight the sky" in the hopes that you find something (Would be akin to sending up F-15's and having them searchlight the sky with their onboard radars -- just isn't something you do) They're combat aircraft, not AWACS.

[Nemesis]

The new Russian Mig 35whatverthey'reuptoo has somethin called the "OLS" (Optical Locator System)

You look out the window? 

[Panzergranate]

Stealth isn't another word for "Immunity from enemy fire"!!

Remember that during the Balkans conflict in the 1990's a multi-million dollar Stealth fighter was shot down by a primity pre-WW2 Russian 25mm. M.1935. anti-aircragt gun.

Stealth only works against  smart weapons. It has no effect on dumb fire weapons still work fine. In WW1 and the early part of WW2 all air combat relied on a pilot's skilled use of dumb fire weapons.

I would speculate, quite logically, that the outcome of an air combat between a Mig 35 and an F-22 would depend on the skill and training of the respective pilots, rather the same as racing cars win or loose depending on the drivers. The technology available to them is just tools they can manipulate for advantage, if they know whem and how.

[Just plain old Punisher]

that the outcome of an air combat between a Mig 35 and an F-22 would depend on the skill and training of the respective pilots,

Russian pilots are hardly getting enough flight hours to be able to safely land and take off, much less engage in combat with a first line foe like the US.