NationStates Jolt Archive

So far my air force consist of the raven fighter of my own design but i need to create a proper air force. Any feedback would be good.

Ok the basic requirements of an airfroce are soemthing along these lines:
for a purely defensive military stance with little of the way of expeditionary capability:
1. some form of air defence fighter/interceptor. this can be a multi role aircraft (such as the F-18, Grippen or Typhoon) but it is vital that it has a BVR missile capability with high agility short range AAM back up. This should be your priamry fighter type and would coem in 2 main forms: a single engine light fighter (F-16, Grippen or JF-17) or a twin engine heavy fighter (F-15 etc).
2. a close air support/attack plane, a part of this role will be taken up by your priamry fighter if it posses multi role capability. Here you have 3 choices:
A heavy dedicated CAS aircraft (A10 or Su-25/39), a light aircraft (J-22, Hawk or Pucara) or a SVTOL solution (harrier) additionally you could use cheap turbo prop support craft such as the OV-10 bronco but to be honest they are on limited utility in a full sclae conflict (but for cheap COIN operations they can't be beaten).
persoanlly i would go for a SVTOL platform as it gives you a much choice of oeprating locations (has the enemy bombed all your runways? then simply use the town square...). Also if you are an island at least your attack aircraft will need the ability to carry anti shipping weapons.
3. small transport aircraft for comunication and general duties either a single or twin engined prop aircraft would do, should have passenger, light cargo and possibly surveilance roles, the CASA CN-235 would be a good option as would the various Skyvan designs.
4. small jet transport: basically a bizjet design such as the EMJ-145, Falcon-200/500/700/900 and Learjets useful for high ranking officers, general patrol and with conversion as a mini AEW&C platform.
5. basic trainer: small 2 seater prop aircraft such as the Tucano or pilatus PC-9, can also be converted as light attack and patrol aircraft.
6. Jet trainer: twin seater light jet such as the Hawk, T-38 or YAK-140, these can generally be equipped to act as second line air defense and light attack platforms.
optional extras:
7. tactical transport: either a smaller design such as the CN-295 of the C27 spartan or the good old C130 hercules
8. full sized jet liner: idealy use 1 airframe design for tanker, AWACs and general transport duties.

To convert the previous setup to a fully offensive capacity you will REQUIRE your priamry fighter be multi role, liekly need more in the way of attack aircraft and the following additonal units:
9. A bomber: small, medium or large, stealth or not you will need a platform with intercontinetal range.
10. Large transports (such as C5 galaxies or An124/225s) in addition to lots mroe tactical transports, an intermediate design such as the C-17 woudl also help
11. soem sort of Eletronic warfare/SEAD fighter either a conversion fo your primary or soemthign else.
12. recon planes, both high altitude (U2), general (JSTARs) and photo recon fighters (add a pod to your prime fighter).
Also you will need that full sized jet liner to haul logisitics and keep your fighters flying with refeuling.

OOC: Well, for an air force, you want to make sure you hit all the basic roles you think you'll have a need for - air superiority (interceptor and fighters, generally), ground attack, airborne early warning, reconnaissance, anti-submarine, cargo, troop transport, and possibly more specialized roles - like strategic bombers, stealth bombers, "forward deployable" planes - i.e., STOL/VTOL or naval compatible.

Yeah i know what i need i just need to know where i can get them

If you use strictly Rl types then there is no reason not to biuld them yourself.

Crookfur could provide you with a number aircraft to fufil various roles including:
possibly the best harrier on NS, our CFU-9 with cargo, tanker and AWACs configs, the solution to your tactical/intermediate transport needs in the CFu-12 and possibly the coolest medium bomber in our super vulcan.
details of our rnage can be found here:
http://www.meatballs.terminator.org.uk/crookfur/aircraft.html

For your other needs i would suggest looking for slaes threads by Clan Smoke Jaguar or United Elias.

Or you can just go here for all of your "other" needs (missiles, navy, aircraft, satellite defense, etc):

http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3250685

Or you can just go here for all of your "other" needs (missiles, navy, aircraft, satellite defense, etc):

http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3250685