1. G-Forces

2. Ejecting a jet is painful and dangerous

"I felt like somebody had just hit me with a train"

My head was swollen to the size of a basketball, my lips were swollen to the size of cucumbers

3. Landing on an Aircraft Carrier

It is precision flying at low speed and a high angle of attack. It is the definitive skill that sets Navy carrier pilots (and Air Force exchange pilots who have flown with a Navy carrier squadron) apart from all others.

All aviators know that black air is unlike any other color of air. It's thicker, making the engines churn more and even knock a bit. It's full of odd noises and makes your plane less fuel efficient. Gravity is also stronger in black air, as are both flavors of luck. Black air sucks. You can't stack overhead and coming raging in at the speed of heat at night or in really low visibility, so they set you up on a Case III profile. It's been done. More than once. That fact that burns into you, because you replaced a guy who did it a few months before you showed up. You’re even sleeping in his rack. Death can be very personal.

The post Flying a Fighter Jet is tougher than ‘Top Gun’ suggests appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

Can I fly with the Blue Angels in an F/A-18?

Yesterday we published an article about this blog about customers who think they can rent a supersonic fighter jet just like a car, today we want to cover another topic that is very popular among potential clients - Blue Angel rides. We get contacted sometimes with plenty of questions like:

- How much to fly with the Blue Angels?

Funny, isn't it? By the way - did you know that the Blue Angels is the second oldest formal flying aerobatic team in the world, after the French Patrouille de France?

And because we like them so much - look at the cool things they do:

What fighter jet was used in top gun?

Tom Cruise flew the Grumman F-14 Tomcat - a twin-engine, two-seat (yeah, Maverick and Iceman), variable-sweep wing, supersonic fighter jet. The F-14 Tomcat was used mainly as naval air superiority aircraft - to protect aircraft carrier fleets - but also as an interceptor and multirole combat aircraft.

Can I fly an F-14 Tomcat?

IRIAF F-14A Tomcat -Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force - the so-called "Persian Cat"

But - the good thing for those looking for a Top Gun flight adventure is: MiGFlug has a load of other fighter jets available for flights. So, no reason to be disappointed. Here is an overview by aircraft and location.

The post How can I Fly with the Blue Angels? appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

• CBS News
• Washington Post

• See the epic new edge of space video by Artur Sarkysian
• Stunning images taken by an F/A-18E weapons trainer officer
• Strangest and weirdest planes on earth

The post First Blue Angels female pilot takes flight appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

How can the Russian Navy be the biggest?

Russian Steregushchy class - 30 ships of this class are planned.

For a long time, the Russian Navy has actually been roughly equal in size to the US Navy (~300 ships) in terms of vessel count. But by the Russian annexation of Crimea, they acquired 51 new ships, making Russia’s navy bigger than the American one. But it is of course not really honest to say that the Russian Navy is bigger than the US's - a bluff. The Russian Navy is actually not bigger.  They have specialized their Navy to be used in small canals and small seas (The Black Sea for instance) and therefore they operate a large number of small vessels like corvettes, but a much much smaller battle fleet tonnage than the US. To show a contrast of the tonnage, here are the biggest naval forces in the world in terms of weight:

Navy Fleet tonnage comparison

How can the US Navy be that much heavier?

The reason for the US to be on the top of this list, but still have a smaller number of vessels than Russia, is because they have a huge number of big ships, such as 10 aircraft carriers of 100,000 tons each, and 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, weighing almost 10,000 tons each. While Russia has only one aircraft carrier (Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov) of 55,000 tons and 13 destroyers, with the biggest one of about 7,000 tons.

The US Navy tonnage is actually bigger than the next 13 Navies - combined!

US Navy Fleet overview

The new Russian naval vessels

Russian Vladivostok of the French Mistral class

Now the Russians are planning on acquiring (even) more naval vessels for their Black Sea fleet - which would widen the gap in ship figures between the US Navy and the Russian even more. The 80 new ships (planned to be completed in 2020) will make the Russian Black Sea fleet alone contain 206 vessels. Russia has also made new acquisitions for their Navy the last years. For instance the French Mistral Helicopter Carriers Vladivostok (laid down for Russia in 2012) and Sevastopol (laid down for Russia in 2013), which they paid $1.7 billion for. Russia plans to have 4 of these very modern ships in the end - but with the crisis in Ukraine and the Russian backing of the separatists - these ships are finally on hold and won't be delivered for now. The international community put a lot of pressure onto France which hesitated as the country is in a deep crisis with stubbornly high unemployment rates.

Russian supremacy - only on paper

The USS Gerald R Ford is the biggest, and most capable warship ever built.

But even though this might sound scary to some Americans, they have little to fear. The American Navy is, as previously stated, bigger than the next 13 countries combined, and 11 of these are US allies or partners. The US is planning on keeping their 10 Nimitz carriers until 2040 (or more), and their new USS Gerald R Ford, which is the lead ship of the class with the same name, which is planned to be commissioned in 2016, will add to the US naval supremacy. And even though Russia has a bigger number of vessels, the current situation of the two biggest navies in the world is like a saying from a Swedish kids show - Five ants are more than four elephants. 

• Learn about naval ship designations and their meanings here.
• Read a 3-part article series about the US Nimitz class aircraft carriers here.
• Read about the history of Russian aircraft carriers here.

• Businessinsider.com
• Globalsecurity.org
• Rusnavy.com
• Navy.mil

The post Is the Russian Navy bigger than US’s? appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

Frigates

De Zeven Provinciën-class air-defence and command frigate of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

Frigates are usually regarded as ships weighing more than 3000 tons. Their role is to protect other ships in their strike group, the main part of this responsibility is to protect them from hostile submarines. The frigate does not have a strict definition, which means they have similarities to corvettes, destroyers and even cruisers. The Littoral combat ships are by some regarded as frigates.

Corvettes

HSwMS Helsingborg of the Swedish Visby class. It features a stealth hull which decreases its radar cross section by 99%.

A Corvette is a small warship with light arms. Due to this and their high maneuverability they are great in smaller seas, the Red Sea for instance, which is an important reason - along the comparably low cost - many of the world’s navies operate them (just to give you some examples: The US, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Germany, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey... Due to Russia being connected to many smaller seas they have invested a lot in Corvettes and are by that the world’s biggest operator of corvettes.

Destroyers

American destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill of the Arleigh Burke class.

Destroyers are among the widely used ships in the world due to their wide range of use. Their combination of high firepower and high endurance make them ideal for both wars, escort and (other) peace-keeping operations. The name "Destroyer" comes from the Russo-Japanese war in the early 20th century where they were named "Torpedo boat destroyer". Today they are the heaviest surface combatants after the cruiser.

Cruisers

The Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Cowpens fires its missiles.

Cruisers - The cruiser is the strongest of them all. It is built to have great firepower and to be able to take out everything that its strike group can face. Due to its high cost and narrow mission capability, only the US, Russia and Peru (old ships) operate them. The line between cruisers and destroyers is not very obvious due to some of the new destroyers (DDG-1000 for instance) having greater firepower than some cruisers.

Amphibious Assault Ships

A Tarawa class amphibious assault ship of the USN shows its good deck.

These ships are warfare ships used to support ground troops in forms of ammunition, transport, refuelling of vehicles and to protect them from incoming enemy aeroplanes and surface vessels. Most of them have both a helicopter deck (where VTOL aeroplanes such as the F-35 as well as helicopters can disembark from) and a good deck where small amphibious vessels can be maintained and repaired. Some of them are regarded as aircraft carriers, for instance, the Japanese aircraft carriers Izumo has been renamed to "helicopter destroyer" even though it looks like an aircraft carrier.

Aircraft Carriers

Admiral Kuznetsov of the Russian Navy.

The definition of an aircraft carrier is “A large naval vessel designed as a mobile airbase, having a long flat deck on which aircraft can take off and land at sea”. Just as the definition says it is used as a naval base and aircraft operation centre. The aircraft carriers are the biggest military ships in the world with some weighing over 100 000 tons and the capability to house almost 6000 men. An alternate name of carriers is Supercarriers which is the name of aircraft carriers weighing more than 66 000 tons. The only country that operates more than 2 aircraft carriers is currently the United States (10 active).

Littoral Combat Ships

USS Freedom (back) and USS Independence (front) are both littoral combat ships of the US Navy.

Littoral combat ship - A small class of ships specialised to operate in zones with very shallow waters where other, bigger ships cannot be used. Under this name, there are only a few operational and they all belong to the US Navy. According to the United States Navy's webpage, the LCSs are “envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals”. They were also built to be a complement for the new DDG-1000 and future cruisers. The American Littoral combat ships are sometimes regarded as big corvettes.

Submarine - Attack

Dolphin-class of the Israeli Navy.

Attack submarine is the submarine type designed to take out other submarines and surface ships. They all use torpedoes to hunt their prey and some use cruise missiles in VLS to have an even greater range of targets. Due to their low visibility, they are great to protect friendly ships and to gather information about the enemy.

Submarine - Ballistic Missile

Submarine of the US Ohio class - one of its ballistic missiles is 150 times more powerful than both the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs combined.

This type of submarine is specialised to go out on the sea, hide, and then launch SLBMs with nuclear (or conventional) warheads to take out strategically important enemy targets. The second-strike capability was to ensure the "no first use" of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Strategic submarines are the traditional - but expensive - method of providing a second strike capability. The other one would be "Launch on warning". The new nuclear submarines can stay out at sea for months, at any instance being able to launch a missile of mass destruction from thousands of kilometres away. Due to this, all of the modern ballistic missile submarines have nuclear reactors as the energy source which gives them a nearly "unlimited" range.

Submarine - Cruise Missile

Kilo class cruise missile submarine.

A cruise missile submarine is a submarine that can launch cruise missiles (SLCMs). They have extreme firepower, for instance, the cruise missile submarine class Ohio can launch 154 cruise missiles without refuelling nor re-arming. The earlier types of cruise missile submarines had to surface before launching their missiles but that problem has been fixed and they can now launch their missiles without being seen with the naked eye.

Countries using the different types of ships (this info might come to change):

Picture of the US Norfolk Naval Base.

Norfolk Naval base in Virginia (US) is the largest American naval station where many of the US Navy's vessels are stationed. Explore the Norfolk Naval Base here: https://goo.gl/maps/bHoh8

As can be seen, many of the definitions go into each other with some ships belonging to several of them (for instance the LCSs). The definitions are no “rules” but more like general guidelines to get some kind of system and organisation. Of course, the ships of the same classification can differ a lot due to age, cost and the environment they are built for. What can be seen is that the smaller ships with larger areas of use are present in many navies, whereas the bigger navies with bigger financial support have ships that are both bigger and built for specific tasks. One country like that is the United States which has ships belonging to every group presented in this article.

Additional Reading:

• Read a three-part series about aircraft carriers here.
• Read about the F-35 that can be used on Amphibious assault ships due to its STOVL properties here.
• Read the story of Russian aircraft carriers here.

classifications of naval vessels

• Nvr.navy.mil
• Globalsecurity.org
• Navysite.de
• wweb.archive.org
• Dictionary.reference.com
• Naval-technology.com
• Janes.com/defence

The post Classifications of Naval Vessels appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.