AN/AAQ-37 EO DAS for the F-35

A truly innnovative aircraft. I applaud the engineering effort placed into this aircraft.

I thought the F35 was supposed to be the low cost generic aircraft in our arsenal, when compared to the "air superiority role" F22. No wonder we can't balance our budget when the low cost vehicle costs more per plane than the air superiority craft? From a real military adversary view point, how does this bird stop a suicide bomber?

The only way I can see, is if security is breached from the inside.Once the system is armed and ready,it will be nearly impossible to get through.But remember, the great wall of China was never breached from outside, but from within by bribery and collusion by a beautiful woman, a weakness that modern man is still vulnerable to.

There were many reasons that eunuchs were once chosen as guards, aside from the obvious,and the best guard dog is a spayed female.

Today's dangers also include software hacks, EMP, and high powered laser or particle beams.

NG compartmentalizes information, so that no one person knows the whole system,but whatever man creates, he can likewise destroy.

Perhaps quantum security is the answer, at least for the time being.I am sure someone will find out how to monitor entangled particles without changing them eventually,perhaps by "weak measurement" and inferring the state.

Any security is only temporary and must be constantly appraised and updated.

Am I missing something?

Is this not the link intended?

Or are we just going 'instant tangent'?

But if it is the link - I'd take two!

RedFred asked how it could stop a suicide bomber, I interpreted it to be a question of what were it's weaknesses.Obviously, if a suicide bomber could get through security measures on the ground, he could be successful.I elaborated perhaps a little to much in some peoples opinions about security in general.I can see how this could be interpreted as going off on a tangent.

No harm, no foul.

Well the "we" applied to Red too - _{just that he seems a bit grumpy today and 'chicken' seemed the wiser path than valor.}

I'm thinking there should be an award for spinning threads into 'spending policy' and/or 'philosophy' - it seems really widespread of late - but who to name it after?

But hey - I don't mind. So how effective are these suicide bombers against the growing humpback whale population threat?

The suicide bombers are having limited success against the humpback whale threat, the main problem seems to be getting the whale to take the bait.

If the whales were getting enough Thiamin in their diets, they wouldn't be humpbacked anyway.So this is a problem for dieticians to study(at taxpayer's expense, of course.)

A committee should be formed to study this problem further, and recommend the best method to ensure that the whales get a proper diet.This of course, will trigger a study on fortified whale food,and it's potential effect on the environment, to include the contentment level of the krill, and the effect on the total food chain picture.

In order to be complete, the study must include a potential for increasing whale flatulence,which as everyone knows, is a serious threat to global warming.Perhaps the Beano company could help out with this study.Which brings us to the potential shortage of this miraculous product and an inevitable increase in price.This should be included in the health care packages of everyone.

NEWS FLASH! This just in:

Trials of Beano on whales have yielded some unexpected results.The whales are no longer able to communicate with each other.It seems that what was once interpreted as language was simply gastric distress sounds, amplified by the cavernous digestive systems.

This revolutionary discovery was made by a bored medical student listening to his own stomach with a stethoscope after a heavy bean burrito meal.Of course, now every scientist wants to duplicate the results, so I am buying stock in the Beano company before the price increases further. This may just be the economic spur that turns the economy around!!

Ah, excuse me but if you are replying to my comment, please say something about my comment. Allow me to demonstrate with a rebuttal of your comments even though they seem to have nothing to do with my earlier comments.

The only links that I encountered from a Google search of the infra-red detection system you cite in the lead of this thread were some Northrup-Grumman marketing promotions (propaganda) on the infallibility of the detection system. I would expect nothing less from any salesman. I would also expect that if NG had any known or suspected vulnerabilities to their system that they certainly would not advertise that there was a flaw in their design. Remember that the designers of the Maginot Line were correct about its ability to stop a German offensive. The Maginot Line was never breached by the Germans in crossing the French German border.

But I digress from your points here. You cite that the Great Wall of China was never breached from outside. Well if you examine the history of the Great Wall in more detail you'll see that it never was a single continuous wall at any time. Thus there never really was a topographic outside to this wall that could keep an invader out. As far as the defensive prowess of these walls, the most commonly cited myth of the Great Wall's defensive goal was to stop the invasion of the Mongols. But most of northern China was conquered by the Mongols between 1211 and 1223 A.D by going around the existing wall fragments. These invasions lead to a Khan (Mongol) dynasty of China that lasted for over a century.

This leads me back to my original comment. The real threats to US military capabilities has not been from any high technology weapons systems, it has been from low technology weapons used in places and ways we do not prepare against. Attacking your enemy at their blind spot is precisely the kind of approach used earlier by Genghis Kahn and Nazi Germany. A high technology detection system on a billion dollar aircraft cannot protect anyone on the ground from a suicide bomber. The F22 that is already deployed and operational has the job of obtaining and maintaining air superiority. Is NG telling us that the F35 will have to do this too because they cannot provide a production F35 before the F22 must be retired from flight fatigue?

You are right.

Nothing is 100 percent fail safe.Not even systems with 5 backups for every primary system.

There are always vulnerabilities that are sometimes obvious to the amateur, but are overlooked by the pros.And public opinion seems to be against effective prevention, with screams of profiling, and an airport security system that is a laughing stock of the world.

We should take a cue from Israel's airport security.It is much more mature than ours simply because they have been unfortunate and have been targets for so long.

But even then there will be loopholes.

It is almost impossible to stop a determined person who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice from accomplishing his mission.

How do you suggest we deal with the problem of suicide bombers?