WAIT!
I just watched 'Live Free of Die Hard' and it had a F-35B attacking John McClane with a guns! Are you saying this is INaccurate??? :eek:

I remember them telling us back in the mid-90s to "settle down....we didn't say it wouldn't have some form of CIWS - just probably not the Vulcan cannon." :D

The Gun - Fun, but not practical that much in the AA world. CAS and interdiction, yes.

When your butt is hanging out there in a genuine combat merge, a better option is mutual support with a HOBS heater.

The last true gun kill the U.S. had was in Vietnam. A-10 on heli doesn't count. Who is going to fly through missile envelopes to use the gun these days? Damned dangerous.

The Vietnam gun syndrome came about because missiles didn't work. Now, they do, and very well. We've offloaded BFM into the AIM-9, and it can pull more G's than we can. ;)

If you get really bored, here are some other terms you might've heard your friend say.....
Brevity Code

I guess we've come full circle and we're back to missiles make the gun unnecessary? Very surprising to hear anyone who has flown a fighter in the last 20 years hold that opinion.

HOBS heaters are great but what if you're out? F-22s don't currently carry them, BTW.

No one's going to fly through a WEZ just to use the gun. However, there are plenty of reasons they may not have a missile shot (EP, flares, bandit maneuvers, none left, malfunctions, ROE constraints, etc.).

Missiles can work well but they're hardly 100% reliable as you seem to indicate. I personally had the AIM-9 you give so much BFM credit to hang on my rail during a launch attempt. My flight lead's first combat AIM-7 shot went stupid during a Desert Storm engagement and too many other AIM-7s to count had rocket motors fail to light after extended periods of carriage.

IMO, if we had a protracted conflict with a willing adversary who puts up lots of fighters (think Korean peninsula), we will have more gun kills.

"Dark Star, Judy Judy. I'm goin' to the merge."

Revised:
"Lead, Dash 2 is tumbleweed. I'm goin' to the merge." :D

Punchline - - - even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile!

Heard this whilst flying around CAE.

BIG PHOTO, BIG PHOTO, THIS IS COLUMBIA APPROACH ON GUARD, STOP STREAM.

Probably not fighter pilot lingo, but pretty cool.

Big photo is an electronic attack aircraft.

Stream is the use of chaff.

source: STANDARD ELECTRONIC ATTACK