11/2    Do modern fighter jets still have machine guns, or are they
        mounted with missiles exclusively?
        \_ true dogfighting requires canons
        \_ true dogfighting requires cannons
           \_ Why don't jet fighers have rear-facing machine guns?  I think
              it's useful for deterring the other guy from trying to shoot you
              with their machine gun from your back.  The apparent range of a
              rear-facing gun should be longer than a forward-facing one,
              because the air speed, hence air resistance, for the bullets is
              lower.
              \_ Guessing: targetting would be too difficult because the odds
                 of your enemy coming in straight behind you are very low
                 compared to your odds of lining him up in front.  For that
                 tiny chance of a rear-facing kill you'd have to carry extra
                 weight, extra targeting equipment for rear-firing, etc, etc.
                 The big WWII bombers had room for all that but fighters, both
                 old and new, both jet and props are a different animal.
                 \_ On the other hand, I'm pretty sure the Russians played
                    around with rear-firing missiles.
        \_ I think ever since Vietnam, when our F4's would run out
           of missiles and then have no armament for shooting down
           even more MIGs, all US jets have had cannons.
        \_ M61A1/A2 Vulcan machine gun. NOT a cannon. Russians use cannons.
           While a high-rate of fire, there is  limited number of rounds
           that can be carried before dry.
           \_ What's the difference between machine gun and cannon?  It's just
              bigger bullets and smaller bullets, right?
              \_ MG: Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!  Or in a modern super high rate of
                 fire MG: brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!   Cannon: thump! thump! thump!
                 \_ This may be the single best post on today's motd.
                    \_ Yup.  Much more descriptive than rounds-per-second
                       numbers. :-)  -- !PP
                 \_ I see.