The "big blue and gray VTOL" that Cobra had is called the Hurricane, released in 1990. A very decent plane, if not spectacular.

The name change between the XP-14F and the XP-21F, from what I understand, was purely for "up to date" reasons. As cool as the F-14 is, it's not really considered an up to date fighter jet anymore. Although the new SkyStriker still looks like it, it was given the designation "XP-21F" to somehow compare it to an F-21, even if it doesn't necessarily look like one.

Grumman did propose a "Super Tomcat 21" as a lower cost alternative to the Navy's ATF program. Maybe the Joes got the Grumman Super Tomcat prototype.

So do you think the Hurricane is really Cobra main line air superiority fighter?




I think they named it the XP-21F because of the proposed ASF-14 Super Strike 21, their are other variations of the 21 I just like the listed one more because it is a beast. If we had it instead of these new 5th gens we would be in a much better state.

To be honest with you, excluding the ASF-14 21, the Super D Tomcat and the Persian Tomcats have equipment and capabilities that are better than anything we have now for the specific jobs they preform. Take in mind though I don't mean everything about these Cats are better than anything else. Most craft now have a larger area of operation and combat radius, the 22 and 35 have a different type of radar array all together, ironically it is built by Northrop Grumman.

They are still premiere superiority craft their only draw backs where the engines in the As, and its size makes it easy to spot. What they still have over current craft is range(weapons), range (active search) with the prototype or with two D they have a detection range of over 400 miles. Their ECM and ECCM, their ground attack capabilities when comes to precise hits with jadams, the 22 and 35 carry JADAMs, what the D could do is link all its combat and surveillance information with ground operators making it the prime choice for special forces in need of air support. They have the best low seed turning capabilities still, high speed goes to the Russians SUs. they also can carry the axx1 which lets you see what it is the radar fire control has locked on too.

Now for all the experienced Tomcat USN pilots what they would do in combat exercises is set the computer controls to manual for the wings, sweep them back 50-60 degrees during a pass with any enemy. What would happen is the enemy seeing the F-14 with it wings back would assume they are making a high speed turn, so they would ether make a high speed turn or a low speed turn thinking they would be right behind the F-14. What would happen is as the F-14 passes the enemy the computer will be set back to automatic and they would end up making a slow speed turn behind the enemy.

Now what the Persian Cats have is scary. They have been reenforcing their airframes with Russian made parts. They have been updating the software and hardware on their cats, and now they have helmet mounted targeting systems(something the Airforce gave up trying to use with 22s), they have found that the AWG-9 is robust enough it can handle carrying HUGE ground to air anti-aircraft missiles along with its air to air missiles.

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More like a alternate production prototype. The ASF-14 21 would have carried an even more powerful longer range missile that the AIM-54 which is what the XP-21 F is packing.

we know the pilot interface is more like a F-16s and now it has helmet lock capabilities like the Persian Tomcat

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I think you guys are giving the designers of the toy planes WAY too much credit by assuming the toy choices were made in any way to be reflective of real life military designs. At least in terms of technical accuracy and detail choices.

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Of course. But its fun that its close. Besides I just got back from the Air and Space Annex in Chantilly and its fun to go all fan boy.

I think your half right. But there Fighters they copied and made extremely similar to the real versions.

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Could someone make a list of every Cobra fighter they know of. I am thinking that the Hurricane at this point is Cobras mainline fighter but I want to be sure and the only Cobra fighters I know of are the ones talked about in this topic.

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The Hurricane is certaily the coolest plane in the Cobra fleet, and arguably their only fighter. I suppose you could make an argument that the Firebat is a fighter, but it seems more like a lightly armed interceptor to me. The second Night Raven from Rise of Cobra could also be argued to be a fighter, but again, it seemed more like an interceptor.

So yeah, if you're talking about straight up fighter, I'd say the Hurricane wins hands down.

Now if someone could tell me how to keep the wings from turning upwards...

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Well when the wings go up that's like hitting the breaks, and if their is any enemy behind them that enemy will fly right by in front of the Hurricane pilot .

Anyway after looking up the Firebat I have no idea what it is. I thought it could be a second line fighter or Interceptor but I saw a picture of it from the tv show and it was the leading fighter in a attack on gijoe. It was leading Night Ravens and other fighters... feliz navidad

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Honestly, the Hurricane was never a personal favorite of mine, but I think part of that was because I thought the figure, called Vapor, had a really cool uniform coupled with the most ridiculous helmet I'd seen to date. Looked like a BAT gone wrong.

Admittedly, I've always been partial to the Rattler and Night Raven. I do believe that Hasbro's designers did visit actual military bases at various points of toy development, and some of the aircraft are reasonably close to their real life counterparts.

Not sure the Hurricane is among these.

In the comics the Hurricane was NEVER used except a shadow in one comic............the newer comics showed it in use once.....
Also in the comics the Rattlers are the main Cobra fighter........
You really can't understand GI Joe without at least watching the toons or reading the comics..

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Like with so much of Joe stuff, it comes down to preference. There's so many different versions of the "truth" depending on whether you're following the toy line, cartoon, or comics (and subsets within each of those).

The Raven and Rattler were always the workhorses to me. But I'm sure there's people that have used things such as the CLAW, Manta Ray, Condor, Fangs, Mamba, Stiletto, etc. as "fighters" of various sorts. I'm know I used TARGAT in that role a few times

The Python Patrol Conquest would be a strong fighter for Cobra as well.

Not to rain on your parade too much, but once you start trying to reconcile the Joe world with real life tech, the problems get big real quick. E.g. the Sky Striker is about 1/2 the size it should be for a 1/18 F-14. Which means it would probably be subsonic, and have a piddly range. The powerful 20 mm Vulcan would have to be reduced to a 7.62 mm gatling (at best) to fit in the airframe; AIM-9s at that size would have small explosive power and range. The mighty F-14 radar would be reduced to a small, underpowered, ineffective unit. So once you accept certain Joe-world rationalizations to reconcile those kinds of issues, the same logic pretty much fixes any/all of your above questions/issues

Maybe I was a weird kid, but I never imagined that the Skystriker was actually undersized. Sure the toy was obviously smaller than a real 1/18 F-14 would be, but my imagination made it a full sized F-14. Just like my imagination made my Flagg a full sized carrier, etc.

As a result, my imagination made my Rattler and Night Raven full sized A-10s and SR-71s. As a result (and having an interest in military aviation from an early age) I also used the planes in as realistic of a role as possible. One frequent pattern of play would be to have the Joes move in on a Cobra fort with their armor. The Rattlers would be dispatched to overwhelm them. The Joes would call for Air Support and the Skystrikers would be launched from the Flagg. Given that the Rattler is NOT a fighter, it would have no chance at all against a Skystriker. It would be like a fistfight between a tortoise and a hare. When the Night Raven came out a year later, it at least gave the Cobras a chance as it was faster than a Skystriker and could quickly fly in and take a couple of shots at the Joe fleet, giving Cobra an opportunity to evacuate. Of course, the Night Raven simply couldn't dog fight with a Skystriker because of its lack of manueverability. So as soon as those shots were taken, they would turn and run as well.

What would have made my play pattern even more interesting would have been the earlier introduction of the Hurricane and Condor. I would have probably used them in Cobra offensives with the Hurricanes tying up the Skystrikers and Conquests with the Condors raining hell upon the Joe bases.

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Yeah, I never thought about the scale issues either as a kid "1/18" is a funny scale - personal weapons often end up being a bit oversized, large vehicles undersized, and some small vehicles oversized (to allow figs to get in easily).

And it's crazy but even though I was also a jet nut my parents didn't get me any of the jets. I think they just bought whatever was first in the Joe aisle. So my Cobra "air" force I think was a Fang and Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball
The Joes had a Dragonfly + whatever I built them out of Construx, so yeah poor Cobra never had a chance.

But don't forget that the Rattler with those movable wings/engines could theoretically pull off some crazy maneuvers in a close-in dogfight. [The modern Harrier can use it's turning nozzles to make crazy turns other modern jets can't match]. Even the plane it's based off of —the A-10— has amazing slow speed turning.