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I understand and military cargo/soldier transport aircraft are not as agile and fast as fighter jets, but I was wondering whether one had a minimum speed requirement to be able to become a 'military aircraft'.

I'm wondering this because speed can enhance the speed at which operations are executed, and avoid enemy aircraft or missiles. It's simply not safe to have an aircraft moving at a speed in which they can be shot out of the sky in a matter of seconds.

Note: excluding helicopters

Super
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  • The old military gliders were technically transport aircraft, and they were really slow with an incredibly short (independent) range. – Ron Beyer Apr 16 '20 at 15:55
  • Military transport helicopters are often required to hover at zero airspeed. How slow do you want to go and why? – Guy Inchbald Apr 16 '20 at 16:39
  • Kawasaki C-2 had a minimum cruise speed requirement. And it seems that some other newer military transports also do 0.8 Mach cruise that matches commercial airliners. It apparently makes air traffic control easier which allows more optimal flight paths or something. So there can be speed requirements during design and 0.8M seems popular right now. (No, I did not really look that hard, so might be totally wrong.) – Ville Niemi Apr 16 '20 at 18:43
  • @Ville Niemi: But that's requirements for particular aircraft, not in general. E.g. the C-5 Galaxy is designed to cruise at similar speeds to commercial air traffic, but the C-130 cruises around 210-250 kts, the V-22 Osprey is around 270 kts, and so on. Really depends on the aircraft mission. – jamesqf Apr 16 '20 at 19:21
  • Do you mean stall speed? – Air Canada 001 Apr 17 '20 at 01:03
  • @VilleNiemi The C-17 doesn't cruise at anything like Mach 0.80. – Ralph J Apr 17 '20 at 04:01
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    The premise of this question is utterly confused & mistaken. Avoiding SAMs isn't about outrunning them at all, except arguably in the case of the SR-71. Plenty of military aircraft are notably slower than commercial jets: C-12, T-6, T-44, C-130, P-3, E-2,C-2, C-160, etc. All of these are absolutely military aircraft, even though they'd all have trouble outrunning missiles much bigger than a large Estes rocket. (slight hyperbole, acknowledged) – Ralph J Apr 17 '20 at 04:08
  • @RalphJ I know and neither do lots of other transport in use. In fact it is only the newest design (I think) where the speed has been considered important. – Ville Niemi Apr 17 '20 at 08:43
  • @jamesqf Obviously. Was that not clear from my comment? – Ville Niemi Apr 17 '20 at 08:44
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    @Ville Niemi: Obviously not, or I wouldn't have bothered to add my comment :-) – jamesqf Apr 17 '20 at 17:39
  • Not sure why the down votes. The question is based on misconceptions, but so many questions here are, that certainly can't be a close reason. It's not an exceptionally good question, but I don't think it justifies being down voted to oblivion. Anyone care to explain? – FreeMan Apr 17 '20 at 17:49
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    @jamesqf Still not seeing it but being as Ralph J seems to have also misunderstood the same way it is probably my mistake. Since I know what I am trying to say, I cannot really see how clear I am being. – Ville Niemi Apr 17 '20 at 20:52

1 Answers1

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There is no special certification that gives out the title of a "military aircraft". Any aircraft that is owned and operated by the military is, thus, a military aircraft.

Even the fastest aircraft can be easily shot down by modern missiles. For fighters, missile evasion is more about turn rate than speed, and for large non-combat aircraft, countermeasures are used. Speed is dictated by mission requirements instead.

The Antonov An-2 is operated by at least 50 national militaries around the world - more than the F-16 - which makes it one of the most-widespread military aircraft. It's popular with militaries for its ruggedness and rough field capabilities, and thousands have been built for military use.

It also happens to hold a solid standing on lists of the slowest production airplanes, with a top speed of just 140 knots and no specified stall speed. Few factory-built fixed-wing aircraft are slower, and they're all considerably smaller.

Being manned, fixed-wing, powered, mass-produced, and employed operationally, not for training, it ticks all the boxes to count as a military transport aircraft, without any small print. That should be example enough to make the answer clear: there isn't. Military aircraft can be as fast or as slow as the mission requires.

Therac
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