(Don't read this if you want to go in completely blind)
I just watched Top Gun Maverick and it was really good. The action scenes were great, but what really made me like the movie was how the plot and characters were handled, specially the male ones. The cast is diverse but there isn't a single scene or even throwaway line about girlboss or black power or anything of that sort, it's all dealt with extreme respect and I did not expect that at all given the current state of things. The story isn't revolutionary or even too complicated, but the writers were fantastic in how they handled human relationships and values and it felt like a throwback to an America that is now dead and buried. Had it not been for the cellphones I honestly would have assumed the movie was supposed to be set in the 80s, despite being a sequel to the original.
Yes, it's true you cannot let go of your suspension of disbelief in this movie, but it's infinitely more gratifying to have a story where the guy defeats the enemies, gets the chick and has a happy ending. It's become an unspoken rule that stories like that can't exist anymore.
Fair enough, and I'll consider the film. To an ex military guy though, the idea of planes lazing for other planes is a huge oof.
To be fair: I dont know the logistics behind it, but the lazing was being done by the WSO using some sort of targeting pod while a the second plane was carrying the bombs. I dont know if thats particularly realistic, but it at least is something that seems believable enough to me.
Yeah no it's not. The forward observers on the ground do that stuff.
Airborne laser designators have been a thing for a while now. I think it's an AN/ASQ-228 pod; fits with the aircraft and has a laser designator for LGBs. Fwiw, I'm also ex-military and I thought it was a reasonable depiction.
Well, without those, you don't have a lot of choice in the matter.