Multipurpose F / A-18E / F "Advanced Super Hornet": what will the new "Super-Hornet" surpass in F-16C Block 60 and F-35? (Part of 1)
F / A-18F Advanced Super Hornet
Without exception, all modifications of the multipurpose tactical fighter F-16A / C have become the most common, easy to maintain and efficient in combat machine generation "4" and "4 + / ++". The Falcons, designed both for acting as a light interceptor in the air defense system, and for carrying out strike operations to suppress enemy air defenses and destroy ground targets, managed to worthily prove themselves in the course of numerous military exercises and conflicts in the Middle Eastern and European theaters of operations. The most advanced modifications of this fighter are the F-16 / A Block 60 (USAF and UAE), F-16I "Sufa" (Israel Air Force or Hel Haavir) and F-16D Block 70 / 72 (offered by the Indian Air Force as a replacement obsolete tactical fleet) have long belonged to the cars of the transitional generation and are equipped with radar with AFAR AN / APG-80 / 83 SABR, the latest container optical-electronic sighting complexes of the type "Advanced Targeting Pod" (ATP).
In addition, within the framework of the Indian contract, there is such a vital option in close combat, as a modern, highly informative, helmet-mounted targeting system like Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS), which Lockheed Martin tries to attract accustomed to our Sura / Sura-M Hindus But the flight crew of the Indian Air Force, tempted by such technically advanced super-maneuverable vehicles as the Su-30MKI and the upcoming serial production of FGFA, are unlikely to pay attention to the F-16IN even after installing on it the network-centric equipment from the F-35A. Another thing - the Taiwan Air Force. Here, in spite of the success of the People’s Republic of China in the field of designing operational-tactical ballistic and cruise missiles, they are actively modernizing the outdated fleet of X-NUMX F-145A / B Block 16 multi-purpose fighter jets using the AN / APG-20 SABR radar, which has a high carrying capacity for tracking the targets, capture and mode of the synthesized aperture. This contract will bring almost more 83 billion dollars to Lockheed Martin. And the corporation will receive dozens and maybe hundreds of billions of dollars through contracts to modernize and replenish the fleet of vehicles used by the Air Force of such Asian and European countries as Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.
The next best-selling car today is the F-35A, which, in just 5 years, will flood the air force of a huge number of countries-friends of the United States. That only are the British, Turkish and Australian contracts. The small radar signature, the equipment of two powerful optical-electronic sighting systems of the AN / AAQ-37 DAS and AAQ-40 types, as well as the on-board AFAR-RLS are of great interest among monetary customers. So, huge bets on the F-35I car are made in the Israeli Air Force, who are trying with all their might to maintain parity with the significantly increased air defense of such states as Iran. But the flight performance of this fighter does not quite correspond to its transcendental cost (under 90 million dollars). Knowing that in close combat, the Lightnings lose to almost all fighters of the 4 + generation (including the F-15E, F-16C, Typhoon, MiG-29CMT and Su-30C), far from every state will consider F- 35A as a priority choice.
The objective assessment of the Falcons and Lightnings gives all the reasons to classify them as the so-called “airplanes of the first day of the war”, which can overcome or destroy the more or less powerful enemy air defenses to conduct an air operation on its territory. But there is another, more sophisticated and multi-functional version of the fighter of the transitional generation, capable of operating in a no less complicated air situation, which originates from the most popular family of deck multipurpose fighters F / A-18C "Hornet" and F / A-18E / F " Super Hornet. We will return to its review at the end of the article, and now we will consider the main modifications.
“CHERNEYS” FIRST ADVERTISING ELEMENT BASE RECEIVED AND THE NETWORK AND CENTRIC CONCEPT IS EXECUTED
To replace aging deck multirole attack aircraft A-7A / B «Corsair-II» and fighter F-4S «Phantom-II» in 1975, the program began development perspective deck multipurpose fighter-attack aircraft that can adequately complement the carrier-based fighter-interceptor F-14A « Tomcat. Then, neither in the Ministry of Defense, nor in the circles of the US Navy there was no doubt that the new machine should be, firstly, supersonic, and secondly, have maneuverability qualities at the level of the best American and foreign analogues, because "Tomcat" in no case was it intended for close air combat, and easily lost even to the MiG-23LD fighter-bomber, not to mention the designed MiG-29А and Su-27. The general contractor for the development and construction of the first prototype of Hornet was the famous company McDonnell Douglas, which completed 2 / 3 for the new project, the rest one-third was completed by Northrop.
The latter played a key role in the development of the deck Hornet, using the design of the prototype of the lightweight twin-engine multipurpose fighter YF-17 Cobra, which was not originally created for fleet, and for the US Air Force in order to replace the heavy F-15A. Replacements of the latter, for obvious reasons, their high performance characteristics, did not happen. But already on November 18, 1978, the first flight model of the future F / A-18A Hornet flew up into the sky, which gave rise to a whole family of deck vehicles that delight the flight crew of American AUGs with ease of piloting, and maintenance staff with their unpretentiousness in repair and preparation for flight. Even the first Hornets were simpler and less expensive machines than the F-14A: it took them about 3,5 times less time to service than all the preparatory procedures for the heavy and large Tomcat. Of course, the retirement of the F-14D “Super Tomcat” in 2006 is more than a thoughtless decision, given its high-speed performance, modernization potential and the great combat survivability of the power plant, but it so happened that the Navy command spoke out in favor of ready-made, more technological and easy-to-use Super Hornets, whose hardware was more recent and the engines economical. We will talk about the promising link of the American “decks” - F / A-18E / F a little later, and now let's see what the standard F / A-18A / B / C / D was given to the US Navy and Marine Corps.
The launch of the US Navy's entry into service in May 1980, the F / A-18A Hornet marked the transition of the American tactical deck component aviation to a whole new level of avionics. However, to some extent, this also applied to all American tactical aviation. The Hornet received one of the most advanced digital computers of those times - AN / AYK-14 (V), built on a modular basis around the 16-bit central processor of the AMD 2900 series with the ability to support 32-bit data buses. This CPU is able to work on a practical ceiling of 23-23,5 at temperatures from -54 to +71 ° C. Depending on the type of operations performed, its frequency could vary between 0,3 - 2,3 million instructions per second (MIPS). A processor of such a model was already installed on the deeply improved modifications of the Tomcat - F-14D, as well as on deck aircraft of early warning and control E-2C Hawkeye, which speaks of a worthy technological advancement even of such machines as the F-14A F- 15A / C. The processor was developed in 1976 by the Control Data Aerospace Division.
The car received an onboard radar from the company Raytheon AN / APG-65 with a slit antenna array (AAR), capable of tracking air targets on the 10 aisle and capturing 2. The radar range is 120 degrees in azimuth and about 150 degrees in elevation. The target with the EPR order 2 m2 is detected at a distance of 60 km and is “captured” by accurate auto tracking (in the absence of EW) at 50 km. AN / APG-65 also has air-to-surface and air-to-sea mode, thanks to which it became possible to detect surface ships at a distance of up to 150 km, as well as ground targets at a distance of up to 50-70 km. The AN / APG-65 multimode in conjunction with the on-board computer gives all the reasons for including the “Hornet” to the “4 +” generation. Also, a similar conclusion can be made after familiarization with the F / A-18A weapons nomenclature, which, both for the beginning and the middle of 80, is simply excellent. It consisted of: heavy tactical anti-ship missiles AGM-65F "Maverick", anti-ship missiles "Harpoon", anti-radar missiles AGM-88 HARM and UAB with a semi-active laser GOS GBU-10. As a weapon, the latest versions of Sparrow air-to-air missiles — AIM-7M (with a range of up to 100 km in PPP) and AIM-9M Sidewinder (up to 18 km) could be used to achieve air superiority.
Digitizing onboard avionics caused a good demand for F / A-18A: major contracts were signed with McDonnell Douglas from Australia, Canada and Spain, for which a total of 285 machines were purchased for the Air Force. The AN / ARN-118 TACAN inertial navigation system (INS), the AN / ALR-50 advanced radiation exposure warning system (STR), equipped with a drive with loaded types of irradiating radars, as well as an electronic warfare station, were of great interest to customers. It is worth noting that at that time our tactical aviation was seriously inferior to the US in terms of avionics. So, for example, if the radar of the MiG-31 interceptor fighter “Zaslon” with PFAR was technologically more advanced than the AN / AWG-9, then the radiation warning station at the front aviation SPO-15LM “Birch” with a not-so-highly informative indicator unit At times, they were inferior to such a state software as TEWS (F-15C) and AN / ALR-50. The H019 (MiG-29А) and H001 (Su-27) airborne radars did not have air-to-ground mode. The channel for working with sea and land targets appeared only on the latest modifications of the N001VE radar at the end of 90-s, and these radars were originally focused on the Vietnamese and Chinese arms markets for the Su-30MKV / IWC / MK2 configuration.
The next car in the Hornets lineup is the F / A-18C Hornet. The percentage of digitized avionics in this machine was almost 100%. In addition, additional structural elements were introduced that made the plus in the 4 generation of the aircraft even more noticeable. The design of the airframe F / A-18C was first applied radio-absorbing materials in the edges of the air intakes, which made it possible to partially reduce the radar signature of the "Hornet". And to minimize radiation from the avionics located on the dashboard of the pilot, the lantern undergoes a special procedure of magnetron vacuum deposition of shielding indium tin oxide. This significantly reduces the likelihood of finding the Hornet with passive electronic intelligence when the former performs a target indication operation (in the radio silence mode).
Now with regards to the improvement of computerized avionics F / A-18C. First, the updated “Hornet” received a new BC / AN AN / AYK-14 XN-8 +, the performance of which is significantly higher than the original version. Secondly, a specialized MSI (Multi-Sensor Integration) system was introduced, which transforms the fighter’s MSA into an advanced high-precision complex, which with its own radar and optical-electronic means accurately determines the coordinates of the detected targets, and then gives target designation for missile weapons. The MSI's peculiarity is that it has a data bus that collects target information from the AN / APG-73 radar, television and passive radar GOS of the Maverick and HARM family of missiles, from an irradiation warning system and attached optical-electronic sighting complexes AN / AAS-38 "Nitehawk" and ATARS. Information from all sensors and sights with the help of the on-board computer XN-8 + is summed up and analyzed based on the jamming situation and the accuracy of the locating systems, after which the more accurate coordinates are displayed on the F / A-18C Hornet multi-functional indicator. Conceptual similarity with MSI has the domestic special computing subsystem SVP-24 "Hephaestus", but its element base for 15 years is more modern.
The enormous possibilities and flexibility of using MSI in air-to-ground and air-to-air modes were demonstrated during several military operations in Iraq and Yugoslavia. For complex and diverse missions, the double F / A-18D version, which is in service with the USMC, was more often used. The presence of the second pilot-operator of the systems significantly reduced the psychological burden on the crew during the lengthy air patrols with simultaneous launching of rocket-bombing attacks on ground targets. For example, during Operation Desert Storm, several Navy F / A-18Cs that flew on the mission to destroy the ground infrastructure of the Iraqi Ground Forces collided in flight with the Chengdu F-2 of the Iraqi Air Force, which were quickly intercepted due to the ease of changing modes of on-board radar.
Later, starting from 1995-year, the F / A-18D USMC deployed at the Italian Aviano airbase, and from 1997-th to the Hungarian Avb Tazar, supported the OVF of NATO in the Yugoslav theater of military operations up to the 1999-th year. For more than 3 of the NATO aggression, the Hornets of the VMFA-332 / -NNXX squadrons carried out more 533 sorties, the main objectives of which were to close the airspace for tactical aviation of the Yugoslav Air Force, as well as launching missile and bomb attacks on units of the SV Yugoslavia and suppression Air defense. Here the double "Hornets" had a huge advantage - the possibility of working on ground targets in difficult meteorological conditions at night. For example, during the air operation Deliberate Force, the American F / A-700D used XUUMX-kilogram-controlled GBU-18 bombs with a semi-active laser homing head to destroy Serbian strategic military facilities. At the same time, the meteorological conditions did not contribute to the use of the laser pointer from medium altitudes, since dense layer-rain clouds were established over the Balkan Peninsula, and the Serbian air defense systems "Neva" and "Kub" easily reached NATO aircraft at medium altitudes. Therefore, most of the sorties were carried out at night in the mode of following the terrain with a slight rise to 454 - 16 m (to the lower edge of the clouds) at the time of the bombing. Flights with rounding of the relief became possible thanks to the advanced inertial navigation system of AN / ASN-500 / 600 versions, GPS receiver and the terrain mapping mode in higher resolution, which became possible on the new AN / APG-130 radar.
An innovation of F / A-18D was the installation of the reconnaissance optical-electronic complex ATARS, which had a module for transmitting tactical information over the air to a ground command center (KP). This is one of the first active network-centric elements in the structure of the air component of the US Marine Corps, which could provide comprehensive information about the enemy’s ground object for land units of the ILC, or for special operations forces. As for the airborne radar AN / APG-73, it is a modernized version of the AN / APG-65 with increased energy potential 1,2 times and increased sensitivity of the signal receiver. But due to the integration of AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles with active radar homing missiles into the Hornet armament, the target channel increased from one to two air targets.
EVEN "HORNET" VERSIONS "C / D" MAY BE ACHIEVED WITH HIGH AIRCRAFT AND TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT SOME OF WHICH MAY MEAN PILOTS "FALCONS" AND EVEN "RAFALIES"
Given that the aerodynamic configuration and materials of the airframe at the modifications F / A-18A / B and F / A-18C / D are almost identical, we will focus on the consideration of F / A-18C. This machine possesses the most powerful turbojet engines of the "Hornets", which allow to fully use all the positive aerodynamic qualities of the airframe, which is represented by 46,6% aluminum elements, 16,7% - steel, 12,9% - titanium, 9,9 - composite materials and 10,9% - other light and durable materials. Due to this, the mass of an empty fighter is 10810 kg (just 350 kg more than the smaller “Rafale” - 10460 kg). The normal take-off weight in the “fighter-interceptor” variant is 15740 kg, due to which the wing load with an area of 37,16 м2 is 424 kg / мX2. But despite this, F / A-18C very well and consistently "behaves" when maneuvering both on the horizontal and on the verticals. The angular speed of the steady turn at Hornet at speeds of 600 - 900 km / h is less than that of various modifications of the F-16C, but at low speeds (from 150 to 300 km / h) the situation changes dramatically. F / A-18C significantly faster reaches the maximum angle of attack to 50 - 55 degrees with accelerated deceleration, while the Falcon can only reach 25-27 (set by the management system software) degrees and lose normal controllability. Perhaps this is due to the presence of large aerodynamic flows at the root of the wing, the area of which is 5,55 м2. Also, a high angular speed of reversal contributes to a good thrust-weight ratio in 1,037 kgf / kg, achieved by two FXDUMX-GE-404 TRDDFs with a total afterburner 402 kgf.
According to reviews of pilots of the Air Force, Navy and USPC, in any scenario of close-range air combat, the winner will be F / A-18C, sometimes capable of performing dizzying maneuvers. More detailed LTH machines can be seen in the detailed story of the US Navy test pilot John Togas, published in the June issue of Flight magazine for the 2003 year. Here D. Togas shares with observers the experience gained during the retraining program from F / A-18C to F-16C as part of the 310 th Fighter Squadron on the US Air Force "Luc" Avb. The F-16N “Viper” combat training fighter was used as a retraining machine for the Falcons, with a slightly better thrust-weight indicator in 1,1 kgf / kg than the front-line fighters. Immediately, we note that the F-16C received a very tense nickname “lawn dart” (lawn plowman) among the air force flight crews due to the high level of accidents in tactical fighter squadrons.
According to John Togas, at low and ultra-low speeds in 120 - 160 knots, with the angles of attack from 25 to 50 degrees, the “Hornet” feels great and does not lose controllability up to the limitation on lifting force. The air flow during this breaks down extremely rarely, rarely occurs and loss of stability. A very interesting feature of the "Hornet" is the ability to perform the "Pirouette" maneuver, which occurs at a speed close to stalling (180 km / h): at an angle of attack of 35 degrees, the car starts to roll in a roll that resembles a "hammer flight" with 1 / 4 "Barrels". Such maneuvers are performed by Rafalem, Typhoon, our Su-30CM, Su-35C and T-50, but absolutely difficult to perform for F-16C or F-15C / E. In dogfight (BWB), the availability of such a maneuverable quality can later decide the outcome of the confrontation. So, using the AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, the Hornet is able to outplay many enemy fighters.
Maneuverability F / A-18C / D
John Togas also noted the excellent stability of the control system in critical flight modes: despite the fact that the machine’s maneuverability at low speeds is significantly higher than that of the F-16C, this does not require the implementation of an overload in 9 units, it is limited to 7,5 units, although it can constructively reach up to 10 G. Due to the larger cross-sectional area, the mid-section F / A-18C has slightly worse accelerating qualities, as well as the climb rate; Its roll rate can be 220 - 230 degrees / s, which is also less than 300 degrees / s (F-16C), but considering all the advantages of this car, the above disadvantages look like a drop in the ocean. A separate item is software that prevents stalling fighter and the entrance to the corkscrew. According to his own experience, Togas considers the Super Hornet to be the best machine than the Hornet.
The excellent maneuverability characteristics of the Hornet are ensured not only by the airframe and the influxes with high load-bearing properties, but also by the large area of the elevators (all-turning horizontal tail unit), which are noticeably larger than those installed on many other tactical fighters. And excellent controllability at high angles of attack is possible not only due to an advanced digital control system, but also due to tail vertical empennage shifted forward relative to the elevators. This design allowed us to get rid of the direction of the rudders in the aerodynamic shadow of the wing at high angles of attack. Vertical stabilizers and rudders have 20-degree external camber, which contributes to an additional reduction in the effective scattering surface (radar signature) F / A-18C.
The configuration of the F / A-18C / D armament became noticeably richer: the medium and long range AU-120C-5 / 7, AIM-132 ASRAAM melee range, the AGM-84H SLAM-ER melee attack aircraft and the tactical missiles appeared in the nomenclature; rocket armament, with which you can conduct an air operation of any complexity. To do this, 9 external suspension points can be placed up to 7031 kg of weapons. Next in the line are the F / A-18E / F "Super Hornet" and "Advanced Super Hornet".
Design work on F / A-18E / F started at the end of 1992, at the request of the US Department of Defense, made in 1987, to radically improve the combat qualities of the deck fleet of the Navy. Initiation of the program was initiated due to the absence of the F / A-18C “Hornet” separation from the heavier deck F-4S according to the “load / range” criterion. The best gunsmiths from the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), as well as experts from the McDonnell Douglas development company and the Navy, took up the work. The most significant changes were: an increase in the wing area up to 46,45 м2, an increase in sagging at the root of the wing and giving it a more correct rounding shape (in F / A-18C the indentation was represented by a wavy transition), the change in oval air intakes to rectangular ones, which became one of the main Stealth F-A-18E / F airframe components, equipping with a more powerful propulsion system and advanced avionics with electronic equipment. The aerodynamic quality of the improved glider has increased from 10,3 to 12,3 units. and surpassed almost all of the American tactical fighters of the 5 generation (F-22A - 12 units, F-35A - 8,8 units and F-35C - 10,3 units), having settled at the level of T-50 PAK-FA.
The total 2 th x of new turbojet engines “General Electric F414-GE-400” at the afterburner was 18780 kgf, which increased the afterburning thrust per midship (with 2437 kg / m2 at F / A-18C to 2889 kg / m2 x and kg / m18 kg / m10 from X / NUMX kg / mNUMXC to 476 kg / m2) / A-XNUMXE / F), fighter acceleration rates have increased. The load on the wing with normal take-off weight increased by XNUMX% (up to XNUMX kg / mXNUMX) due to the weight of the structure, but thanks to more powerful engines, the Super Hornet did not suffer any injuries, but also increased.
There is also a 36-percent increase in the area of horizontal tail (elevator) "Super Hornet", 54% -percent increase in rudder directions with large deflection angles to 40 degrees, which was expressed in the machine's maneuverability jump.
This is clearly seen in the video selection of the F / A-18E / F "Super Hornet" maneuvers with sharp turns in the pitch plane and access to the maximum angles of attack at speeds of 300 - 350 km / h. Comparing these episodes with a selection of F / A-18C, we can see that any element of complex piloting in the Super Hornet looks much sharper, plus - the car responds faster and better to the movements of the control stick. In the Hornet, on the contrary, maneuvering is more “viscous”, and the maximum attack angles achieved are less significant.
Продолжение следует ...
Information