"Air Hunter" JNAAM calls into question the potential of the Su-35S and MiG-35. The first results of the delay project RVV-AE-PD
A fair share of hurray-patriotism will never hurt when analyzing a review of promising domestic concepts of military equipment, especially when their parameters are at the level of or are far ahead of the capabilities of foreign analogues. This statement is entirely true for multi-channel anti-missile defense-PRO C 300V4 composed missile is advanced sverhdalnoboynye interceptors 9M82MV with a range 400 km were introduced intercept height of about 50-70 speed and hit targets 4600 m / s . This missile defense system is today the world's only ultra-long-range missile equipped with an active radar seeker that allows you to destroy remote over-the-horizon objects at distances more than 100 km without the help of a divisional multifunctional radar of illumination and targeting. This is also true for the super-maneuverable Su-35С multifunctional fighter equipped with the world's most powerful Irbis-E H035 radar capable of detecting most of the western fighters at a distance of 300-400 km (depending on the EPR).
Nevertheless, if the unique anti-aircraft characteristics of Antei in the foreseeable future will remain superior to those catching up with Western counterparts with a shorter range and speed of targets, then all the positive aspects of Sushki and the MiG-35 combat units expected to be adopted can simply “crumble” to dust ”from just underfunding and“ freezing ”the project of air-to-air direct-flow guided missile“ Product 180-PD ”. And here, far from cheers-patriotism is already far, because the enemy is at the gates of a significant technological breakthrough in the field of development of a new generation of air combat missiles. This breakthrough is quite capable of shifting the effectiveness of the Russian tactical aviation (in terms of fulfilling the tasks of gaining air supremacy) to a solid third place, after the Air Force of the People’s Republic of China.
We are talking about the launch of a joint Japanese-British project of a long-range air combat missile JNAAM (Joint New Air-to-Air Missile), an agreement on which was reached between representatives of foreign policy and defense departments of the two states at the end of 2015 year, and then finally supported by a minister Defense of Michael Fallon and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to Japan 8 January 2016. Here we are not dealing with an ordinary long-range air-to-air missile of the AIM-120D type, but with a promising air-to-air missile missile with unique noise immunity from multiple electronic warfare systems installed both on intercepted aircraft and on airborne e-equipment . JNAAM is a hybrid of the British-French rocket-ramjet air combat missile "Meteor" from the company MBDA and the Japanese air-to-air missile of medium range AAM-4B, where the first will take the design of the airframe and the integral rocket-ramjet engine, and from the second - a hardware unit of the inertial navigation system and an active radar homing head with active PAR.
The presence of an integral rocket-ramjet engine with a starting accelerator and a solid fuel charge of a boron-containing gas generator will allow JNAAM, as well as MBDA "Meteor", to intercept air targets at a distance of 150-170 km, to maintain high speed (3,5-4М) in the final flight segment (in tens increase the success rate of interception in comparison with AIM-120D), adjust the flight speed depending on the type of target by means of the valve of the gas generator, located in the front wall of the combustion chamber; therefore, the product has a much larger specific impulse of surplus, surpassing the analogous parameter of the domestic URVV P-77, RVV-SD and P-27EPR / EM. If the latter types of missiles, due to the loss of speed, cannot intercept the maneuvering object at a distance of 70-90 km, then for JNAAM this is not a problem in 150 kilometers from the launch point.
The time has come to familiarize yourself with the JNAAM active radar homing head. It is known that on most modern anti-aircraft guided missiles (9М96Х2, Aster-30, ERINT and 9М82МВ), as well as air combat missiles (РВВ-АЕ / СД, Р-37, AMRAAM, Astra, MICA-EM and t .d.) ARGSN based on slot antenna arrays operating in the 8-40 GHz frequency band (X, J, Ku, and Ka-bands), but with low noise immunity and target “capture” range with 1 e2 EPR from 12 to 30 km And this is without intensive electronic countermeasures from the enemy, where the effective range can be further reduced. JNAAM will use a promising active radar homing based on AFAR, which is the "heart" of the Japanese AAM-4B ASU. It has a lot of tactical and technological advantages over outdated waveguide-slotted GOS. Firstly, this is the highest noise immunity, which allows the selection of an air target against the background of several sources of powerful radio-electronic interference of noise, protective and distracting types. The problem can only be EW aircraft stations emitting powerful imitation interference; against any other types of interference, “nulling” of the radiation pattern towards the interference emitters can be used.
Secondly, the GOS with active phased array, developed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, has 1,4 times greater energy potential, allowing you to capture a target with 1,5-2 m2 EPR (MiG-29СМТ or MiG-35) at a distance of 17-25 km Compared with such slot GOS, as the French AD4A or Russian 9B-1103М-200PA. As a result, the “let-forget” mode is implemented on 40% earlier and, instead of a dangerous procedure of highlighting the target with simultaneous convergence, the pilot can start the anti-missile maneuver much earlier, which can save the crew’s life and give the opportunity to continue the operation to gain superiority in the air.
Thirdly, the specialists of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, together with researchers from the Technology Research and Development Institute, developed a unique software algorithm for the inertial navigation system AAM-4B, which allows 15-20% to reduce the trajectory and flight time to the target. If practically in all inertial navigation systems of air combat missiles of American, Western European and Asian production there is an algorithm with the method of "proportional targeting" ("Proportional Navigation"), providing for a constant "pursuit" of the target with irrational maneuvering and kinetic energy consumption, then the JNAAM rocket INS will use the method of "guidance with the prediction of the movement of the target" ("Motion Prediction").
Its essence lies in the fact that at the moment the missile leaves the suspension, the on-board radar accurately determines the location of the remote target (including lowering or climbing, slowing down or accelerating), target designation is transmitted to the IN-module of the missile, after which its onboard computer calculates the preemptive meeting point the purpose. The rocket does not follow the target, constantly adjusting and lengthening the trajectory, and is sent to the calculated point, which allows you to speed up the interception time. The rocket is connected to the carrier via a coded radio link of the tactical network Link-16, which indicates the possibility of issuing target designation not only from the carrier fighter, but also from other units equipped with MIDS / TADIL-L terminals (ERLNS E-3C aircraft) / G "Sentry", E-2D, REAR RC-135V / W planes, most of the NATO multi-purpose fighters of the NATO countries, ground-based radars AN / TPS-75 and destroyers / cruisers of the Arleigh Burke / Ticonderoga URO).
The active radar homing head with AFAR also provides for the use of a JNAAM rocket in air-to-surface mode; in this case, an additional millimeter channel of operation, which increases accuracy, may be required for a smaller circular deviation. Based on the capabilities of modern AFAR-Radar, the promising hybrid MBDA “Meteor” and AAM-4B can be used in the passive mode of operation of the GOS, which will affect ground-based radars ARLO, depriving the enemy of important tactical information about the air situation. Already, well-informed sources are claiming an increase in the energy capabilities of JNAAM's GOS, because on the horizon there is an active introduction of Gallium Nitride (GaN) -based transceiver modules, which Japanese experts are actively working on. Such an ARGSN design will provide an opportunity to find targets with the 1,5 m2 EPR within 25-30 km, which is a unique indicator for an antenna array with a diameter of the order of 155 mm.
1 of September 2017 of the document “Defense Programs and Budget of Japan” made by the Ministry of Defense of Japan over the past few months became known, 66 million dollars are planned to be allocated next year to promote the JNAAM promising long-range air combat missile jointly with the United Kingdom. Now the future of the product can be considered the main tactical asset of the air supremacy of the British unobtrusive fighter planes of the North-Eastern Air Force (F-35B) and ordered by F-35A by Japan. It is time to take this information seriously today. After all, if the Chinese Air Force already has a decent asymmetrical response to the future JNAAM Japanese Air Force self-defense forces in the form of PL-12D / 15 / 21D ultra-long-range “air killers”, our RVV-AE-PD project is all is still “in the long box”, which, apparently, no one intends to open. Meanwhile, we recall that even the most powerful airborne radars "Irbis-E" and "Belka" do not determine superiority over the air enemy, possessing the most long-range and accurate interceptor missiles in the world.
Information sources:
http://forum.militaryparitet.com/viewtopic.php?id=3761
http://rbase.new-factoria.ru/missile/wobb/rvv-cd/rvv-cd.shtml
http://rbase.new-factoria.ru/missile/wobb/meteor/meteor.shtml
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