Su-57 long arm: February launches laid expensive shoulder offspring from Lockheed
A number of extremely controversial events for the Lockheed Martin military-industrial corporation in the export sales sector of the X-NUMX-generation F-5A Lightning II multi-purpose fighter jets remembered the past six months. In our previous work, we considered the details of acquiring the initial combat readiness of these machines in the Japan Self-Defense Air Force, where, in connection with a solid US lobby, the Government of the Land of the Rising Sun decided to freeze the ATD-X low-profile promising fighter aircraft, in every sense of the word. Shinshin "and focused on a simpler proposal of the American corporation" Lockheed Martin "to develop a somewhat simplified export hybrid F-35A and F-35A and pack F-22A. Nevertheless, as we were able to find out, the capabilities of the AN / APG-35 radar complex of the F-81A fighter in terms of the detection range and capture of typical airborne objects are far from unique and cannot be compared with the domestic Irbis-E radar of Su-35C fighters, and also with the most advanced H35 “Belka” complex of the inconspicuous Su-036 fighter.
Consequently, the technological and tactical substantiation of this contract lies exclusively in the only thing - the creation for the Japanese F-35A of a promising long-range air combat missile based on an integrated rocket-ramjet engine, which will noticeably exceed the Russian RVV-SD in range and RVV-BD in maneuverability and speed margin. This is exactly what the joint Japanese-European commission from Mitsubishi Electric and MBDA Missile Systems is doing now. Meanwhile, to expect a brilliant success in the prospect of further pushing "Lightning" through intergovernmental foreign military sales (FMS) on the Asian and European arms markets is absolutely not worth it for two reasons that are somehow interconnected.
Firstly, it is the presence of such states where the US lobby has a much lesser impact on the defense sector than in Japan, Australia or the United Kingdom. Secondly, these are not perfected shock capabilities of the F-35A, according to which, for example, our promising aviation the Su-57 front-line aviation complex surpasses the advertised American aircraft by its head. Thirdly, this is a recent incident with the Israeli F-35I “Adir”, indicating the absence of that unique stealth (EPR of 0,005 sq. M), which American and Western European media like to talk about.
Let's start with the first item. Here, it is most appropriate to cite as an example Turkey, which has at its disposal such trumps as complete control of the most important regional military-economic artery represented by the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, as well as a comprehensive influence on the operational situation in the northern provinces of the Syrian Arab Republic, where Ankara has a noticeable the military-technical superiority over the MTR units and the US Marine Corps, as well as the French marin units that arrived in the eastern regions of the SAR at the beginning of 2018. Due to this, the Turkish leadership has the opportunity to periodically impose its rules of the game in the Syrian company both on Washington and Moscow. This is manifested both in the recent justified statement by Turkish President Recep Erdogan about "plunging the world into darkness with the filing of Washington, who lost the status of mediator in resolving conflicts in the Middle East", and in continuing the cynical support of the militants of the Free Syrian Army in the Idlib gadushnik, which is clearly not in favor of the Syrian Arab army and Moscow, but it provides the Turkish army with an excellent base for further seizing Syrian territory in the provinces of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo.
This is also well manifested in the free choice of a supplier of armaments for updating the country's air force and air defense. In particular, the official Ankara absolutely spat on the extremely negative position of the Pentagon regarding the contract between the Ministry of Defense of Turkey and Rosoboronexport for the supply of C-400 Triumph missile systems. After repeated threats from the US Congress, Ankara decided not to stand on ceremony in retaliation of the contract for the supply of the Republic of Turkey 100 F-35A in Ankara and reminded Washington of a wonderful alternative. Reminder reflected in news from the Turkish edition of "Yeni Safak" about the possible acquisition of a large batch of multipurpose heavy fighters of the 5 generation Su-57 in the export version. Naturally, this is not a final decision, but an extremely serious warning that makes Americans think carefully about the consequences of all sorts of threats and pressure on the customer.
It is noteworthy that literally one day before this news appeared in the Turkish media, a meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board was held, which once again sowed an impressive share of doubts about the high tactical capabilities of the American F-35A against the background of the Russian Su-57, and absolutely not by chance. It is here that lies the second reason for the likely export difficulties of “Lightnings” in those states that are not tied to “Foreign Military Sales” tightly. We are talking about the publication of the video, which captures the February launch of a prototype of the X-59MK2 multi-role long-range tactical missile from the Su-57 fighter, tested in the Syrian theater of operations. According to Sergey Shoigu, the head of Russia's defense department, several launches of these missiles confirmed their previously declared combat potential. As you can see, the statement is very standard, without an extra share of pathos or advertising. But what do we see in fact?
The launch of a promising unobtrusive tactical cruise missile is carried out from the second intra-fuselage central armament compartment with a length of about 4,7 m and 1,2 width. that one compartment (taking into account the mechanism of opening / closing of the valves and the mechanized suspension assembly) can accommodate 59 missiles of this, while two compartments - 2 X-400МК2; A very serious strike ammunition for the next-generation multipurpose fighter, isn't it? Against this background, the F-4A looks extremely pale. Today, its relatively small internal weapons bays allow to place only such “smart” air-to-surface weapons, such as: 59 guided bombs of the AGM-2A / C JSOW family (Joint Standof Weapon ”) with a range of up to 35 km at launch from high altitudes, small-sized guided bombs GBU-2 / 154 / B "Small Diameter Bomb - I / II" (the so-called "narrow bombs" with an effective dispersion surface of the order of 130 square meters and a range of 39 km) in the number of 53 units , as well as various modifications of guided bombs of the family JDAM with the appropriate sets of aerodynamic ridges, steering wheels and GPS-correction systems.
The only thing that Lockheed Martin, together with the Norwegian Kongsberg Defense Systems, can oppose to our Su-57, is the final development and adaptation to the two “close” inside-body compartments of the Lightning tactical missile JSM with a range of more than 300 km developed on the base the well-known anti-ship NSM especially for the Norwegian Air Force. Another option is the tactical long-range missile AGM-154C-1 Block III (JSOW-ER), developed on the basis of the above-described planning bomb AGM-154A / C. Its feature is the presence of a Hamilton-Sundstrand TJ-150 turbojet engine, thanks to which the product range increases from 130 to 560 km.
The flight tests of the JSOW-ER demonstrator took place back in October 2009, however, the operational combat readiness of this missile in the US Air Force is still not reported, except for a lonely message in the command of the US Navy that the finalization of the product continues . The conclusion here can be made only one: the tactical missiles JSM and JSOW-ER can enter the ammunition fighter F-35A "Lightning-II" no earlier than 2022-2024 of the year. In particular, it is these terms that are indicated by the resource www.armstrade.org (“The World Trade Analysis Center weapons") With reference to Western sources in relation to the Norwegian JSM rocket, because for its software integration into the F-35A weapons control complex, an update of the QCS software to the Block 4A / B version is required, which currently, if it exists, is absolutely raw. "Form.
There is another “shock configuration” of the suspension for the F-35A, which includes placement of the AGM-2B JASSM-ER 158-s tactical ultra-long-range tactical missiles at the outer nodes at the root parts of the wing, capable of hitting targets at a distance of 1000-1200 km. But here there is a double-edged sword: having a hull width in 550 mm, JASSM-ER, due to external placement and considerable aerodynamic resistance will have a very negative effect on the range of the F-35A fighter. Thus, the extremely modest combat range of the machine in 1080 km can be reduced to 900 - 850 km, which ultimately gives the “depth of impact” of AGM-158B missiles to the entire 1800 - 2000 km. Moreover, the whole “airborne” airborne technical and tactical problems are added. For example, when placing a JASSM-ER on an external sling, there can be no talk of a high supersonic cruising speed (≥1,3М).
The maximum that pilots with a similar shock arsenal can count on is 1000-1050 km / h in cruise mode. Such an important factor as aerodynamic quality, represented by the ratio of lift to aerodynamic resistance of a fighter at a certain angle of attack, will drop to extremely negative marks. It is known that in the absence of external suspension assemblies for the F-35A, the aerodynamic quality factor is about 8,8 units, while for the Su-57 and F-22A it is 12,2 and 12 units. accordingly, based on the data of the updated table “paralay_tab” of the resource “Stealth Machines”. It is easy to assume that the lightly maneuverable Lightning, which lost far more than one training dog dump F-16C and F-15C / E, will become even more cumbersome if during the execution of the strike mission from the tactical aviation of the enemy, air combat will be imposed on him. Do not forget about the limitations of the load on the strength of the strength of the structural elements of the F-35A after the appearance of such massive "cylinders" JASSM-ER under the wings.
Against the background of these difficulties, our Su-57 comes out as the undisputed winner in a tactical and technical duel with F-35A. The 25% lighter (770 kg) tactical missiles X-59МКХNUMX completely retain their internal position: the highest aerodynamic quality of the PAK FA, allowing you to effectively carry out anti-missile maneuvers and participate in air battles without a serious reduction in flight performance; 2 - 1700 km combat range, providing "depth of impact" with X-1900MK59 missiles to 2-2300 km, given that the modification of the advanced Gadfly-MK for the Russian Aerospace Forces has a greater range than the version for export.
If before the Su-57 link, a complex multi-purpose task is set up with gaining air superiority and simultaneously delivering a point strike at strategic enemy targets, each vehicle can take X-2MK missiles and 59 missiles into the first or second central intra-weapon compartments air-to-air class of medium and long-range RVV-SD (“Product 3-170”), as well as 1 melee air combat missiles RVV-MD, located in small wing inflow compartments. The vaunted F-2A will not be able to effectively carry out a multipurpose mission either in the case of the external deployment of AGM-35A / B tactical missiles (the fighter’s LTH will decrease), or in the case of the internal deployment of JSOW-ER or JSM.
With this configuration, the compartments will be fully occupied and the air combat missiles AIM-120C-7 / D will have to be placed on the external suspension points, which will dramatically increase the effective reflective surface of the F-35A to 0,4-0,5 square meters. And this is in the presence of the enemy powerful surveillance radars with passive and active ground-based and air-based phased arrays, as well as modern on-board fighter radars certainly do not contribute to the total superiority of the F-35A in modern air theater of operations.
Information sources:
https://www.popmech.ru/weapon/425602-su-57-zapustil-ovoda-v-sirii/
http://rbase.new-factoria.ru/missile/wobb/agm158/agm158.shtml
http://bastion-karpenko.ru/missile-h-59mk/
Information