Critical miscalculation of the US Navy in favor of the fleets of Russia and China. Consequences of leaving “Super Tomketov”
It has long been no secret to the fact that one of the most compelling reasons forcing the US Navy command was to be in favor of deciding to decommission American deck-based multifunctional fighters of the F-14A / B / D family "Tomcat / Super Tomcat" in the summer of 2006, became rather high accident rates, cost and laboriousness of service, as well as considerable preparation time for the flight and time to replace the engines of the combat vehicles.
As for the reference samples and the main applicants for the replacement of complex and expensive to maintain "Tomketov" considered more compact and lightweight multi-purpose fighter F / A-18C / D "Hornet", earlier versions of the more advanced F / A-18E / F "Super Hornet" ”, As well as the future deck-based fighters of the 5 generation F-35B and F-35C, in which high-ranking military officials from the Pentagon and the US Navy command saw tools capable of ensuring the implementation of the entire spectrum of operational and tactical tasks in the maritime and oceanic theaters of operations. And there is absolutely nothing surprising in this, because for that period of time the "track record" list of the same "Hornets" was not overshadowed by so many emergencies and disasters that the fighter-interceptors of the F-14A "Tomacat" family could "boast" ( more than 80 — 120 incidents with technical undercovering). And only by 2015 (according to this negative criterion) did the Hornets manage to overtake the F-14A / B / D ruler. With regard to the complexity of maintenance, by this criterion "Tomkets" lost F / A-18C / D 3,5 times (53,7 versus 14,6 people. * H on 1 hours of flight, respectively).
Representatives are even more interested fleet and the US defense department called on early modifications of the F / A-18E / F Super Hornet fighters, the first batch of which began to gain operational combat readiness in the spring and summer of 2000. The information that appeared in mid-2006 about “bringing to mind” the elemental base and software of advanced multi-mode AFAR radars in AN / APG-79, intended for installation on Super Hornets, put an end to the discussions regarding a possible extension of the operational life of family fighters "Tomcat", including multi-purpose modification of the generation "4+" F-14D.
The above-mentioned radar complexes, in contrast to the obsolete “tomketovskikh” AN / APG-71 with slotted antenna arrays, were able to work in GMTI modes (tracking moving ground targets), SAR / ISAR (synthesized / reversed synthesized aperture with resolution around 1 m, instead of 5 — 10 m), as well as EW, due to the pairing of transceiver modules with tunable RFTF filters.
Consequently, the level of immunity of the APG-79 has achieved exceptional performance, allowing the F / A-18E / F fighter jets to operate in the most complex interference environment. Decent flight performance of the Hornets and the Super Hornets also contributed to the final failure of the fleet from the F-14A / D. In particular, F / A-18C / D and F / A-18E / F are capable of flying with speeds close to “stalling” in 200 — 240 km / h (at angles of attack up to 35 — 55 degrees), while performing complex elements of pilotage, including the maneuver "Pirouette", which represents the rotation of the machine on roll with an angle of attack of about 30 hail. (the flight path forms a kind of spatial spiral with a radius of several tens of meters). Also, the “Hornet’s” family of cars have a good angular speed of steady-state reversal, reaching 18 — 21,5 degrees / s (depending on the combat load and the amount of fuel in the fuel system), which will allow them to achieve success in dog dumps with most of the known Transitional generation fighters whose engines are not equipped with thrust vector deflection systems.
The implementation of such elements of the F / A-18C / D / E / F aerobatics contributed to:
- first, advanced integrated circuits of the hornets “Hornets” and “Super Hornets”, presented by the developed aerodynamic influxes at the root parts of the wing and by the vertical tail surfaces with rudders that did not fall into the “aerodynamic shadow” of the wing when flying with large angles of attack,
- secondly, worthy thrust-to-weight ratio (approximately 1,05-1,1 kgf / kg) achieved by the use of powerful turbofan F404-GE-402 and F414-GE-400 total thrust 16330 and 18780 kgf and afterburner thrust at midship in 2437 and 2889 kgf / sq. m for the "Hornets" and "Super Hornets", respectively;
- thirdly, high aerodynamic performance in 10,29 and 12,32 units. for F / A-18C and F / A-18E respectively, which is even more than that of Su-35С and only slightly behind Su-57 (13,6 units);
- and finally, fourthly, promising computerized EDSUs operated by high-performance on-board computers.
So, the early F / A-18A / B "Hornet" for the first time in stories deck aviation The US Navy received the promising 16-bit computer AN / AYK-14 (V), providing the operation of both the inertial navigation systems AN / ARN-118 TACAN and the EMF, which allowed the vehicles to overcome the enemy’s anti-air "umbrellas" in the envelope mode in difficult terrain meteorological conditions (at altitudes from 35 to 100 m).
Starting in the middle of the 80's. data digital computer, built around a "core» AMD 2900, were widely spread in the United States Navy and have been integrated into the avionics deck aircraft AWACS E-2C «Hawkeye», multi-decked attack aircraft AV-8B «Harrier», aircraft electronic warfare EA-6B «Prowler , The F-14D multi-purpose deck fighter and even the 324-mm torpedoes Mk 50. Today, as part of the numerous stages of the Block III modernization program, most of the F / A-18C / D / E / F deck fighters in service with the US Navy and USMC and the Growler EW EA-18G EW Fighter Planes are being re-equipped and equipped with new-generation on-board computers Advanced Mission Computer Type-4, Advanced Capability Mission Computer, and Flight Control Computer (OFP V38 / 39.1). Their computational capabilities make it possible in the shortest possible time to “build” the most tactically adjusted low-altitude flight trajectories through the enemy's anti-missile defense systems, building on the terrain features of the theater of operations, as well as the characteristics of the radar equipment attached to enemy anti-aircraft missile systems and the missile defense methods .
Meanwhile, it can be stated that in this case, the thoughtless pursuit of representatives of the US Navy and high-ranking Pentagon military officials are constantly updating the fleet’s aviation fleet, which provides for the cancellation of proven and quite effective Tomcats and Super Tomcetts (despite the high cost of their maintenance and operation) played a pretty bad trick on both the shock and defensive potentials of the US Navy's carrier strike forces. Thus, the maximum flight speed of Tomcats, reaching 2200 — 2300 km / h with an air-to-air suspension configuration, could provide the vehicles with access to the launch lines of AIM-54C and AIM-120D URVV by about 20-30% earlier than F / A-18E / F, whose speed (with air combat missiles on suspension nodes) barely reaches 1,6М (of the order of 1700 km / h) at altitudes 7 — 12 km, or even slower deck-based 5-fighter generation F-35C.
Unable to "hornets" line to boast and outstanding combat range. If the F / A-18E / F has this indicator of 760 km without PTB and 1200 km with three outboard fuel tanks, then the F-14D "Super Tomcat", equipped with 2 PTB, is able to perform percussion operations and solve air defense tasks in 1500 km radius . What does this mean?
First of all, about the ability to deliver point strikes "depth" to 2800 km with the use of subtle tactical missiles large AGM-158B JASSM-ER. F / A-18E / F fighters (using the same missiles) are capable of striking a distance of no more than 2200 — 2400 km. Secondly, the possibility of the formation of anti-aircraft zones of restriction and prohibition of access and maneuver (A2 / AD) within a radius of 1700 km from a friendly aircraft carrier strike group (using the AIM-54C "Phoenix" and AIM-120D missiles with an 180 range) . Conclusion: "Tomketa" and "Super Tomketa" had a significantly higher potential of pre-emptive interception of enemy aircraft carrier hypersonic air attack.
Slow and less “long-range” decked F / A-18E / F, which the US Defense Department relied on, are able to install an “anti-aircraft umbrella” within a radius of just 1100-1200 km from the aircraft carrier, which will be completely insufficient to prevent an air attack from using new modifications of the domestic hypersonic anti-ship rocket “Zircon”, not to mention the promising aeroballistic medium-range missile X-47М2 “Dagger”, launched from a distance of 2200 km.
Another indisputable advantage of the F-14D is hidden in the much larger internal diameter of the nose of the fuselage and the radome of the on-board radar. While in F / A-18E / F it is on the order of 850 mm, in F-14D it approaches 1000 — 1100 in mm. From this it follows that in the course of the modernization, the Super Tomcat could receive on the 25-30% a more powerful onboard radar with an AFAR that has a significantly larger web diameter (aperture) than the APG-79 radar of the Super Hornet fighter. It is easy to assume that such a radar could outperform even the most “high-energy” American fighter radar AN / APG-77 in its main characteristics, detecting enemy air targets at a distance of up to 450 km (like the Russian Irbis-E radar).
Much fortunately, due to the stupidity of the command of the US Navy and the four-star Pentagon generals, all F-14A / D multi-role fighters were irrevocably written off and sent to scrap metal and museums in the middle of 2000's, which finally deprived the American carrier-based attack groups of the "long arm" "Capable of effectively resisting our and Chinese aircraft and aircraft carrying hypersonic anti-ship weapons until the middle of the XXI century.
What was the reason for the transition of carrier-based aviation of the US Navy only to the “Hornets” and “Super Hornets”?
As for the reference samples and the main applicants for the replacement of complex and expensive to maintain "Tomketov" considered more compact and lightweight multi-purpose fighter F / A-18C / D "Hornet", earlier versions of the more advanced F / A-18E / F "Super Hornet" ”, As well as the future deck-based fighters of the 5 generation F-35B and F-35C, in which high-ranking military officials from the Pentagon and the US Navy command saw tools capable of ensuring the implementation of the entire spectrum of operational and tactical tasks in the maritime and oceanic theaters of operations. And there is absolutely nothing surprising in this, because for that period of time the "track record" list of the same "Hornets" was not overshadowed by so many emergencies and disasters that the fighter-interceptors of the F-14A "Tomacat" family could "boast" ( more than 80 — 120 incidents with technical undercovering). And only by 2015 (according to this negative criterion) did the Hornets manage to overtake the F-14A / B / D ruler. With regard to the complexity of maintenance, by this criterion "Tomkets" lost F / A-18C / D 3,5 times (53,7 versus 14,6 people. * H on 1 hours of flight, respectively).
Representatives are even more interested fleet and the US defense department called on early modifications of the F / A-18E / F Super Hornet fighters, the first batch of which began to gain operational combat readiness in the spring and summer of 2000. The information that appeared in mid-2006 about “bringing to mind” the elemental base and software of advanced multi-mode AFAR radars in AN / APG-79, intended for installation on Super Hornets, put an end to the discussions regarding a possible extension of the operational life of family fighters "Tomcat", including multi-purpose modification of the generation "4+" F-14D.
The above-mentioned radar complexes, in contrast to the obsolete “tomketovskikh” AN / APG-71 with slotted antenna arrays, were able to work in GMTI modes (tracking moving ground targets), SAR / ISAR (synthesized / reversed synthesized aperture with resolution around 1 m, instead of 5 — 10 m), as well as EW, due to the pairing of transceiver modules with tunable RFTF filters.
Consequently, the level of immunity of the APG-79 has achieved exceptional performance, allowing the F / A-18E / F fighter jets to operate in the most complex interference environment. Decent flight performance of the Hornets and the Super Hornets also contributed to the final failure of the fleet from the F-14A / D. In particular, F / A-18C / D and F / A-18E / F are capable of flying with speeds close to “stalling” in 200 — 240 km / h (at angles of attack up to 35 — 55 degrees), while performing complex elements of pilotage, including the maneuver "Pirouette", which represents the rotation of the machine on roll with an angle of attack of about 30 hail. (the flight path forms a kind of spatial spiral with a radius of several tens of meters). Also, the “Hornet’s” family of cars have a good angular speed of steady-state reversal, reaching 18 — 21,5 degrees / s (depending on the combat load and the amount of fuel in the fuel system), which will allow them to achieve success in dog dumps with most of the known Transitional generation fighters whose engines are not equipped with thrust vector deflection systems.
The implementation of such elements of the F / A-18C / D / E / F aerobatics contributed to:
- first, advanced integrated circuits of the hornets “Hornets” and “Super Hornets”, presented by the developed aerodynamic influxes at the root parts of the wing and by the vertical tail surfaces with rudders that did not fall into the “aerodynamic shadow” of the wing when flying with large angles of attack,
- secondly, worthy thrust-to-weight ratio (approximately 1,05-1,1 kgf / kg) achieved by the use of powerful turbofan F404-GE-402 and F414-GE-400 total thrust 16330 and 18780 kgf and afterburner thrust at midship in 2437 and 2889 kgf / sq. m for the "Hornets" and "Super Hornets", respectively;
- thirdly, high aerodynamic performance in 10,29 and 12,32 units. for F / A-18C and F / A-18E respectively, which is even more than that of Su-35С and only slightly behind Su-57 (13,6 units);
- and finally, fourthly, promising computerized EDSUs operated by high-performance on-board computers.
So, the early F / A-18A / B "Hornet" for the first time in stories deck aviation The US Navy received the promising 16-bit computer AN / AYK-14 (V), providing the operation of both the inertial navigation systems AN / ARN-118 TACAN and the EMF, which allowed the vehicles to overcome the enemy’s anti-air "umbrellas" in the envelope mode in difficult terrain meteorological conditions (at altitudes from 35 to 100 m).
Starting in the middle of the 80's. data digital computer, built around a "core» AMD 2900, were widely spread in the United States Navy and have been integrated into the avionics deck aircraft AWACS E-2C «Hawkeye», multi-decked attack aircraft AV-8B «Harrier», aircraft electronic warfare EA-6B «Prowler , The F-14D multi-purpose deck fighter and even the 324-mm torpedoes Mk 50. Today, as part of the numerous stages of the Block III modernization program, most of the F / A-18C / D / E / F deck fighters in service with the US Navy and USMC and the Growler EW EA-18G EW Fighter Planes are being re-equipped and equipped with new-generation on-board computers Advanced Mission Computer Type-4, Advanced Capability Mission Computer, and Flight Control Computer (OFP V38 / 39.1). Their computational capabilities make it possible in the shortest possible time to “build” the most tactically adjusted low-altitude flight trajectories through the enemy's anti-missile defense systems, building on the terrain features of the theater of operations, as well as the characteristics of the radar equipment attached to enemy anti-aircraft missile systems and the missile defense methods .
The losing stake of the command of the American fleet only on deck fighters of the Super Hornet family irrevocably “rolled back” the strike-defensive potential of aircraft carrier formations
Meanwhile, it can be stated that in this case, the thoughtless pursuit of representatives of the US Navy and high-ranking Pentagon military officials are constantly updating the fleet’s aviation fleet, which provides for the cancellation of proven and quite effective Tomcats and Super Tomcetts (despite the high cost of their maintenance and operation) played a pretty bad trick on both the shock and defensive potentials of the US Navy's carrier strike forces. Thus, the maximum flight speed of Tomcats, reaching 2200 — 2300 km / h with an air-to-air suspension configuration, could provide the vehicles with access to the launch lines of AIM-54C and AIM-120D URVV by about 20-30% earlier than F / A-18E / F, whose speed (with air combat missiles on suspension nodes) barely reaches 1,6М (of the order of 1700 km / h) at altitudes 7 — 12 km, or even slower deck-based 5-fighter generation F-35C.
Multipurpose deck fighter generation "4 ++" F / A-18F in double
Unable to "hornets" line to boast and outstanding combat range. If the F / A-18E / F has this indicator of 760 km without PTB and 1200 km with three outboard fuel tanks, then the F-14D "Super Tomcat", equipped with 2 PTB, is able to perform percussion operations and solve air defense tasks in 1500 km radius . What does this mean?
First of all, about the ability to deliver point strikes "depth" to 2800 km with the use of subtle tactical missiles large AGM-158B JASSM-ER. F / A-18E / F fighters (using the same missiles) are capable of striking a distance of no more than 2200 — 2400 km. Secondly, the possibility of the formation of anti-aircraft zones of restriction and prohibition of access and maneuver (A2 / AD) within a radius of 1700 km from a friendly aircraft carrier strike group (using the AIM-54C "Phoenix" and AIM-120D missiles with an 180 range) . Conclusion: "Tomketa" and "Super Tomketa" had a significantly higher potential of pre-emptive interception of enemy aircraft carrier hypersonic air attack.
Slow and less “long-range” decked F / A-18E / F, which the US Defense Department relied on, are able to install an “anti-aircraft umbrella” within a radius of just 1100-1200 km from the aircraft carrier, which will be completely insufficient to prevent an air attack from using new modifications of the domestic hypersonic anti-ship rocket “Zircon”, not to mention the promising aeroballistic medium-range missile X-47М2 “Dagger”, launched from a distance of 2200 km.
Another indisputable advantage of the F-14D is hidden in the much larger internal diameter of the nose of the fuselage and the radome of the on-board radar. While in F / A-18E / F it is on the order of 850 mm, in F-14D it approaches 1000 — 1100 in mm. From this it follows that in the course of the modernization, the Super Tomcat could receive on the 25-30% a more powerful onboard radar with an AFAR that has a significantly larger web diameter (aperture) than the APG-79 radar of the Super Hornet fighter. It is easy to assume that such a radar could outperform even the most “high-energy” American fighter radar AN / APG-77 in its main characteristics, detecting enemy air targets at a distance of up to 450 km (like the Russian Irbis-E radar).
Much fortunately, due to the stupidity of the command of the US Navy and the four-star Pentagon generals, all F-14A / D multi-role fighters were irrevocably written off and sent to scrap metal and museums in the middle of 2000's, which finally deprived the American carrier-based attack groups of the "long arm" "Capable of effectively resisting our and Chinese aircraft and aircraft carrying hypersonic anti-ship weapons until the middle of the XXI century.
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