The sixth generation Japanese F-3: what will it be

New look for the F-3

Japan is building its plans for the further development of the Self-Defense Air Force (BCC), and the F-3 project occupies a key place in them. Its goal is to create a promising new generation fighter aircraft with high tactical and technical characteristics. While this project is in its early stages, and some of its features have not yet been determined or not published. Not so long ago, new details became known.

Possible appearance

In recent weeks, the Japanese Ministry of Defense published several curious News and new materials for the F-3 project. It follows from them that organizational issues are being resolved. After this stage is completed, it will be possible to proceed to the solution of engineering problems. At the same time, there is already an approximate understanding of what a new aircraft should be like.

In December, the Ministry of Defense published a new image of the future fighter, reflecting current views on the project. The figure shows an integrated layout aircraft with a high wing and a collapsed V-tail. The power plant includes a pair of turbojet engines. Armament is planned to be placed on the external and internal suspension.

However, we are not talking about the final determination of the appearance of the future aircraft. The discussion of this issue continues, and the most interesting suggestions take place. So, the possibility of attracting foreign aircraft manufacturers to work, including with direct borrowing of their technologies and developments.

Organizational matters

It is reported that in fiscal 2020, the launch of full-scale development work on the topic F-3 is envisaged. To do this, the fiscal 2020 defense budget A separate item is foreseen for 28 billion yen (more than $ 250 million). Financing will continue over the next years - comparable amounts are likely to be allocated.

The head developer of the F-3 fighter has already been appointed the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries concern. It is also planned to involve other companies in the project, including overseas. This year, the Japanese Ministry of Defense is going to find potential foreign participants. Invitations will be received by BAE Systems, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, etc.

The intention to cooperate with foreign companies led to the appearance of versions of possible approaches to design. The version about plans to borrow operating time or even to create an F-3 aircraft based on an existing foreign car is enjoying some popularity in the media. Which aircraft will be copied or recycled depends on which foreign company will cooperate with Mitsubishi. However, officials did not comment on such versions.

Plane of the future

According to known data, while the F-3 fighter project is in its very early stages. Before the appearance of a complete set of documentation, as well as before the construction of the prototype, several years remain. The construction of the prototype will begin only in the mid-twenties, and its testing can last until the end of the decade.

Experienced aircraft X-2

The main goal of the F-3 project is to fully upgrade the tactical fleet aviation BCC Japan. With the help of these aircraft, it is planned to replace the aging F-2 fighters - a redesigned version of the American F-16. The production of such machines began in 1996 and continued until 2011. According to current plans of the command, the F-2 will remain in service until the thirties.

The industry forces regularly repair and modernize cash fighters, but they will be abandoned in the future. After about 10-12 years, BCC plans to begin the process of decommissioning obsolete F-2s with the replacement of new F-3s.

The F-3 aircraft is being developed with an eye to the distant future, which affects the requirements for it. For some time, it has been claimed that the project will use elements of the conditional sixth generation of fighters. Thus, the promising F-3 will have significant advantages over the current Japanese BCC fighters. In addition, he will be able to remain in service and effectively solve tasks in the distant future.

Generational change

Currently, the Japanese Air Force tactical aviation uses several types of aircraft. The basis of this fleet is the fourth-generation fighter F-15J and F-2. Operation of such equipment may continue for the next several years, but then replacement will be required. Re-equipment plans have already been drawn up, and their implementation has even begun.

First of all, the BCC will be updated through the purchase of the last fifth-generation American fighter F-35 Lightning II. There is a contract for the supply of approx. 150 of these aircraft in two versions. More than two-thirds of shipments will come from the F-35A; It is also planned to purchase 42 F-35B aircraft. To date, the United States managed to transfer more than a dozen new fighters to the customer, and Japan is engaged in training personnel.

Over the next few years, the new imported F-35s will serve along with older cash types. Then the process of writing off obsolete samples starts, which will change the balance of power and increase the responsibility placed on the Lightings.

One of the first F-35A for Japanese BCC

In the future, at the turn of the twenties and thirties, the command plans to begin procurement of the next sixth generation fighter. Deliveries of production F-3s will allow for the gradual decommissioning of hopelessly obsolete F-2s, while at the same time obtaining well-known advantages.

Thus, according to the current plans of the Japanese command, over the next years the Self-Defense Forces will seriously upgrade their fleet of combat aircraft with a noticeable increase in combat effectiveness. During the twenties, a fifth generation fighter will be fully introduced into practice, and at the turn of the thirties, troops will receive the equipment of the following model.

Key project

It should be noted that in such plans the current F-3 project occupies a special place. In fact, it is this project that is a key component of the rearmament program and determines the future of Japan's ARIA for the next several decades. In addition, he will have to demonstrate the ability of Japanese industry to create a new generation of aircraft.

Japanese aircraft manufacturers have already demonstrated their ability to create modern aircraft - the result of this was the experimental X-2, which was tested in the recent past. However, industry now faces new challenges. The promising F-3 should be developed with a reserve for the distant future, for which it must meet the requirements for the sixth generation that has not yet taken shape.

Whether it will be possible to fulfill all the plans is unknown. So far, the F-3 project is in its very early stages, and even the general appearance of the aircraft has not been determined. Nevertheless, Japan's BCC and contracting companies are committed and intend to bring their new generation aircraft to production and service. In the meantime, the Self-Defense Forces will have to use the existing equipment and master a new foreign model.

Comments

[Dmitry Zadorozhniy]

As engineers say, the maximum percentage of novelty in a workable design is 50%. Let's look at the T-50, we will see the glider of the "crane" as much as possible invited by the iron. But the general layout and glider construction techniques are guessed without problems. But! What kind of brains are there, we do not know. The question is, what is the 6th generation?

[Passing]

Quote: Dmitriy Zadorozhniy

and what is the 6th generation?

the same as the fifth, only better, plus an adaptive wing, plus laser weapons, plus it was implied by unmanned ones, but after cutting the sturgeon to the extent possible it became an optionally controlled pilot. A full-fledged military AI is not possible in the foreseeable future, and remote control of the fighter is conceptually flawed, so we decided to introduce the drone operator directly into battle formations.

[knn54]

ANY pilot is not able to handle overloads of more than 10g and at the same time process a huge amount of information. Therefore, it will not be a plane, but a UAV

[Sergey39]

AI for the fighter is not and is not expected. The fighter will always be manned.

[voyaka uh]

The fact of the matter is that self-learning software - such as AI - has already been developed for a fighter.
And on simulators-simulators, it confidently outperforms experienced aces (on the same types
aircraft with the same armament).
He has not yet decided to put it on real aircraft.

[Sergey39]

Quote: voyaka uh

The fact of the matter is that self-learning software - such as AI - has already been developed for a fighter.
And on simulators-simulators, it confidently outperforms experienced aces (on the same types
aircraft with the same armament).
He has not yet decided to put it on real aircraft.

And they’re doing it right. Fiction is everything. But do not wishful thinking.

[voyaka uh]

"And they are doing the right thing" ////
----
I think so too. It’s one thing when an enemy pilot knocks down a pilot.
Another thing is when a drone hits a pilot. This is insulting, humiliating.
But, alas, this is an inevitable (and near) future.

[Sergey39]

I agree. But, only, this is the future that has already happened. In parallel reality (Terminator). In real reality it will remain unreal

[missuris]

what is the problem?
computers can pilot
aerobatics computers can
Computers can use computers to navigate by satellite, altitude, laser, sun, stars, topographic maps, gyroscopes
computers can direct a rocket or shells on radar, optics, magnetic field, heat, laser and other radiation
to receive an order to fly to point A, even computers with a voice check matrix voice commander can
Computers can distinguish a civil wide-body from a fighter
in fact, if aliens are invading the earth, robotic airplanes of 3 generations with civil microelectronics will appear in a couple of years.

[gridasov]

There is no reason to believe this, first of all. The analysis of big data with large input data in rapidly changing conditions is impossible on the logic used by computers. Mankind is not only aware of the principles of algorithmic construction of codes that would themselves be updated on the basis of other system guidelines, but methods for constructing spatial algorithms for data interconnection are not known at all. Therefore, all that a person has is linear mat sequences and distorted data.

[Nevsky_ZU]

I used to be skeptical of the news from Japan, Europe and China, about the possible independent construction of a 5/6 generation fighter. But in the light of the long refinement of the Su-57 and its second stage engine, plus the December crash .... somehow sad. Let's hope for the best.

[Maalkavianin]

What will be ... It will be expensive. 100%

[gridasov]

These are expensive concepts from people. No progress is more important aspects of the technology development process.

[Artemiy_2]

The Japanese only draw pictures. If only they would do numbness with him
But seriously, due to total corruption and industrial degradation, the Japanese aircraft industry is dead. Even a passenger plane cannot be created in 20 years

[Pavel57]

Created a passenger, transporter and PLO aircraft.

[Foxnova]

12345

[voyaka uh]

Here is a passenger with 90 seats:

Well, and besides, the American F-15, F-16 and F-35 are being collected

[Zaurbek]

F-2 ............

[voyaka uh]

F-2 is F-16 with Japanese alterations.
What a handsome man:

[Artemiy_2]

That was sarcasm

[5-9]

MRJ freak from birth - there is a lack of school.
Collecting is a bit different ...

[Andrey.AN]

Maybe the sixth generation will have a nuclear power plant in general, another generation of machines will create a different generation of people, based on other capabilities, goals and threats - the first, second, third and fourth are still in their infancy.

[rubin6286]

The article is informative. At the very least, it is better to know something about the development plans of the military aviation of our eastern neighbor, than to know nothing. Little is known about Japan’s technological capabilities to create 6th generation cars, but pilots are successfully mastering the American F-35 and are preparing to re-equip it.

[Pavel57]

This is not the sixth generation, it is 5+.

[Kamaz]

Or maybe someone will recall how the generation of aircraft evolved? Well, for example, how do the first from the second and the third from the fourth differ?

[arkadiyssk]

In my opinion, the author is wrong when he claims that the F-3 will go as a replacement for the F-16. The F-16 is replaced by the F-35, and so the Japanese will have them under 150 pcs. Why do they need another analogue of a tactical drummer in the ranks? The Japanese always needed an F-22 fighter, and the Americans refused them. So if they will build the F-3, then he will be a fighter for gaining superiority.

[Alexey LK]

Yes there will be no 6th generation! The future lies in a continuous radar field, SAM and UAV. When anti-aircraft missiles have a range of 300 km and available overloads of 60 g, the planes simply have nothing to do in the sky. The meaning is only in the relatively simple subsonic carriers of long-range aviation weapons, including for its own missile defense.

[shinobi]

All this, like ours, is fortunetelling on coffee grounds. As long as there is no intelligible concept of air combat on airplanes operating at 3,5-6,5 max, there will be no 6th generation. Modern air combat is still the same battle as in Korea and Vietnam. You have to slow down to 300-500 km / h, otherwise a person simply can not withstand the loads.