Armed and dangerous: bombs and missiles for the PAK YES
Looking to the West
A prototype of a promising Russian strategic bomber of a new generation should be assembled in the foreseeable future, namely, by 2023. The aircraft will be subsonic, unobtrusive and built according to the aerodynamic "flying wing" configuration. Simply put, it will become a conditional analogue of the American B-2, as well as the promising B-21 Raider, which will have to make its first flight in the next few years.
More detailed information about the PAK DA has not been presented until today, however, if you summarize all the sources, then you can draw some conclusions. Most likely, the aircraft will have a take-off weight of approximately 145 tons and a payload in the region of 20-30 tons. The flight range will be up to 15 thousand kilometers without refueling.
In the last article, we have tried compare PAK DA with promising foreign "strategists", namely, the aforementioned B-21, as well as the Chinese H-20. Today we will try to understand what weapon will carry a promising aviation long-range aviation complex.
Air-to-surface weapons
Weapons are the main component of any strategic bomber. That without which the whole structure, no matter how perfect it is, is devoid of meaning. The very concept of a combat vehicle of this class is "sharpened" in order to deliver a certain combat load at a certain distance. Little has changed here over the past decades: in a broad sense, of course.
The new aircraft is positioned as a multifunctional vehicle.
“PAK DA will be a subsonic flying platform for the use of various types of missile systems from areas outside the enemy's air defense. These can be zones over the Pacific Ocean, zones over the Atlantic, over the North Pole ", - Dmitry Kornev, editor-in-chief of the MilitaryRussia.ru website, told Izvestia this year.
Let's look at the predecessors of the PAK DA. Strategic bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS act primarily as carriers of cruise missiles, including those with nuclear warheads. It is known that the new X-101 has a range of over 5000 kilometers. However, such a weapon, with all its advantages, has a drawback: it is a subsonic missile that the enemy can intercept, despite the use of stealth technology in its design.
Meanwhile, the world has already entered a new hypersonic race, and it will almost certainly bear fruit. The Americans, for example, are creating several airborne hypersonic systems at once, including the heavier AGM-183A ARRW (Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon) missile for strategic bombers and the lighter Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) that the F-35 can carry. ... And if in the case of ARRW the second flight tests in a row end in failure, then the Americans have recently successfully launched HAWC.
The advantages of hypersonic weapons with all the fundamental technical problems associated with their creation are obvious. The highest flight speed (greater or equal to M = 5 or 6120 kilometers per hour), as well as the ability to maneuver using aerodynamic forces, makes the interception of such a missile almost impossible in many cases. And the blow itself was unexpected and deadly. It is assumed that a long-range cruise missile with a hypersonic flight speed almost nullifies the possibility of modern air defense systems.
The PAK DA bomber will almost certainly receive hypersonic weapons. The fact that Russia is developing the latest long-range hypersonic missile became known this year.
“For these purposes, for the Aerospace Forces, new and modernized models of weapons, military and special equipment are being developed and adopted for service, such as the Tu-160M strategic missile-carrying bomber; airborne hypersonic missile system "Dagger"; high-precision long-range airborne weapons, in particular the Kh-95 hypersonic missile ", - leads RIA News words of the Chief of the Military Academy of the General Staff Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky.
According to a source in the military-industrial complex, referred to in the agency, the PAK DA will be among the carriers along with the Tu-160M (M2?) And the Tu-22M3M long-range bomber. According to the data presented, prototypes of the product are already being tested from the air carrier.
According to data from open sources, a hypersonic missile is designed to destroy strategic enemy targets at distances of up to 5 thousand kilometers. The flight speed is about 10 thousand kilometers per hour.
It is likely that hypersonic missiles will become something of a "day one weapon", when, as a result of a massive strike, the most important strategic targets of the enemy are to be destroyed. After neutralizing the main part of the air defense, the aircraft will be able to deliver strikes using more "familiar" methods, for example, using subsonic cruise missiles of the Kh-101 type or precision bombs.
Among the latter, speaking about the PAK DA arsenal, they name the newest planning aerial bomb "Drill", designed to destroy tanks, ground radar and air defense systems. Its main advantage is its relative cheapness combined with good accuracy. The planning range of the ammunition reaches 30 kilometers. The bomb has 15 self-aiming combat elements, which are separated at the end of the trajectory and descend by parachute, aiming at the target using radar and infrared sensors. The weight of the Drill is 540 kilograms.
Air-to-air weapons
There is one feature that distinguishes the PAK DA from all existing "strategists", and it is again associated with weapons. According to Boris Obnosov, general director of the Tactical Missile Corporation (KTRV), the plane will be able to carry air-to-air missiles.
"There will be air-to-air missiles, but most of them will be air-to-surface missiles," - quotes "Interfax" his words.
Thus, we are not talking about the transformation of the PAK DA into a conditional analogue of the promising "regional" B-21R, which was sometimes portrayed as a heavy long-range fighter. Air-to-air missiles will be used for self-defense purposes. Most likely, we are talking about several products such as RVV-SD medium-range or RVV-MD short-range. A larger number of them will invariably affect the main combat load - cruise missiles. The space inside the compartments (compartment?) Of weapons will be limited, and when placing weapons on external holders, the aircraft will lose its main trump card - stealth.
It is also known that PAK DA will receive "completely new airborne defense complex"Designed to protect the aircraft using electronic warfare. The new bomber will have to make its first flight in the middle of the decade.
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