Defense Budget Fighter
Russian scientists have already begun work on the creation of the sixth generation fighter. The new model will be made from composite materials. This October 15 said the general director of the Foundation for Advanced Research Andrei Grigoriev during the forum "Open Innovation."
- Our task is to create the groundwork for the creation of the 6 generation fighter. Such projects are also being considered. They are primarily associated with materials and engines. There is an interesting project with the OKB. Lyulki on creation of engines with the unique characteristic, he while in a stage of consideration, - Grigoriev told.
- We are also considering relevant work on materials, and maybe in the near future we will choose a project. First of all, it concerns not so much composite materials, how many methods of control of their condition, - he added.
It is worth noting that on July 16, 2014, the head of the military programs directorate aviation The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Vladimir Mikhailov said that the first sixth generation combat aircraft will appear in Russia in the second half of the 2020s, that is, after about 12 years. At the same time, as the media reported then, he found it difficult to explain how exactly the new aircraft will differ from the previous generation aircraft, saying that the requirements for the sixth generation of fighters are only being determined.
Test pilot project T-50 (PAK FA) Sergey Bogdan in 2013 year suggested that the fighter of the sixth generation will appear in Russia no earlier than in 15 years.
“It would seem that technologies are developing fast enough, but still, from the fourth generation fighter to fifth generation, 35 years passed, ─ said Bogdan, adding that, despite the fact that promising aircraft will be unmanned,“ manned aircraft will still live for a long time ” .
26 August 2013 - on the eve of the MAKS-2013 air show - former Russian Air Force commander-in-chief Army General Peter Deinekin said that Russian aircraft designers had already begun developing a sixth-generation unmanned fighter.
However, despite such reports, it is still unknown what specific requirements the Russian military is placing on sixth-generation fighters. Moreover, experts have still not decided what the sixth generation will be like - unmanned or manned.
According to preliminary estimates by the US Department of Defense, the sixth generation combat aircraft must be subtle and super-maneuverable. Piloting the device must be optional, and its speed - hypersonic. And, most likely, the Americans will be the first to create such a plane. So, the American company Boeing at Sea-Air-Space Exposition exhibition in 2013 presented an updated version of the project of the sixth-generation fighter F / A-XX. The updated concept F / A-XX, like its previous version, is made according to the “tailless” scheme and is designed in two versions: manned and unmanned. The aircraft is equipped with two air intakes for supersonic cruise flight (like the F-35 Lightning II).
As for the Russian fighter of the fifth generation T-50, combining the functions of a strike aircraft and a fighter, it is planned that the aircraft will go to the troops in 2016 year. However, it is worth noting that the T-50 prototype is now using an engine called the “117 product”, an upgraded version of the AL-31F engine, which stands on the Su-27 and Su-30. The fact is that a fundamentally new motor for T-50 has not yet been created by domestic developers. Representatives of the United Engine Corporation promise that it will be developed by 2015 year, and serial fighters for the army with this engine will appear only after five years.
In the photo: the fifth generation fighter Sukhoi T-50 / Photo: Sergey Alexandrov / Kommersant
Now, many experts come to the conclusion that the sixth generation fighter will be an unmanned aircraft, that is, controlled by the operator from the ground and with a high degree of robotization, said military expert Viktor Myasnikov.
- Why? Because all the characteristics of such a fighter are limited not by the technical, but by the physiological capabilities of the pilot, who will be affected by tremendous overloads during flight maneuvers that a person simply will not sustain and lose consciousness.
In addition, the absence of a pilot is an opportunity to get rid of a whole range of systems, such as the provision of oxygen and a rescue system. That is, the space in the cabin can be filled with more payload. At the same time, the plane will receive a real super-maneuverability, will be able to act on very steep turns, without taking into account such a factor as the pilot's self-preservation instinct.
It is clear that the sixth generation aircraft should exceed the fifth generation fighters (therefore composite materials can make 90-100 percent of the machine design), equipped with the latest equipment, elements of artificial intelligence. That is, the plane will perform some of its functions independently, without a control signal from operators on the ground (for example, it can not only detect the target from a distance, but identify it, distribute a group of targets according to the degree of danger and make decisions that the operator will either approve or amend them ).
Thus, we cannot talk about creating such an aircraft directly today, because we do not yet have engines for fifth-generation aircraft (and the engine in the sixth-generation fighter should be better in terms of its characteristics, otherwise there is no point in creating such an aircraft). And here, as it seems to me, FPI leaves from the current tasks. Although, in principle, he does not create a plane, but only deals with composite materials and an engine, but it must be borne in mind that, say, the US Agency for Advanced Defense Research and Development (DARPA) specializes only in short-term projects (mainly three-year ). If there is no real work result for three years, then the project either closes (as was the case with laser guns for the Boeing aircraft), or the funding is reduced several times.
Therefore, if the structure moves to long-term projects (for example, in the same Roskosmos they have already started building projects for the future in 30 years), then there are fears that the money will be settled, and the end result (as well as the person who will be responsible for it) will be. As a result, a grandiose project can end up with a grandiose zilch through 20 years ...
"SP": - The other day in California, the secret X-37В US Air Force, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, should land in California. He was in outer space 22 of the month. It is possible that the mysterious X-37B unmanned aircraft (the Pentagon already has two such machines) may become a kind of prototype for the sixth generation fighter? ..
- X-37B to the air environment is not relevant, he has other tasks. Yes, it can be in orbit for a very long time, while remaining manageable and perform tasks that, by the way, are classified. That is, the X-37B can be both a scout and a platform for any weapon, but it is not intended to gain air supremacy. Most likely, this is a certain element of the US nuclear deterrence system.
Honored Test Pilot of the USSR, the first Hero of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Kvochur, notes that although it is generally accepted that the sixth generation fighter will be an unmanned aircraft, however, a manned vehicle has several advantages.
- Now, almost daily, the American armed forces, through drones they fire at jihadists from the Islamic State, which is logical, since ISIS has neither aviation nor air defense systems, so the Americans bomb militants with absolutely impunity, without risk to their military personnel.
Russia, as its military doctrine says, is not going to bomb anyone far from its borders. Our task is to preserve and protect our borders. Moreover, drones are extremely expensive and vulnerable in the sense that they fly autonomously, on software, but they still depend on the orbital constellation. In the event of a serious war, if navigation is turned off, the drone will literally become "blind and stupid." In addition, UAVs, as a rule, are able to destroy ground and surface targets; however, as far as I know, they cannot conduct a maneuverable air combat. Therefore, I personally have certain doubts that the sixth generation aircraft will be unmanned.
As for the sixth generation domestic fighter, I think that now some work is really being done, but, naturally, the information about them is rather closed. But I will not reveal military secrets, if I say that the sixth generation of aircraft is associated with hypersonic speeds. Undoubtedly, this will give tremendous advantages when performing defensive and offensive tasks.
I note that the Europeans a few years ago declared the development of such an aircraft. So, in 2011, at the Le Bourget air show (I was there), the European Airbus Aircraft Corporation presented a draft of the new supersonic passenger aircraft Zehst, its cruising number M - 3,6 (approximately four thousand kilometers per hour). As far as I know, the test flight date of the first prototype machine is 1 July 2021. So sixth generation airplanes can really appear in 15 years ...
"SP": - It is particularly noted that "the new model will be made from composite materials."
“This is logical, because with a hypersound, the temperature is such that the metal either starts changing properties or melts. So, for these materials the future. By the way, they have been used for a long time: they were used in the manufacture of both American “shuttles” and the domestic “Buran”.
Igor Korotchenko, a military expert and editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, remarks: it’s wrong to say that Russia has begun work on creating a sixth-generation fighter.
- This is only a scientific and technical search, which is called, for the future. Accordingly, this is nothing more than a research work, and you can only talk about some of the most common preliminary conceptual studies.
Now five flight models of the T-50 are being tested, in a few years the series will be launched and this aircraft will go into service with the Russian army. That is, the reality is that for the next 30-40 years, the T-50 will become the main strike aircraft of the Russian Air Force. As for the creation of sixth generation airplanes, this is too far away.
"SP": - In 2013, the former commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, Army General Peter Deinekin, announced that the sixth generation fighter would be unmanned.
- I repeat, the Air Force has not even decided how the sixth generation aircraft will be. There is no need to build illusions, they say, Russia is ahead of the rest. Let me remind you that we still have fifth-generation aircraft while in the testing phase. The United States already has fifth-generation aircraft - the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II. China, like Russia, is making every effort to make the two flying prototypes of the Chengdu J-20 a fifth-generation fighter. That is, in the near future only the United States, China and Russia will have such machines, all other countries will not cross even this milestone, so I do not share the opinion that the Europeans may soon have sixth generation airplanes.
As for the fighter of the sixth generation manufactured by the USA, the Americans are realists, they are now putting more emphasis on the development of drone drone aircraft, which are already mass-produced in their troops and carrying out a variety of missions.
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