A kind word and a revolver can achieve more than just a kind word.
- Johnny Carson
The most questionable is the internal weapons bay. A distinctive feature of all fifth generation fighters and other aircraft (LA), claiming the title of "stealth".
The presence of a bomb bay promises considerable benefits:
- reduced visibility of aircraft for enemy radars due to the absence of bulky ammunition on the underwing / ventral pylons (decreasing the RCS value);
- partial lifting of restrictions on aircraft aerobatics. The ammunition in the bomb bay is fully protected from the pressure of the incoming air. Aircraft drag is reduced. The moment of inertia is reduced and maneuverability is increased by placing ammunition near the longitudinal axis of the aircraft.
At the same time, there are a number of dubious points:
1. Complicated design. The roomy bomb bay is in conflict with the dense layout of a modern fighter-bomber. The last time this was seen half a century ago, at the deck A-5 "Vigilent": thermonuclear "buns" were loaded into a long narrow tunnel, locked with a knockout plug in the rear of the aircraft. Witty tech. the decision became the reason for many jokes, but these days this will not work. A fifth-generation fighter needs a “classic” bomb bay with flaps to effectively use a wide range of weapons and accommodate other types of payload.
The bomb bay should be close to the aircraft's center of gravity, because dropping bombs should not disturb the alignment of the aircraft.
The bomb bay must be adapted for the installation of various types of locks and bomb holders, drum launchers and other auxiliary equipment.
Laser-guided 500-pound Payway bomb
Lockheed Martin engineers accomplished a feat by integrating two bomb bays into the design of their F-35. Along with the S-shaped air intakes of the engine and the need to accommodate a huge amount of fuel inside the fuselage: a fully fueled F-35 carries 8 tons of kerosene in its tanks - more than any other single-engine aircraft in aviation history. And more than most of its larger and heavier rivals.
With all this, the F-35 remains a modest 15-meter aircraft, one of the most compact economy-class multirole fighters.
2. The use of supersonic weapons remains a serious problem. Lockheed Martin gives an overwhelmingly positive answer. According to domestic experts, the American Raptors and Lightnings, on the contrary, are deprived of any opportunity to open the bomb bay doors at supersonic speeds. The only one who, in theory, has such an opportunity is the Russian PAK FA.
3. But the main problem is the capacity of the internal weapons bays.
The parameters of the F-35 are as follows:
- two bomb compartments, two suspension points in each;
- max. suspension elements in internal compartments weigh 5,000 pounds (~ 2 tonnes).
All this makes it possible to place on board without loss of stealth up to four medium / long-range air-to-air missiles (AIM-120 AMRAAM), or two or four light-class guided bombs (for example, 113 kg gliding SDBs with a maximum launch range 100 km) in combination with a pair of air-to-air missiles, or two heavy bombs or cruise missiles (as an example: 907-kg Mk.84 bombs with a GPS (JDAM) set, planning JSW high-precision ammunition weighing 681 kg or JSM anti-ship missiles). A good start!
In other words, the capacity of the internal bomb bays allows the Lightning to engage in combat with up to 4 air-to-air missiles on board in any combination (Sidewinder, AIM-132 and IRIS-T with thermal targeting, or AIM-120 with an active radar seeker).
This corresponds to the reasonable minimum adopted for equipping generation 4/5 fighters. Placing a larger amount of ammunition on board leads to an unnecessary weighting of the aircraft and a decrease in its maneuverability in close combat. In accordance with the practice and conditions of modern battles, it is not possible to fire more than four missiles in the short period of time that elapses from the moment a target is detected until the end of an air battle. Moreover, fighters always operate as part of groups - at least a pair, and more often four, six or more planes in one formation.
At the same time, Lockheed Martin engineers express their intention to put the F-35 out of competition among all fifth generation fighters in terms of the number of weapons in the internal bomb bays. In 2012, there was information about the creation of a promising SD Lockheed Martin CUDA.
The object is an all-aspect kinetic interceptor with the ability to destroy air targets (manned aircraft, UAVs, cruise and ballistic missiles), and in the future - contrasting ground targets and ships. Basic requirements for the new rocket:
- all-aspect guidance (360 °);
- maximum possible maneuverability, overloads up to 50g;
- launch range - not less than that of “conventional” missile launchers of the AIM-120 family (120 … 180 km);
- the possibility (or rather, the necessity) of destroying the target by direct hit;
- relatively low cost - due to the small size of the rocket itself and the lack of a warhead;
length - 178 centimeters
According to calculations, the internal compartments of the F-35 should contain up to 12 such ammunition!
CUDA is undoubtedly a masterpiece - 10 rings of 18 micromotors (perforated section in the nose of the rocket), which ensures high maneuverability and unprecedented accuracy of the rocket. A system similar to the kinetic interceptor included in the ammunition load of the Patriot PAC-3 air defense / missile defense system.
The only problem: due to length restrictions, the designers had to rely on a kinetic warhead, instead of a much simpler and more reliable scheme with the detonation of a high-explosive fragmentation charge at a close distance from the target. Kinetic interceptors (Aegis SM-3, ground-based PAC-3) successfully hit ballistic missile warheads and even space satellites moving along a known trajectory. But how will the kinetic CUDA seem to be in the fight against the super-maneuverable Su-35 and PAK FA, which move along an unpredictable trajectory in the dense layers of the atmosphere?
This question will have to be answered in the coming years. In the meantime, the proven AIM-120 AMRAAM with a launch range of 180 km (the latest mod. AIM-120D) remains the main weapon of the F-35 in aerial combat. With these missiles, NATO pilots have won 100% of aerial combat victories over the past 20 years. In the course of international exercises and simulation of air battles, third-party participants will certainly demand to exclude AMRAAM from the conditions: otherwise, the results of air battles add up in an obvious way, despite the high maneuverability, the presence of OLS, helmet-mounted sights and other strong qualities of opponents.
Launch of AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM)
AMRAAM flies as far as it needs to go. Despite the potential to create an air-to-air missile system of any range (300, 400, or even 1000 km), if the target is a dense formation of the B-52 in the stratosphere.
Alas, the mass, dimensions and EPR of modern combat aircraft differ by an order of magnitude from the size of a strategic bomber. Airplanes are increasingly "going into the shadows", reducing their visibility due to stealth technology. At the same time, the range of their detection by ground-based radars, AWACS and fighter radars in practice does not exceed several tens of kilometers.
Ultimately, the launch range is determined not by the fuel reserves in the rocket, but by the capabilities of the fighter's radar. It is not enough to detect an air target and take on a steady escort. It is necessary to carefully "bring" the missile to the target, until the moment when the missile's own radar missile system can (and can at all, in the case of stealth) capture the target from a distance of a couple of tens of kilometers (due to the miniature size and low radiated power of the radar seeker) … Until this moment, the onboard autopilot of the missile is controlled from the fighter: the radar continuously detects the change in the target's position and, at the same time, “holds” the launched missile with a narrow beam, transmitting data on the current position of the target to it.
It is clear that in practice the range of such “radio games” cannot exceed a couple of hundred kilometers. About how all this will work in a real battle, in the event of active jamming by means of the enemy's electronic warfare.
Ultra-long-range missiles are useless: a typical fighter's radar is not capable of detecting or aiming a missile at a target from a distance of 400-500 km. And no progress is being made in this area: compact aircraft radars, in principle, do not have the dimensions and powers inherent in the antennas of the mighty S-300 / S-400, but even the S-400 does not undertake to assert the guaranteed destruction of a small-sized target of the fighter”From a distance of 400 km.
As for the disputes about the advantages of active PAR, in this case, it gives the opposite effect: due to the lower radiation efficiency, the detection range of the APAR is less than that of the PFAR of the same power (of course, the APAR have a number of other excellent advantages).
That is why all the insinuations around the “short” range of AMRAAM and “critical comparisons” of its capabilities with the domestic R-37 or the promising KS-172 (400 km) do not make much sense.
Armed with a pair of such missiles, and with two close-range Sidewinders, the F-35 turns into a formidable, unpredictable adversary. Whose capabilities are supported by the fantastic AN / APG-81 radar, the AN / AAQ-37 DAS all-angle detection system and the low visibility of the fighter itself.
Air-launched anti-ship missile JSM (modification of the Norwegian Kongsberg NSM) in the internal bomb bay of the F-35. Stealth technology, two-way communication line, launch range 280 km.
With regard to the use of "Lightning" as a bomber, even in the "stealth" version, the strike capabilities and range of weapons of the F-35 can solve almost any task of destroying the most important objects of the enemy's military and civil infrastructure.
Perhaps someone will see an attempt at falsification here. “Only” two tons of bombs in the internal bomb bays - against the eight tons of combat load declared by “Lockheed”! The combat load of the F-35 in the "stealth" version corresponds to the multi-role fighters of the second or third generations.
However, it is important to understand that the F-35, like all existing / developed fifth generation fighters, are forced to have a built-in complex of sighting and navigation equipment for "work on the ground", as well as to have the necessary fuel supply in internal tanks (the use of PTB is provided only for performing ultra-long-distance flights between theaters of military operations). As a result, two tons of the F-35's payload is pure “payload,” bombs. Unlike the multirole fighters of the previous generation, they are forced to spend a significant reserve of their "combat load" on aiming containers and outboard / conformal fuel tanks.
When the issue of enemy aviation and air defense is resolved, the everyday life of the "winged workers of the war" will begin. Stealth will lose its meaning.
The time has come for combat missions with max. load with the task of "bombing the enemy into the stone age."
Bomb, bomb, bomb …
