“… The first combat group for 'global patrol' of fifty FB-22s will reach operational readiness by Year 20. "Strike Raptor" will allow us what we have always dreamed of - an invulnerable stealth aircraft with a supersonic cruising flight speed and 4 tons of weapons in the internal bomb bay will be able to quickly solve any strike missions in any region of the planet!
The speaker triumphantly looked around the audience and again continued his speech:
- The machine is made according to the rakeless aerodynamic scheme. The delta wing made it possible to radically increase the capacity of the internal fuel tanks in comparison with the original design - the estimated combat radius of the FB-22 will exceed 2,000 kilometers. The takeoff weight of the vehicle is 120,000 pounds (54 tons). The maximum speed is Mach 1.92. Design overload value 6 g. The new super-bomber will be absolutely invulnerable to any weapon in service with Russia and China, and the impressive complex of on-board electronics will allow delivering deadly bomb strikes at any time of the day and in any weather conditions … Now I ask your questions, gentlemen.
- Johnny Smith, Boston Evening News. Lokheed Martin has already received $ 66.7 billion from the budget for the development of the F-22 Raptor program. How much is it estimated to create a new wunderwafele?
The speaker blushed with anger (to call the FB-22 a wunderwolf - how vulgar!), But, giving his voice the usual intonation, he gave a detailed answer to a difficult question:
- In the design of the FB-22, the units of the serial F-22 Raptor are widely used, the onboard equipment and software are 85% unified with the original vehicle. All this should minimize the cost of creation and production. Currently, the proposal for the creation of the FB-22 is included in 23 production programs submitted by the industry for approval in 2003. The US Air Force is clarifying its requirements for the aircraft and its funding strategy for its production. It is expected that the estimated cost of one "Strike Raptor" (flayaway cost) will not exceed $ 300 million …
Only a high fence and two dozen security guards saved the Lokheed Martin speaker from the frank beatings of an angry public.
One of the possible options for the appearance of the FB-22. The program was finally closed in 2006
Legends of Healing Bombing
The humanitarian aid brought on the wings of the US Air Force undoubtedly has a huge positive impact on the people of the liberated states. The Pentagon expresses its firm belief that democratic bombing is not in the least harmful, but even beneficial to the health of the local population, it improves appetite and lowers blood cholesterol levels.
Bombs are the Alpha and Omega of American military doctrine. The Yankees seriously believe that airplanes flying in the sky are the right key to victory in any situation. Perhaps in some ways they are right: it is better to throw bombs and missiles at the enemy than the bodies of their conscripts, however, there is no special desire to sing rapturous praises to American weapons - excellent military doctrine and first-class combat aircraft stand guard over American foreign policy, whose interests go completely contrary to the geopolitical interests of Russia.
Nevertheless, it would be interesting to analyze some facts about the structure, combat use and ways of further development of American combat aviation.
There is no doubt that the US Air Force has a pronounced strike focus. According to the adopted doctrine, each of the American fighters, in addition to their basic duties - gaining air superiority, must have the ability to use air-to-surface weapons. At the same time, the aircraft should not only nominally have a pair of external suspension nodes, but also carry a whole range of sighting equipment and a wide range of weapons for effective destruction of ground targets.
Often, American fighters become so familiar with the role of bomb carriers that, despite their original purpose, they are completely transformed into specialized attack vehicles - attack aircraft or front-line (tactical) bombers.
Such was the P-47 "Thunderbolt" - a fierce fighter of the Second World War, whose bomb load exceeded the load of two Il-2 attack aircraft.
It did not lag a bit behind its famous ancestor F-84 "Thunderjet" - one of the first-borns of jet aircraft, earning the nickname "Destroyer" in Korea. According to eyewitnesses of those events, American F-84s sought to level any object that flashed under their wing - during the three years of the war on the Korean Peninsula, "fighters" of this type dropped 50,000 tons of bombs on enemy targets.
F-105 "Thunderer"
New time has created new heroes. The heaviest single-engine aircraft in the history of aviation - the F-105 Thunderchief (Thunderchief) fighter did not gain fame as a great fighter, but in Vietnam it received the speaking name "Thud" (Thug).
Another hero anti-hero of the Vietnam War, on the contrary, became the ultimate embodiment of multifunctionality. The two-seater 20-ton "Phantom", at one time set world records for speed and altitude, soaring up to 30 kilometers with a candle. However, this did not prevent him from being used in Vietnam as a tactical bomber, an aircraft for direct support of troops and a "hunter" for enemy air defense systems as part of the Wild Weasels units (modification of the F-4G) - in this role, "Phantoms" were used in the US Air Force up to until the mid-1990s. High-speed throws at extremely low altitudes, tons of bombs and tanks with napalm, Shrike anti-radar missiles - a typical combat load and the tactics of using Phantoms left no doubt: under the guise of a fighter lies a universal strike aircraft.
In addition to land-based vehicles, there were several deck modifications of the "Phantom" for the US Navy and NATO countries. Some of the vehicles were used as tactical reconnaissance vehicles (RF-4B, C and E modifications). Many of the surviving Phantoms are still used by the US Air Force as aerial targets: decommissioned vehicles are converted and converted into unmanned QF-4 drones.
The only problem: the tactical strike aircraft with impressive flight characteristics and sophisticated avionics turned out to be too heavy and awkward for close air combat. Maneuverable "dog dumps" were ordered for the "Phantom" … however, what else to expect from the car, which received among the pilots the characteristic "victory of thrust over aerodynamics."
At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, a serious crisis emerged in the American theory of "fighter dualism": new trends in fighter aircraft (first of all, high maneuverability) entered into insoluble contradiction with the increased requirements for strike vehicles, their combat load, flight range and aiming navigation equipment.
Even at the design stage of the new "universal soldier" F-111, it became clear that a full-fledged fighter would not work this time - the F-111 "Aardvark" turned out to be excessively huge, clumsy and heavy. As a result, despite its bizarre "fighter" designation, the F-111 became the US Air Force's strike trump card.
"Sixteen tons is a dangerous cargo, and we are flying to bomb the Union"
In fact, there are about 11 tons here. F-111C with 48 bombs Mk. 82
An all-mode aircraft with a variable geometry wing, a two-seater cockpit with a transverse arrangement of crew members, a powerful avionics system, impressive flight characteristics for a "bomb carrier" and a combat load of 14 tons - the US Air Force received a "pocket" strategic bomber with a combat radius of 2000+ km (with refueling in the air, the F-111's flight range increased to completely paranormal values - the Aardwarks could jokingly carry out a raid on Libya from Great Britain, or make a non-stop flight on the British Isles - Saudi Arabia route).
"Aardvark" regularly served in the ranks of the US Air Force until 1996 (and its modification was the EW EF-111 "Raven" aircraft until 1998), however, only the letter "F" in its designation remained from the fighter in this machine. The Aardvark was absolutely incapable of conducting an air battle.
At the same time, fighters created at the turn of the 60s and 70s: the naval F-14 Tomcat and the land F-15 Eagle were clean interceptors and aircraft for air superiority. Even in theory, they would not be able to use air-to-surface weapons with any efficiency.
However, despite the fiasco with the highly specialized F-111, F-14 and F-15, the Yankees did not abandon the idea of hanging bombs on the fighter. The very next aircraft, the F-16 Fighting Falken light fighter-bomber, preserved and expanded the combat traditions of the US Air Force, becoming the main "bomb carrier" in all modern local conflicts. It is noteworthy that the Falken's combat debut took place precisely as a bomber - the F-16 of the Israeli Air Force bombed the Iraqi nuclear center Osirak (Operation Babylon, 1981).
The fleet developed according to a similar scenario - along with the heavy F-14 interceptor, the Navy received the F / A-18 Hornet light fighter-bomber, whose modifications subsequently replaced all types of carrier-based aircraft. To date, the F / A-18 family of aircraft is the only type of combat aircraft on the decks of American aircraft carriers.
Meanwhile, in the United States, work was underway to introduce air-to-surface weapons on F-15 interceptors - such a large aircraft seemed an ideal platform for deploying strike weapons. In addition to the developers of the McDonnell-Douglas company, the Pentagon was interested in such a machine, looking for a promising replacement for its destructive F-111.
The result of research on ETF (Enhanced Tactical Fighter - Air Force competition to create a universal attack aircraft based on serial fighters) and AFCD (Advanced Fighter Capability Demonstrator - a personal initiative of McDonnell-Douglas), was the emergence of a machine under the designation F-15E "Strike Eagle", capable of hitting both air and ground targets with equal effectiveness (first flight - 1986).
Structurally, the Strike Eagle fighter-bomber is based on the two-seat combat training modification F-15D. Advances in microelectronics have made it possible to integrate all the necessary equipment into the aircraft design, including a synthetic aperture radar and a powerful optoelectronic sighting system that provides round-the-clock all-weather detection and attack of small-sized ground targets.
Another notable feature of the Strike Eagle is the conformal fuel tanks (CTBs), made in the form of streamlined "linings" on the engine nacelles. Such a solution made it possible to almost double the internal fuel supply, while the KTB, in comparison with conventional outboard tanks, only slightly worsened the aerodynamics of the aircraft and allowed the Strike Eagle to make supersonic throws at a speed of Mach 1, 8.
A significant role in the creation of the F-15E was played by sets of quick-detachable equipment - 10 400 kg of combat load can include suspended (dropped) fuel tanks, sighting and navigation containers, jamming stations, towed traps, multi-lock holders, containers with reconnaissance equipment, etc. etc. etc.
Quick-detachable kits made it possible to implement countless combinations of onboard equipment, which in turn made it possible to "sharpen" the aircraft for a specific task in the shortest possible time.
In addition, the Strike Eagle can carry the widest range of air-to-surface ammunition available in tactical aircraft - guided and unguided ammunition weighing up to 5,000 pounds (2,270 kg), including:
- laser-guided bombs of the GBU family
- guided ammunition of the JDAM family (a GPS-based kit that turns any free-fall bomb into a precision weapon);
- cluster munitions of the CBU family;
- guided missiles AGM-65 "Maverick", cruise missiles AGM-130 and AGM-158;
- anti-radar missiles AGM-88 HARM;
- tactical nuclear weapons - B61 bombs with eight types of warheads of various capacities, for the destruction of highly protected targets.
Currently, 219 F-15E fighter-bombers make up the combat core of the US Air Force strike aircraft - the Strike Needles have left their destructive mark in each of the local wars of the past 20 years.
Watching the successes of the Air Force, the US Navy also got the idea of converting the F-14 heavy carrier-based interceptor into a multi-role strike fighter. Indeed, the situation looked strange - such a large, 30-ton "cat", but absolutely does not know how to bomb. Disorder!
The F-14 Tomcat had unused reserves for tactical use, and the Yankees tried to eliminate this annoying shortcoming in a short time. Already in 1980, 49 Tomkats were equipped with suspended containers with reconnaissance equipment TARS (Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System) - the possibility of integrating specific equipment into the design and avionics of a deck interceptor was demonstrated.
The next step was taken in 1988, when tests of the Tomcat fighter began at the China Lake test site, which was hung with bombs of bombs instead of rockets on standard hardpoints.
F-14B Bombcat
The decision finally matured after Operation Desert Storm - the F-14, by analogy with the F-15E, was equipped with suspension units of the LANTIRN (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infra-Red for Night) sighting and navigation system. As its name clearly implies, the LANTIRN system allows you to fly at extremely low altitudes and use weapons against small-sized ground targets at any time of the day.
The modernization was relatively easy, and the Tomkats quickly turned into Bombkats - the first vehicles reached operational readiness by 1994. In addition to the LANTIRN overhead containers, the Bombkats differed from conventional F-14s in the large-format tactical situation displays installed in the cockpit. In total, by the end of the 1990s, 67 Bombkats were modernized from combat interceptors.
With the beginning of the 21st century, the United States began developing a new modification of the Strike Eagle strike fighter. The main feature of the new vehicle, designated F-15SE Silent Eagle, is the widespread introduction of stealth technology elements - keels deviated from the vertical axis, four internal compartments for the suspension of weapons, a special radio-absorbing hull coating, zigzag joints of parts.
F-15SE
Stealth technology, APG-82 radar with an active phased antenna array, "glass cockpit" and the most modern weapons in the body of the proven F-15E killer - the Silent Eagle fighter-bomber in its capabilities came close to the mighty F-22 Raptor, while the F-15SE was much more versatile, and its cost for 2009 was estimated at $ 100 million, almost 1.5 times lower than that of the notorious Raptor.
The fate of the super-machine turned out to be sad - despite the results achieved, the development of the Silent Eagle came to a standstill - there were no customers for the plane. The US Air Force spent the entire budget on the purchase of the F-22. And the most affluent of the US allies (Yu. Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore) prefer to purchase less advanced modifications of the F-15E - the capabilities of conventional "Strike Needles" fully satisfy customers, and no one wants to overpay for unnecessary and unclaimed functions.
If the situation around "Silent Needle" is still covered with a veil of uncertainty - the car can revive, as soon as there is a customer for it, then the fate of the strike machine based on the F-22 is finally and irrevocably decided - the "Strike Raptor" project has ended up in the dustbin of history.
All further plans of the Americans are now connected with the F-35 "Lightning II" - a promising fifth-generation aviation complex promises solid capabilities when working on both air and ground targets. The F-35 is slated to completely replace the Strike Needle in the US Air Force by 2025.
As for the US Navy, the F-35 will face stiff competition from the F / A-18E and F Super Hornet fighter-bombers, as well as their promising version of the Silent Hornet. Obviously, the Lightnings and new versions of the Hornets will serve shoulder to shoulder until the middle of the 21st century.
Epilogue
April 2013. Boston is seized with panic, SWAT armored cars are on the streets, cordons are posted everywhere, the air is saturated with the ringing drone of police helicopters. The names of the perpetrators of the state of emergency have already become known - the Tsarnaev brothers, both from Chechnya, have been recognized as suspects in organizing the terrorist attacks.
Where is this Chechnya that challenged the United States of America itself?
The American media is filled with calls to retaliate and bomb CZECH REPUBLIC. An urgent refutation follows from the Czech consul: his small European country has nothing to do with Chechnya, Boston, or the Tsarnaev brothers.
The command to cancel the mission came when the lights of sleeping Prague were already shining under the wing of the Strike Needle …
Every joke has its share of a joke. But, it becomes simply scary when those who skipped geography at school find themselves in the hands of such destructive toys as the F-35 and "Strike Eagle".
Moscow and Mogadishu also sound very similar. Although what difference does it make to him, the American pilot switched LANTIRN into aiming mode with his usual movement …
F-111 cab
In this photo, the gigantism of the F-111 is well felt.
F-111 vs. B-52
F-105 fighter-bomber and its arsenal
