The Wikipedia article on the F-35 fighter has been translated into 53 languages! And along with it was translated the chapter on the confrontation between the Air Power Australia think tank and the Lockheed Martin aircraft corporation. According to available information, Air Power Australia, represented by its founder Carlo Kopp, expressed distrust in the newest American fighter F-35 Lightning 2 and almost accused the United States of betrayal in connection with the refusal to transfer the “normal” F-fighter to its allies. 22.
It was Carlo Copp who made the famous comparison of "Lightning" and "Raptor" with a scooter and a motorcycle.
The apotheosis was the publication, claiming to be an official document and containing a table that reflected the most important characteristics of the five most modern fighters: the Russian Su-35 and PAK FA, the Chinese Chengdu J-20 and a couple of scandalous products of the American aircraft industry - the F-22 and F-35. Four of the five aircraft presented claim the high title of "fifth generation fighter". The fifth - the Su-35 - has such a powerful combat potential that, being a 4 ++ generation aircraft, it can easily compete with any Raptor.
The table quickly spread across the Internet, becoming an argument in disputes over the title of the best fighter of the new generation.
The above results are completely atypical for an English-language source: according to the results of the table, the Sukhoi T-50 (PAK FA) confidently emerged as the leader. The second place with the same result was shared by the Su-35 and F-22 Raptor. In third place was the Chinese.
However, there are no "second" and "third places". In aerial combat, silver medals are not given - "second place" means death in a fight with the champion.
The “outsider” of the list, the F-35, finished with a large lag, scoring as many as 8 penalty points in most of the selected categories.
The lag of Lightning from Raptor or PAK FA looks quite convincing - the light fighter was created as a cheaper, simplified version of the "fifth generation", designed to massively replace the F-16 and F / A-18 fighter-bombers, as well as VTOL aircraft AV-8 and attack aircraft A-10.
Another thing is curious: how could an aircraft described to the smallest detail, already produced in the amount of 100 pieces, could catastrophically "lose" the Chinese J-20, which exists only in the amount of three experimental prototypes with classified performance characteristics? The ostentatious secrecy in this case indicates that there is nothing to brag about yet.
A hellish mixture of the American "Raptor" and the closed Russian project MiG.144 … The Chinese managed to make an uninterrupted cockpit canopy, but no other "innovations" were noted. The aerodynamic configuration of the "canard" with the PGO, coupled with the enormous size of the fighter itself - all this contributes little to its stealth. And the fact that China is still buying Russian fighters indicates that there is no Chengdu supercar - the Chinese J-20 is just a dream of the “fifth generation”. Comparing this scarecrow with existing machines, moreover, confidently passing a verdict in its favor is highly incorrect.
The rest of Mr. Kopp's conclusions are also not credible and in some cases look very dubious. I propose to carefully analyze the table in order to understand - what does all this mean?
Is the F-35 a fifth generation fighter?
1. Cruising supersonic
The F-35 immediately received a penalty point. In this case, Kopp is not too far from the truth - there are justified doubts that the single-engine F-35 is capable of going to supersonic without turning on the afterburner.
The best was the PAK FA, whose design, according to experts, is designed for a cruising speed of Mach 2.
2. Super-maneuverability
The F-35 received a penalty point again. The best performance is in the Russian Su-35 and PAK FA. In this case, Kopp is undoubtedly right.
Nevertheless, an unduly dismissive attitude towards the flight characteristics of the F-35 is fraught with two reasons. Firstly, according to the developers, Lightning maintains controllability at angles of attack up to 53 ° and is capable of maneuvering with overload up to 9g - like any normal fighter of its class. Secondly, in a real combat situation, Lightning will have an advantage over any 4th generation fighter (even the Su-27 and Su-35) due to the internal suspension of weapons and, in view of this, the lifted restrictions on piloting with suspended ammunition (see. item No. 14).
3. Excess traction
The excess thrust depends on the specific flight mode chosen.
For example, the light-engine Cessne needs 60 hp to fly at an altitude of 800 m at a speed of 140 km / h. Max. the power of the Cessna engine is 100 hp. - therefore, 40% of the engine power is "excess thrust" and can be spent on increasing the speed / altitude, or making a maneuver with an overload of no more than 1, 6g.
There is no explanation in Carlo Kopp's table. It remains unclear why Lightning was slapped with a minus. Probably just in case.
4. Controlled thrust vector
The Raptor is equipped with an OBT engine in one plane (2D).
Su-35 and PAK FA are equipped with a thrust vectoring engine in the horizontal and vertical planes (3D). However, Kopp is somewhat mistaken - the engines of the "first stage" AL-41F1 and AL-41F1S are pseudo-sequential: the deflection still occurs in the same plane, "down-in" and "up-out". As for the "second stage engines" for the Russian PAK FA, the so-called. "Product 129", in which all planned innovations will be implemented, then its creation is a matter of the near future.
The F-35, as usual, received a penalty point due to the complete absence of UHT.
5. Airborne electronic equipment (avionics)
If Carlo Kopp had been striving to find the truth, he would have given the F-35 10 positive ratings at once. In terms of the capabilities of its avionics, "Lightning" is many times ahead of even its progenitor - the F-22.
Integrated sighting and navigation system. Fantastic detection tools. Self-test and automatic troubleshooting. Interference-free MADL data exchange channel with the possibility of narrow-beam radiation and random frequency tuning. 8 million lines of code versus 2 million lines of code from Raptor. In the future - the installation of an IFDL infrared communication system, necessary for the covert data exchange between "stealth machines".
When it comes to electronics, Lightning is unrivaled.
6. Radar station with a phased array antenna (PAR)
Modern combat aviation is switching to radars with active phased array systems - the advantage of such systems is their reliability and increased sensitivity. A large number of AFAR receivers allow the radar to continuously track dozens of air targets and simultaneously map the underlying relief.
The result is the following alignment:
PAK FA - experimental radar with AFAR H050;
F-22 "Raptor" - radar with AFAR AN / APG-77;
F-35 "Lightning-2" - radar with AFAR AN / APG-81;
Su-35 - equipped with a passive HEADLIGHT radar N035 "Irbis". Due to its power and technological excellence, "Irbis" is in no way inferior to the "Raptor" radar in matters of detecting air targets.
The Lightning multirole fighter with its AN / APG-81 stands apart. For the creation of this radio engineering miracle, the Northrop Grumman development team could seriously qualify for the Nobel Prize.
The mass of the APG-81 radar is less than 1% of the take-off weight of the F-35, but it is this device that determines the combat capabilities of the aircraft. The Lightning radar has a modest size and aperture (antenna size), therefore, objectively, it is inferior to the Irbis and APG-77 in terms of detection range for air targets. So it was originally conceived: the light multipurpose "Lighting" is not a specialized interceptor.
Radar images of the surface obtained with the AN / APG-81 radar.
"Shadows" should not be misleading: there is always such a moment on radar images
The front-line fighter's radar system is primarily focused on performing missions in the air-to-surface format. Aperture synthesis (a mode of operation in which there is an "artificial" increase in the beam width through coordinated signal processing), coupled with the high sensitivity of AFAR - all this makes it possible to obtain images of the earth's surface with an incredibly high resolution. The APG-81 is capable of detecting at a great distance and taking dozens of ground targets for tracking, automatically performing their identification and aiming weapons. Among other features of the APG-81 - "stealth mode" with passive data collection, work as an electronic reconnaissance station and electronic warfare.
The penalty point received by the F-35 for the "small" aperture of its radar antenna can be easily interpreted as 10 positive ratings.
7. Side-scan antennas
Here, a clear advantage is for the PAK FA - Sukhoi Design Bureau specialists plan to equip their flying masterpiece with an integrated radar system with five AFARs, four of which are located in the slats. This will increase the noise immunity and neutralize the stealth technologies of the PAK FA opponents.
Initially, two side-scan AFARs were planned for installation on the American Raptor, but the proposal was not developed due to the prohibitive cost of such a system.
As for the F-35, the Lightning lacks a radar with side-scan antennas, but it has its own know-how …
8. Situational awareness
The F-35 does not have a side-looking radar; instead, the AN / AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System (DAS), an all-angle detection system, operating in the infrared range, is installed on board. Six sensors of the DAS system are capable of detecting the jet engine torch of an enemy aircraft at a distance of hundreds of kilometers, neutralizing all attempts to reduce the visibility in the radio wave range. The system allows you to make low-altitude supersonic throws at night, warn the pilot about missiles fired by the enemy, calculate missile launch points and anti-aircraft artillery positions, detect ballistic missile torches at a distance of up to 1300 km!
Optical-electronic sighting system of the F-35 fighter
In addition to the unique AN / APG-81 radar and DAS system, the fighter is equipped with an AN / AAQ-40 high-resolution infrared TV camera capable of detecting the heat trail of a passing car and the coals of an extinct fire. The camera provides automatic capture and tracking of any air, ground and surface objects.
All this is complemented by a widescreen touchscreen display in the cockpit with mixing (overlaying) of incoming information. And also the helmet-mounted target designation and indication system HMDS, with the ability to control the turn of the head and, in the future, the illusion of a "transparent" aircraft.
Su-35. There is also something to be proud of!
It is strange that Carlo Kopp ignored all these technologies, equating "Lightning" with the Chinese "dummy" J-20.
9. The possibility of using weapons at supersonic sound
We are talking about the possibility of opening the doors of the weapons compartments at high speed. According to experts, only one "fifth generation" fighter - the Russian PAK FA - will have this advantage. The design of the rest of the "Raptors" does not imply the use of weapons at supersonic speeds.
For the Su-35, this point does not matter, since there are no built-in bomb bays.
The F-35 got its legal minus.
ten. Thrust-to-weight ratio
Of course, the F-35 was again fined - the conclusion about its low thrust-to-weight ratio (0, 8) is obvious from the official press releases of the Lockheed Martin. The rest of the machines, having a thrust-to-weight ratio of ≈ 1, received an equal rating.
11. Combat ceiling (where maneuvers with a steady rate of turn more than 7 degrees / sec. Are possible)
According to Carlo Kopp, the F-35's combat ceiling does not exceed 45 thousand feet (13,700 m) - 3 kilometers less than its competitors. So it really is, or "Air Power Australia" again cites incorrect information - it is of little importance in the era of anti-aircraft missile systems and the widespread transition of military aviation to low altitudes (the trend was set back in the distant 60s, hello to Mr. Powers!)
The F-35 received a penalty point. Just in case.
12. Stealth
By a strange coincidence, opposite the F-35 is the inscription "Partially". Of course, Lightning is not an invisible hat and will suffer losses from enemy fire. But if you look at his rivals - Raptor and PAK FA, their advantage over Lightning is not as obvious as Carlo Kopp thinks. The arrangement of the PAK FA with protruding engines and "ribs" of the air intakes gives reason to believe that the "stealth" parameter did not play a major role in its creation.
Logically, the Lightning should have the lowest RCS among all existing fighters, with the exception of the F-22. This is facilitated by:
- small size of the fighter (wingspan of only 10, 7 meters);
- diamond-shaped "flattened" fuselage;
- parallelism of all edges and edges ("stealth" of the 2nd generation);
- uninterrupted cockpit canopy;
- internal suspension of weapons;
- widespread introduction of radio-absorbing coatings;
- Computer-controlled assembly with reduced clearances and few fasteners (CATIA CAD);
- "sawtooth" shape of the compartment doors;
- lack of radio-contrast details on the surface of the wing and fuselage.
These measures are required to give a significant effect of reducing the fighter's signature (much less than 1 square meter when irradiated from the frontal direction).
13. Fuel supply in internal tanks
The advantage of Russian fighters - according to Carlo Kopp, the Su-35's internal fuel supply reaches 25 thousand pounds (over 11 tons!) - three tons more than the F-35 tanks can hold.
On the other hand, the F-35 is positioned as a lighter single-engine vehicle. The Pratt & Whitney F-135 engine has lower fuel consumption than two AL-41F1S engines.
Finally, the use of air-to-air refueling systems makes any further controversy over fuel stocks obsolete.
14. Internal suspension of weapons
One of the basic requirements for a "fifth generation fighter"! The internal suspension of weapons contributes to a radical decrease in the RCS of the aircraft and a decrease in its frontal resistance. In addition, it allows for more energetic maneuvers and speeds up to 2M, without the risk of detonation of ammunition from thermal heating.
All aircraft on the list (with the exception of the Su-35) have the ability to carry ammunition internally. The advantage of the Russian PAK FA - due to its large size, the PAK FA bomb bays have the largest dimensions and capacity (length 5 meters, width 1, 3 meters). As a result - 8-10 points of suspension versus four for the F-35 fighter.
It's a shame that Carlo Kopp paid much attention to the calculation of suspension points, but did not at all reflect in his table such an important point as the nomenclature of ammunition used.
In this category, the absolute advantage over the F-35. The planned 119-kg Small Diameter Bomb, the Payway laser-guided bombs family, the JDAM GPS-guided ammunition line, the Mk.80 free-fall bombs, CBU cluster munitions, Maevrique and JASSM cruise missiles - for all occasions.
Combat load of 8 tons at 10 suspension points (4 internal, 6 external), taking into account its stealth and the most modern sighting and navigation aids, the F-35 can successfully compete with any tactical bomber.
And at the same time, the fighter remains a fighter - a unique radar, infrared all-round vision system, long-range AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, stealth and flight performance at the level of a 4+ generation fighter. All this turns the Lightning into a serious air enemy.
Dr. Kopp's claims are based on the weaker flight characteristics of the Lightning compared to the Russian Sushki, traditionally distinguished by their excellent flight characteristics. But you need to understand that Lightning was created for a completely different concept of warfare. Traditionally for the Americans, the niche of light front-line fighters is occupied by multipurpose ground-based fighter-bombers. And here there is absolutely nothing to blame the F-35 for.
As it turned out later, the reason for the loud confrontation between Air Power Australia and the Lockheed Martin aircraft corporation was precisely the latter's unwillingness to export the F-22. Carlo Kopp is by no means a fool. He is a sincere patriot of his country. And he tried with all his might to "knock out" for the RAF a full-fledged Raptor fighter-interceptor, which most satisfies the defensive concept of the Australian armed forces.
