On January 29, 2010, Honored Test Pilot of Russia, Colonel Sergei Leonidovich Bogdan, lifted into the skies a "promising front-line aviation complex", also known as the T-50 fighter, announced as "the first Russian fifth generation fighter", our response to the American Raptor. Olga Kayukova, a spokeswoman for the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company, said: "… all the tasks that were set for the first flight of the new Russian fifth generation fighter have been successfully accomplished." The plane spent 47 minutes in the air.
The Russian aircraft should have characteristics similar to the American F-22 Raptor: supersonic speed (over 1200 km / h), super-maneuverability, low visibility in infrared and radar fields. In addition, special requirements are placed on the "intelligence" of the machine. The aircraft must be able to create a circular information field around itself, aim simultaneously at air and ground targets, fire at the enemy from all angles: forward, sideways and even backward.
At the same time, one of the main tasks facing developers is to reduce the time and cost of maintenance. The cost of the flight should also be reduced compared to existing designs. Now an hour of flight of the Su-27 costs about $ 10,000, while the American F-22 "burns" only $ 1,500 per hour.
A long time ago
For the first time, the appearance of the new car became known, according to the tradition that has developed since the times of the USSR, from foreign sources. A few years ago, an unsigned drawing appeared on an Indian internet forum. They found out that this is a real project after one and a half or two years, when the second colorful drawing of the T-50 appeared on the official website of NPO Saturn. The picture was quickly removed, but it managed to spread all over the Internet.
Work on the creation of a fifth generation fighter was started in the USSR almost thirty years ago. The I-90 program envisaged, first of all, the creation of a long-range interceptor capable of replacing both the Su-27 and the MiG-31 with one project. It was assumed that the new fighter should become a rival to the American "advanced tactical fighter" (ATF) being developed at the same time.
According to the book "Air Defense Aviation of Russia", among the main requirements for the new machine were: interception while ensuring high values of supersonic boundaries; conducting a successful air battle, including in group actions and in a difficult radio-technical situation; striking ground targets, that is, performing the tasks of an interceptor, fighter and strike aircraft. In fact, it was about the creation of a new class of aircraft, a kind of air analogue of the "main battle tank", designed to replace different types of aircraft. The fighter design bureaus of the Soviet Union began full-scale work on a promising multifunctional aircraft in 1981.
The first swallows were the MiG 1.44 Mikoyan Design Bureau and the Su-47 Sukhoi Design Bureau. But while the Mikoyan aircraft did not progress beyond two test flights, the Su-47 Berkut, which took to the skies in 1997 and was demonstrated at numerous air shows, continues to fly now. This machine has more than 300 flights. True, many experts argued that this was not a "fifth generation", but still the same Su-27, which differs from the "classic" predecessor only in its spectacular forward-swept wing. One way or another, the second copy of the "Berkut" was not built, and the existing one serves as a flying test laboratory. Nevertheless, no one doubts that many decisions on the fifth generation fighter were tested by the Sukhoi Design Bureau on this particular aircraft, and that the real "fifth generation" will not have a forward swept wing.
The second time the technical assignment for a new fighter was issued in 1998. It has not undergone significant changes since the time of the MFI, and already in 2002, the Sukhoi Design Bureau won the competition with the MiG designers. The maximum take-off weight of the new fighter increased to 35 tons. In 2004, the Advanced Frontline Aviation Complex (PAK FA) project appeared, which was intended to replace the full-fledged "main fighter" Su-27 and confront the F-22. It is pertinent to recall that Ilya Klebanov, who held the post of Minister of Industry in the early 2000s, assured that the development of a fighter would require one and a half billion dollars. Now they say that in ten years about 10 billion dollars have been spent …
The idea of what a fifth generation combat aircraft should be like cannot be called unconditional. So, for example, domestic designers see the strong side of such an aircraft in super-maneuverability, that is, the ability to maintain stability and controllability at high angles of attack (90 degrees and higher). After a series of experimental studies, American specialists came to the conclusion that the rapid improvement of aviation weapons, the emergence of highly maneuverable all-aspect missiles, new homing heads and helmet-mounted target designation systems would make it possible to abandon the mandatory entry into the enemy's rear hemisphere. And in this case, the advantage in battle will give not the ability to perform super piloting, but the ability to be the first to "see" the enemy and strike. The Americans preferred to focus on the overall dynamism of the fighter's combat system and achieving low radar signature. The general requirements for the fifth generation aircraft are: multifunctionality, that is, high efficiency in engaging air, ground, surface and underwater targets; availability of a circular information system; the ability to fly at supersonic speeds without afterburner; the ability to carry out all-round bombardment of targets in close air combat, as well as to conduct multichannel missile firing when conducting long-range combat.
Battle for heaven
One way or another, the effectiveness of an aircraft can be assessed only on the basis of its combat use, and criteria for evaluating new aircraft should be created based on the combat experience of past years.
For example, on the eve of World War II, aircraft designers waged an intense struggle for the speed of combat vehicles, suggesting that the "sky of war" should remain for aircraft capable of outstripping the enemy in any situation. In the summer of 1939, the legendary test aircraft Messerschmitt Fritz Wendel managed to accelerate his piston Me 209 to a speed of 755, 14 km / h, but that was the "swan song" of such aircraft. The problem was that the efficiency of the propeller sharply decreases at high speeds: an increase in power no longer led to a proportional increase in speed. To achieve new high-speed lines, a qualitatively new technical solution was needed, which became a jet engine.
The first airplane GTE with a compressor driven by an external engine was proposed back in 1909 by the French designer Marconnier. In the same year, the Russian engineer N. V. Gerasimov received a patent for an aircraft compressor gas turbine engine. However, at that time no one paid attention to these inventions, since the "ordinary airplane" was still perceived as an extravagant novelty.
The priority of creating a "real" turbojet engine belongs to the English designer Frank Whittle, who tested his invention in 1937. However, the first aircraft of the new generation took to the skies in Germany. Ernst Heinkel became its builder. His He-176 rocket plane was powered by a Wernher von Braun engine, and his He-178-V1 jet was powered by a turbojet engine built by Hans von Ohain. These aircraft passed the first tests in the summer of 1939, and already on November 1, 1939, the jet fighter was demonstrated to the technical leaders of the Luftwaffe Ernst Udet and Erhard Milch. However, the generals were indifferent to the use of a turbojet engine on an aircraft and … refused to finance the development of new fighters. The negative attitude towards jet aircraft was revised only in 1943, after the huge losses of the German Air Force in air battles. The fighters of the firm "Messerschmitt" Me-262 and Me-163, which had time to take part in the final battles over Germany, went into production. Moreover, the production of these aircraft was delayed for several months in connection with Hitler's categorical requirement to use the Me-262 only as a high-speed bomber.
Historians are still arguing about whether the Luftwaffe could have won a victory for Hitler if the generals were more perspicacious. The commander of the Reich fighter aircraft, Adolf Galland, a big fan of the new aircraft, later argued that a thousand jet "Messerschmitts" could turn the tide of an air war over Europe in favor of Germany. However, in their then skepticism, Udet and Milch were not so wrong. The practice of the combat use of jet aircraft has shown that high-speed fighter aircraft is ineffective in the absence of concomitant technological support for the aircraft industry. For example, Me-163 rocket fighters, whose speed reached 900 km / h, could hardly attack bombers flying at speeds of 400 km / h. Due to the difference in speed, there were 2-3 seconds left for aimed firing - too little to effectively hit a heavy bomber with mechanical weapons. A jet vehicle could be a really dangerous enemy in aerial combat, having comparable means of destruction - homing missiles, the technical base for the production of which was created only in the 1960s. In addition, the general concept of using jet aircraft remained unclear for a long time, and the Luftwaffe did not have the required number of trained pilots. The Germans could not build enough new aircraft to counter the Allied piston fighters, who quickly learned how to deal with a dangerous enemy. Under the wreckage of jet "Messers" such aces as Walter Novotny, Gunter Lutzov, Heinrich Erler and many other famous pilots of the Third Reich met death. The victory in the battle for heaven remained with the pilots of the anti-Hitler coalition.
New time - new songs
Now the creators and customers of the T-50 have to solve many problems before this, in fact, an experimental aircraft can become a full-fledged combat tool. So far, only one thing can be said with certainty: for the first time in a quarter of a century, a new fighter glider has been created in our country. But that's all. About whether the T-50 product has the minimum qualities of a fifth generation combat aircraft, namely, a constant speed exceeding 2000 km / h, a flight range of over 5000 km, stealth, the ability to long-range radar detection of the enemy, the presence of long-range guided weapons - can only be judged by interviews with representatives of the Air Force, who in general highly appreciate the new aircraft. However, almost nothing is really known about weapons. According to the developer's statement, OJSC "GosMKB" Vympel "them. II Toropov”, several models of promising weapons are being prepared for the PAK FA.
As for the engine, which is supposed to provide the speed characteristics of the T-50, exceeding those of the American F-22, a mysterious story has happened to it. A year ago, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Alexander Zelin, stated that the T-50 does not have an engine and is not expected in the near future. “While the plane will fly with the NPO Saturn engine, and in the future it will receive a new power plant,” the general added. It was about the 117S engine developed by NPO Saturn - in fact, a deep modernization of the serially produced AL-31F engine. However, on the day of the first flight of the fifth generation fighter, Ilya Fedorov, managing director of NPO Saturn, director of programs for the PAK FA of the United Engine Corporation (UEC), reported sensational news. It turns out that the T-50 has already installed "the latest engine, and not an improved analogue of the power plant for the Su-35, as some media wrote and some" experts "said." The Air Force Commander stood his ground. “We are currently flying the fifth generation aircraft on a non-native engine, that is, not on the one that will be on the production model. However, the decision to create a new engine has been made, and the United Engine Corporation will create it. " However, the purchase of fifty fighters is planned not earlier than 2015, and during this time some kind of engine should appear.
On the question remains the price of the new aircraft. The estimated export value of the PAK FA will amount to about $ 100 million - a colossal amount for the Russian military budget. In addition, due to the small serial circulation, the prices for the vehicle will be exorbitant and uncompetitive in the arms export market. Traditionally, buyers of Russian weapons are not rich countries. And the very idea that the newest superweapon will be exported is dumbfounded. The United States does not even allow the thought of supplying the F-22 to anyone, including the most loyal allies. At the same time, those who consider the exorbitant cost of an American fighter jet forget about elementary economic calculations. If the current production cost of the F-22 is recalculated for the volume of production that was planned at the very beginning of the program of its creation, then the cost of this, it is believed, the most expensive fifth-generation fighter in the world will be $ 83 million.
By the way, the Americans did not go out of bad life to reduce the volume of purchases of the F-22 fighter being created (from the originally planned 750 to 280). The fact is that the US Air Force had revised by this time plans to completely replace the F-15C fighters with the fifth generation fighter being created and linked the acquisition of the F-22 only with the staffing of the AEF expeditionary aviation armies. And the number of F-22s that were previously planned to replace the F-15C was simply not required.
One in the sky is not a warrior
A feature of the fifth generation fighters that distinguishes them against the background of combat aircraft of the existing generation is their higher consistency. A fifth-generation fighter can be such only within the framework of a special combat system, as they say, a "system of systems", which makes it possible to realize all of its specific combat capabilities. In the understanding of most specialists, this "system of systems" is associated with the information component of the process of combat operations. The improvement of this component has already led to the emergence of the so-called centralized network control (CSO) of combat operations, which for fifth generation fighters should become the main form of control over their use in the course of solving combat missions. The implementation of the CSO assumes that not only combat aircraft become nodes of a single information network, but also individual samples of guided weapons used by them, as well as various external sources of information and points of information processing and decision-making. The implementation of the CSO also presupposes the presence of the very structure of information exchange links, moreover, the exchange is stable and with the necessary information performance. It is precisely as an element of such a system, as a universal combat platform, adapted to effectively defeat both air and ground targets, that the F-22 acts. The absence of all of the above deprives a combat aircraft adapted for use within the CSO of all its advantages, turning it into an exhibit of an aviation exhibition.
