A healthy dose of jingoistic patriotism will never hurt in an analytical review of promising domestic concepts of military equipment, especially when their parameters are at the level or significantly ahead of the capabilities of foreign counterparts. This statement is completely true for the S-300V4 multi-channel anti-aircraft missile system, the missile armament of which included the 9M82MV advanced ultra-long-range interceptor missiles with a range of 400 km, an interception height of about 50-70 and a target speed of 4600 m / s. … This missile is today the only ultra-long-range missile in the world equipped with an active radar seeker, which allows you to destroy remote over-the-horizon objects at ranges of more than 100 km without the help of a divisional multifunctional radar for illumination and guidance. This is also true for the super-maneuverable multifunctional fighter Su-35S, equipped with the world's most powerful airborne radar H035 "Irbis-E", capable of detecting most western fighters at a distance of 300-400 km (depending on the EPR).
Nevertheless, if the unique anti-aircraft characteristics of the Antey in the foreseeable future retain their superiority over catching western counterparts with a shorter range and speed of the targets hit, then all the positive aspects of the Sushki and the MiG-35 combat units expected to be adopted may simply “crumble” into dust "from only one underfunding and" freezing "of the project of a direct-flow guided missile of the" air-to-air "class" Product 180-PD ". And here it is already far from hurray-patriotism, because the enemy is "at the gates" of a significant technological breakthrough in the development of a new generation of air combat missiles. This breakthrough is quite capable of displacing the effectiveness of Russian tactical aviation (in terms of fulfilling the tasks of gaining air supremacy) to a solid third place, after the Air Force of the People's Republic of China.
We are talking about the start of a joint Japanese-British project of a long-range air combat missile JNAAM (Joint New Air-to-Air Missile), an agreement on which was reached between representatives of the foreign policy and defense departments of the two states at the end of 2015, and then finally supported by the visit of the Minister Defense of Michael Fallon and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to Japan on January 8, 2016. Here we are dealing not with an ordinary long-range guided air-to-air missile of the AIM-120D type, but with a promising anti-aircraft missile system, which has unique jamming immunity from numerous electronic warfare systems installed both on intercepted aircraft and on airborne electronic warfare systems. … JNAAM is a hybrid of the British-French Meteor air-to-air missile from MBDA and the Japanese AAM-4B medium-range air-to-air missile, where the airframe and integral ramjet engine design will be taken from the former, and hardware unit of the inertial navigation system and an active radar homing head with an active phased array.
The presence of an integral ramjet engine with a starting booster and a solid-propellant charge of a boron-containing gas generator will allow JNAAM, as well as MBDA "Meteor", to intercept air targets at a distance of 150-170 km, maintain a high speed (3.5-4M) in the final flight phase (increases the interception success dozens of times in comparison with the AIM-120D), adjust the flight speed depending on the type of target by means of the gas generator valve located in the front wall of the combustion chamber; Consequently, the product has a much higher specific thrust impulse, surpassing that of the domestic R-77, RVV-SD, and R-27ER / EM airborne missiles. If the last types of missiles, due to the loss of speed qualities, will not be able to intercept a maneuvering object at a distance of 70-90 km, then for JNAAM this is not a problem even 150 kilometers from the launch point.
It's time to get acquainted in detail with the JNAAM active radar homing head. It is known that most modern anti-aircraft guided missiles (9M96E2, Aster-30, ERINT and 9M82MV), as well as air combat missiles (RVV-AE / SD, R-37, AMRAAM, Astra, MICA-EM, etc. etc.) are used by ARGSN based on slotted antenna arrays operating in the frequency range 8-40 GHz (X, J, Ku and Ka-bands), but having low noise immunity and range of "capture" of targets with EPR 1 m2 from 12 to 30 km. And this is without intensive electronic countermeasures from the enemy, where the effective range can be further reduced. The JNAAM will use a promising active radar seeker based on AFAR, which is the "heart" of the Japanese AAM-4B airborne missile systems. It has a lot of tactical and technological advantages over the outdated waveguide-slot seeker. Firstly, this is the highest noise immunity, which makes it possible to select an air target against the background of several sources of powerful radio-electronic interference of noise, barrage and diversion types at once. The only problem can be presented by aviation electronic warfare stations emitting powerful imitation interference; against any other types of interference, "nulls" of the radiation pattern towards the interference emitters can be used.
Secondly, the seeker with an active phased array, developed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, has a 1.4 times greater energy potential, allowing you to capture a target with an EPR of 1.5-2 m2 (MiG-29SMT or MiG-35) at a distance of 17 -25 km in comparison with such slotted seeker, such as the French AD4A or the Russian 9B-1103M-200PA. As a result, the "fire-and-forget" mode is implemented 40% earlier and, instead of the dangerous procedure for illuminating the target with simultaneous approach, the pilot can start the anti-missile maneuver much earlier, which ultimately can save the life of the crew and make it possible to continue the operation to gain superiority in air.
Thirdly, the specialists of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, together with researchers from the Technology Research and Development Institute, have developed a unique software algorithm for the AAM-4B inertial navigation system, which makes it possible to reduce the trajectory and flight time to the target by 15-20%. If in almost all inertial navigation systems of air combat missiles of American, Western European and Asian production there is an algorithm with the "Proportional Navigation" method, which provides for constant "pursuit" of the target with irrational maneuvering and consumption of kinetic energy, then the INS of the JNAAM missile will be use the "Motion Prediction" method.
Its essence lies in the fact that at the moment the rocket leaves the suspension, the onboard radar accurately determines the location of a distant target (including a decrease or climb, or deceleration or acceleration), target designation is transmitted to the rocket's IN-module, after which its on-board computer calculates the anticipatory meeting point with purpose. The missile does not follow the target, constantly adjusting and lengthening the trajectory, but is directed to the calculated point, which allows to speed up the interception time. The rocket communicates with the carrier through the coded radio channel of the Link-16 tactical network, which indicates the possibility of target designation not only from the carrier fighter, but also from other units equipped with the MIDS / TADIL-L terminals (AWACS E-3C / G "Sentry", E-2D, RER RC-135V / W aircraft, most NATO Allied Air Force multi-role fighters, AN / TPS-75 ground radars and URO destroyers / cruisers "Arleigh Burke / Ticonderoga").
An active radar seeker with AFAR also provides for the use of a JNAAM missile in the air-to-surface mode; for a smaller circular deviation in this case, it may be necessary to introduce an additional millimeter channel of work, which increases the accuracy. Based on the capabilities of modern AFAR-radars, the promising hybrid MBDA "Meteor" and AAM-4B can also be used in a passive mode of operation of the seeker, which will allow hitting ground-based AWACS radars, depriving the enemy of important tactical information about the air situation. Already, informed sources declare an increase in the energy capabilities of the JNAAM GOS, because on the horizon is the active introduction of transmit-receive modules based on gallium nitride (GaN), which Japanese specialists are actively working on. Such a design of ARGSN will make it possible to take bearings of targets with an RCS of 1.5 m2 within a radius of 25-30 km, which is a unique indicator for an antenna array with a diameter of about 155 mm.
As it became known on September 1, 2017 from the document "Defense Programs and Budget of Japan", formulated by the Japanese Ministry of Defense over the past few months, next year it is planned to allocate $ 66 million to promote a joint project with the UK for a promising long-range air combat missile JNAAM. Now the future product can be considered the main tactical asset of the air supremacy of the British stealth fighters SKVP F-35B and the F-35A ordered by Japan. It's time to take this information seriously today. After all, if the Chinese Air Force already has a decent asymmetric response to the future JNAAMs of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces in the form of ultra-long-range "air assassins" PL-12D / 15 / 21D, almost ready for mass production, our project RVV-AE-PD is all it is still "in a long box", which, apparently, no one intends to open. Meanwhile, let us recall that even the most powerful onboard radars Irbis-E and Belka do not determine superiority over an air enemy with the most long-range and accurate interceptor missiles in the world.
