About the "sores" of the famous American "Predator"
This once highly publicized winged vehicle has little admiration for military analysts and aviation experts. Why? The answer is in the materials published below by two permanent authors of the "VPK".
The most expensive and most useless fighter jet in the world
At the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, Georgia, in mid-December last year, the last, the 187th production F-22 Raptor aircraft, assembled for the US Air Force, was rolled out.
It will undergo a series of factory and government tests and then enter service with the US Air Force, which will have 185 fighters of this type in its fleet.
What is Senator McCain upset about?
Raptor with tail number 4195 is scheduled to be handed over to the military at the beginning of this year. A total of 195 Predators were assembled in the United States, including eight prototypes. During six years of service in the Air Force, two F-22s crashed.
After production closes, these aircraft will go through several medium-term improvement programs. The upgrade is currently being completed under the Increment 3.1 program. The fighters are equipped with synthetic aperture radar, and are also able to use small-caliber bombs GBU-39B (SDB). In addition, new electronic warfare equipment is being installed on the vehicles.
At the end of November 2011, Lockheed Martin signed a contract with the Pentagon for further modernization (the deal was worth $ 7.4 billion), the details of which were not disclosed. According to the head of the F-22 program Jeff Babione, in 2014-2016 the cars will be brought to the Increment 3.2A version. At this stage, only software updates are provided. Thanks to the next improvement - Increment 3.2B - in 2017-2020 aircraft will be able to use new types of weapons.
In general, the history of the F-22 with the transfer of the last "Predator" to the Air Force will not end. The aircraft will continue to participate in air shows, military exercises and intercontinental flights. But its main task - the conquest of air superiority in the course of hostilities - this aircraft will probably never fulfill, forever remaining in the memory of experts in aviation technology as an unparalleled expensive and useless fighter in the world.
The Pentagon previously explained that at present there are simply no tasks for this machine - for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya, an air superiority fighter is simply not needed. And in the future, apparently, it will not come in handy either - the United States has not yet announced plans to conduct hostilities against a country with advanced aviation, where the capabilities of the F-22 could be useful. In general, on the account of the most advanced American aircraft there are only a couple of hundred conditionally shot down on maneuvers of the "enemy" machines. No casualties on the part of the Raptors themselves.
By the way, initially, the US Air Force wanted to purchase 750 Predators, but after the collapse of the USSR and the disappearance of a strong enemy, as well as a sharp reduction in the defense budget, the number of fighters planned for purchase was reduced. In 2010, the Pentagon decided to adopt only 187 F-22s and end funding for the production of these aircraft in 2012.
According to the calculations of the General Administration of Control of the United States, published in April last year, the total cost of the program for the creation and procurement of the F-22 is 77.4 billion dollars. At the same time, the price of one aircraft in 2010 reached 411.7 million. In July 2009, the US Air Force announced that one hour of flight "Predator" costs the American treasury $ 44,000. The office of the Minister of the Air Force named a different figure - 49.8 thousand.
So it is no coincidence that on December 15, 2011, John McCain, a member of the US Congressional Commission on the Armed Services, said billions of taxpayer dollars were wasted on the Raptor. "The F-22 can safely become the most expensive rusting hangar queen in the history of modern aviation," said the senator.
Tragic flight
On November 16, 2010 in Alaska, the Raptor crashed with tail number 06-4125. The incident served as the basis for a large-scale investigation, which the US Air Force completed only in December 2011.
For a long time it was believed that the cause of the fall of the "Predator" was hypoxia, which the pilot experienced due to the failure of the onboard oxygen generation system. According to the findings of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (AIB) of the United States Air Force, despite the fact that many devices in the crashed fighter failed in flight, the pilot was to blame for the crash, who failed to turn on the backup gas supply system in time and stopped monitoring the behavior of the aircraft.
The aircraft, assigned to the 525th Squadron of the 3rd Air Wing (Elmendorf-Richardson Base, Alaska), crashed 160 kilometers from Anchorage during a training flight. The pilot Jeffrey Haney did not have time to eject and was killed. AIB found that at 19 hours 42 minutes 18 seconds local time (7.42 am November 17 Moscow time), the F-22 failed in the system responsible for drawing air from the engine compressor chamber and further supplying it to the auxiliary systems. Following this, the pilot began to descend and reduced the engine thrust to zero.
At 19 hours 42 minutes 53 seconds, the aircraft began to rotate around the longitudinal axis and dive, and at 43 minutes 24 seconds, Jeffrey Haney made an unsuccessful attempt to align the fighter and take it out of the dive. After another three seconds, the Raptor crashed into the ground at a speed of Mach 1, 1 (about 1, 3 thousand km per hour). The rotation of the F-22 was then 240 degrees, and the pitch angle was negative - minus 48 degrees.
As a result of a failure of the air intake system from the compressor chamber on the aircraft, the artificial climate systems (ECS), air recirculation (ACS), intra-cockpit pressure maintenance (CPS), as well as onboard inert gas generation (OBIGGS) and oxygen systems (OBOGS)). These devices ceased to function at the moment when the on-board computer turned off the air intake equipment from the compressor and cut off the air supply to the associated systems. This procedure is standard and is done to avoid fire, the system remains off until landing.
In the event of a failure of the said system, the on-board information and warning system (ICAWS) gives a signal about the malfunction 30 seconds before the disabled device is turned off. In accordance with standard procedure, upon hearing the warning beep, the pilot should switch to the emergency gas supply system (EOS) and steer the aircraft to the nearest base for landing. The pilot is obliged to perform the same actions in the event that he begins to experience suffocation or malaise. This, however, did not happen.
During the flight, ICAWS worked normally, and the on-board computer turned off the air supply. Five seconds later, OBOGS and OBIGGS turned off, which could have caused the pilot to suffocate, and then, after 50 and 60 seconds, the systems for maintaining the in-cockpit pressure and creating an artificial climate failed. Chain failure of systems began when the plane was at an altitude of 5, 8 thousand meters.
According to the AIB, Haney began to have difficulty breathing and became distracted from flying the plane, not paying attention to his behavior and instruments. Presumably, the pilot focused on restoring the supply of breathing gas to the mask. This is supported by the fact that after the start of the dive of the fighter and almost until the collision with the ground, no commands were given to control the F-22. However, the commission admitted that the pilot could lose spatial orientation and for this reason did not try to align the car.
At the same time, the commission ruled out the possibility of the pilot losing consciousness - at the time of the OBOGS refusal, there was enough oxygen in Haney's blood. In addition, the fighter very quickly descended to an altitude at which it was possible to breathe without a mask.
The culprit declared, the reasons are controversial
After the disaster, specialists from the Air Force and manufacturers of various systems analyzed the wreckage and found traces of carbon monoxide in OBOGS, as well as molecules of JP-8 aviation fuel. Military doctors came to the conclusion that the concentration of carbon monoxide in the breathing mixture was extremely low and could not lead to hypoxia. The fuel, the concentration of which turned out to be high, could get into OBOGS after the collision with the ground. When inspecting the crash site, cracked fuel tanks were found, from which fuel leaked. OBOGS is equipped with a solid-state chemical analyzer, but the on-board computer did not receive a signal about a significant change in the composition of the breathing gas.
Analysis of the pilot's remains showed that he was not poisoned, he was healthy and did not take drugs or drugs. During a medical examination of the personnel responsible for flight planning and technical preparation of the aircraft, a drug was found in two people in their blood, which, however, they took as prescribed by a doctor, and the effect of the drug could not affect the quality of work.
During the investigation, the possibility of the pilot losing consciousness due to overload was also considered as a possible cause of the crash. In flight, the fighter performed a reversal maneuver, in which the overload reached 2.5 G. But in previous trainings, Haney's endurance level was determined at 4.8 G. The overload at the moment when the pilot attempted to take the plane out of the dive was 7.5 G, however it was no longer taken into account, because soon after that the car crashed.
Thus, according to the conclusions of the AIB, despite the chain failure of a number of systems, the pilot is to blame for the crash. The Air Force reported mismanagement of the pilot in a difficult situation, although he was well prepared (Haney flew 21 flights lasting 29, 7 hours over the 90 days before the crash).
Meanwhile, some F-22 pilots claim that the backup gas supply system activation ring is located extremely inconveniently - in the lower left side of the seat. Haney may have intended to turn on the backup system by trying to reach the desired ring (it needs to be pulled up to activate EOS). This assumption is supported by the fact that the plane went into a dive, began to rotate axially, and the thrust of the engines dropped to zero.
An experiment was carried out on the ground, during which one of the US Air Force pilots also tried to use the backup system, as a result of which he deflected the control stick of the aircraft away from himself and released the pressure on the pedals.
AIB reviewed these arguments, but did not take them into account, citing the redundancy of instrumental data obtained from the flight recorder. They were considered conclusive evidence of the pilot's guilt.
Measures taken
Although the F-22 crashed on November 16, 2010, fighter flights were suspended on May 3, 2011. By this time, the opinion prevailed in the commission investigating the disaster that the reason for the fall of the Predator was the failure of OBOGS and hypoxia, which Haney began to experience. After that, the oxygen generation systems were tested on many other aircraft and helicopters of the US armed forces, but no problems were found. The F-22 was allowed to resume flights on September 20 last year.
This is not the first time an investigation into the malfunctioning of OBOGS has been carried out. In 2009, it turned out that between June 2008 and February 2009, nine cases of hypoxia of F-22 pilots were recorded. There was no flight ban then. It is also unknown how the proceedings ended. Later, from April to November 2010, there were five more cases of hypoxia, which, however, did not lead to serious consequences. In October 2011, the statistics were replenished with another case of oxygen starvation, after which the F-22 flights were again suspended - this time for a week.
AIB did not answer the question of what caused hypoxia in 15 documented cases. Each time the pilots were examined. In the blood of some of them, combustion products of polyalphaolefin (part of antifreeze), engine oil molecules and propane were found. In mid-2011, the US Air Force command suggested that at the northern bases, pilots started fighter engines in winter while still in the hangar. As a result, the gases generated from the combustion of fuel accumulated in the room and were drawn into the air circulation system of the machine, slowly poisoning the pilot.
It is not yet known whether the investigation will continue. It turns out that there are no more grounds for its continuation now - it has been established that the pilot, and not the machine, is to blame for the crash. In addition, Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F-22, is currently under contract with the US Air Force to investigate and correct the causes of pilot suffocation. We can say that all measures to prevent disasters like last year have been taken.
So much for the American quality
However, this tragedy had little effect on the credibility of the first serial machine of the fifth generation - it was, according to experts, undermined much earlier. So, in February 2010, the US Air Force suspended the flights of all Predators for some time - it turned out that the aircraft body was unstable to moisture and easily corroded. It was found on fighters before, but in this case it turned out that the system for removing excess moisture from the F-22 canopy is structurally bad and does not cope with its task. As a result, rust appeared on some elements of the canopy and even inside the cockpit, which could cause problems with the ejection system.
In 2009, the US Air Force sent 12 Raptor fighters from Alaska to Andersen Base in Guam as an experiment. The rainy weather on the island turned out to be merciless to combat vehicles, and it soon became clear that in conditions of high humidity, the electronic systems of aircraft are unstable, and the cooling system of the computing components simply refuses to serve. Whether this defect was corrected is unknown. But since then, the F-22 has never been used in humid climates.
In the same year, former Lockheed Martin engineer Darrol Olsen accused the American company of creating a defective F-22. According to Olsen, the planes were given a few extra layers of coating so that the fighter could pass all the necessary radar tests. The marriage lies in the fact that the radio-absorbing coating is easily erased from the fuselage under the influence of water, oil or fuel. Lockheed Martin denied Olsen's accusations, claiming that the aircraft uses durable and high-quality radio-absorbing materials.
Two years earlier, an amusing problem had been identified in the Predators' on-board computer. In February 2007, the United States Air Force decided to withdraw these fighters outside the country for the first time, having overtaken several aircraft to Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa. A flight of six F-22s that took off from Hawaii, after crossing the 180th meridian - the international date line - completely lost navigation and partly communications. The fighters returned to the Hawaii Air Force Base, visually following the tanker aircraft. The problem was caused by a software error that caused the computer to crash when the time changed.
And these are just those problems that the US Air Force or the Pentagon announced officially. At the same time, it is possible that there are hidden flaws in the aircraft. For example, cases with B-2 bombers, when a metal panel in the tail of the aircraft cracked between the engines, became known only after Northrop Grumman engineers found a way to fix the situation.
They built, operated and … wept
When the last F-22 fighter was pumped out of the Lockheed Martin plant in December last year, the head of this plant, located in the city of Marietta, Georgia, Shan Cooper emphasized at a ceremony: “The implementation of the program was very difficult, but all the specialists, those employed in it have clearly demonstrated that they can successfully build the most modern aircraft in the world."
American designers, engineers and workers really have something to be proud of - the Raptor multirole fighter became the world's first fifth-generation aircraft, confirming the leading status of the American aviation industry in the world. A clear indicator of success can be at least the fact that tests of similar prototypes are just underway in Russia, and in China, the first prototype of a similar fighter took off only recently.
The Raptor is a high-tech weapon that is critical to projecting power, deterring and securing the United States and its allies,”said Jeff Babione, Vice President of Lockheed Martin and F-22 Program Manager at the Corporation. True, the confirmation of the high status cost the Americans a pretty penny … In addition, at the beginning of 2011, representatives of the Air Force and the US aviation industry announced that about $ 16 billion would be allocated to modernize the Predator fleet over the course of several years. Therefore, it can be assumed that in the future, the costs of the F-22 program will reach $ 100 billion, or even exceed this mark.
Due to the very decent cost of the Raptor's flying hour, the US Air Force even included a clause on reducing the training hours for training pilots for the F-22 by a third in the budget request for fiscal year 2012 in order to reduce the cost of operating fighters.
The official start of the F-22 program was given in 1991, when the Lockheed corporation, which merged four years later with Martin Marietta, won the US Air Force tender for a promising fifth generation multirole fighter and received the first contract from the Pentagon. The program became strategically important for the concern itself, but especially for the Marietta plant, which was appointed responsible for the final assembly of the aircraft (Lockheed Martin plants in Fort Worth, Texas, and Palmdale, California, also participated in the program). At the peak of the program - in 2005, it employed about 5,600 employees of the corporation, including 944 employees at the plant in Marietta, but as of December 2011, these figures were respectively 1,650 and 930 people.
Next year, the next reduction of specialists working on the Raptor theme will begin, which will be transferred to other projects, including the F-35. However, the enterprise in Marietta should not be afraid of serious personnel changes - at least 600 plant employees will be required annually to provide technical support for the Predators operating in combat units of the American Air Force. In addition, in early January of this year, the commander of the US Air Force, General Norton Schwartz, announced that the equipment at the manufacturer's plant would be mothballed and, if necessary, the latter would be able to resume production of the F-22 at a cost of about $ 200 million per vehicle.
Today, F-22s are permanently deployed at Air Force Bases Langley (Virginia), Elmendorf (Alaska), Holloman (New Mexico) and Hickam (Hawaii). Air squadrons armed with the F-22, on a rotational basis, were also based at the Kadena Air Force (Japan), Nellis (USA, Nevada), "visited" the United Arab Emirates and South Korea.
However, as is the case with any other high-tech model of weapons, military and special equipment, the F-22 program was inevitably expected to fail. Only since 2005, when the Raptor was officially put into service with the US Air Force, dozens of accidents of varying complexity have occurred with fighters, including five major ones, as well as two disasters, during which two people died. And this is taking into account that the plane has not even got to the war yet.
In June 2011, it was even decided to suspend the assembly and delivery of the Predators pending a final investigation of the causes of the accidents and making the necessary changes to the corresponding aircraft systems. And after an F-22, piloted by 31-year-old Captain Jeffrey Haney, crashed in November 2010, “active” flights at altitudes below 25,000 feet (about 7,620 m) were banned. The investigation into this disaster lasted more than six months and ended in July 2011, but the US Air Force command published its results only in mid-December 2011. The pilot was found to be the culprit.
However, the decision of the commission, led by Brigadier General James S. Brown, raised a number of questions from experts, who emphasized that the US Air Force command too often blames pilots as the culprits in plane crashes, omitting the facts of equipment or software failures that contributed to emergencies. In particular, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the independent military expert Winslow T. Wheeler noted: blaming the pilot for failing to properly respond to the problem with the air intakes is like blaming the driver when there was a malfunction with the brakes and the driver fell off a cliff at great speed.
It should also be recalled that before the November disaster - in February 2010, the F-22 flights also stopped due to malfunctions - this time with ejection seats, and in March 2008, one of the F-22s peeled off and got into the engine air intake a piece of radio absorbing coating. It is not surprising that "friendly fire" from critics in the United States itself rains down on the Raptor every now and then.
However, a particularly active opponent of the F-22 program is the well-known Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona. Not only did he say recently at a hearing on the FY12 defense budget that the Predator is an example of a huge waste of budget funds. The legislator drew attention to the fact that, due to the illiterate implementation of the US Air Force program, today they are faced with the need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain the airworthiness of the Raptor fleet, as well as make huge efforts to maintain these machines, which, according to him, “rust from the inside.
The latter is largely true, since at the end of 2010, representatives of the US government officially announced the existence of such a problem and said that by 2016 the Pentagon will allocate $ 228 million "to resolve the issue of corrosion of aluminum skin panels" of the aircraft. The reason for all these troubles, according to McCain, lies in the fact that the Air Force took the F-22 into service without conducting a sufficient amount of testing and without a sober assessment of what it would cost to operate the Predator fleet in subsequent years.
Is it not so, familiar to us, and so characteristic of the domestic practice of words?
