The use of stealth technology is a key requirement for fifth-generation fighters and the latest strike aircraft. Otherwise, they will not survive in a modern war. The goal of stealth technology is simple - to make the aircraft invisible to radar, and therefore inaccessible to anti-aircraft and aircraft missiles.
How to achieve this? It is necessary that the ultrasonic wave coming from the radar station be absorbed, scattered or reflected from the aircraft in any direction, but not back to the radar. To do this, the shape of the aircraft must meet the requirements of so-called geometric stealth, and all its surfaces must be covered with a special, radio-absorbing material. We present several stealth aircraft that actually exist today.
F-117 Nighthawk - the very first
The F-117 Nighthawk is the world's first stealth aircraft. Its design began in the late 70s of the last century. In service since 1983. The poor development of computer technology in those days did not allow the requirements of geometric stealth and an effective aerodynamic configuration to be harmoniously combined in the aircraft fuselage, which is why the F-117 has a characteristic faceted shape, which greatly reduces its flight characteristics. Despite the presence of the letter F in the marking (from the English Fighter - fighter), the Nighthawk is not a fighter at all. This is a pure attack aircraft, that is, an aircraft designed to support ground troops and attack ground targets. The F-117 doesn't even have a machine gun: it relies exclusively on stealth technology for its defense.
In other words, the F-117 can be shot down from the cornbox, but to do this, you first need to find it. The Nighthawk operates exclusively under the cover of darkness, flies over radars undetected, quietly destroys targets and flies back to base. Successfully used in a number of military conflicts. In 2008, the F-117 was retired from service, giving way to the more modern F-22.
Northrop B-2 Spirit - stealth bomber
The 150-ton Ghost is the only bomber on our list. Development of the B-2 Spirit began in the United States in the late 1970s, at the height of the Cold War, based on the requirements for which the aircraft was created. This heavy strategic bomber was developed to break through dense air defenses, undetected penetration deep into enemy territory (that is, the Soviet Union) and deliver nuclear weapons to particularly important targets. When in July 1989, after overcoming a bunch of technical difficulties and “sucking” more than 23 billion dollars from the budget, the first prototype took off, the plane, in fact, dug in; the Cold War was over.
In the early 1990s, the United States simply did not have opponents against whom such formidable weapons were needed. The B-2 is capable of delivering 27 tons of guided precision bombs over a distance of over 11,000 km, although taking into account air refueling, the combat radius of this vehicle becomes almost limitless - constantly refueled, the B-2 can “hang” in the air for days. The value of the effective radar area (RCS) for the “Ghost” is classified, but experts estimate its value to range from 0.0014 to 0.1 m2.
Is it a lot or a little? Well, let’s say, if a B-2 Spirit with a wingspan of 52 meters flies under the cover of a flock of geese, then even the most modern anti-aircraft systems will shoot down the geese.
The B-2 is unique not only because of its impressive payload capacity or the ability, given its dimensions, to penetrate deep into enemy territory unnoticed by radar. This is the most expensive aircraft in the history of aviation: one unit costs American taxpayers two billion dollars. A total of 21 aircraft were built. Ghosts were used during the NATO operation in Yugoslavia, in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the 2011 bombing of Libya.
F-22 Raptor is an expensive pleasure
Today, the American F-22 Raptor is the only fifth-generation fighter in mass production and officially put into service. All others are F-35, PAK FA and J-20 at the flight testing stage. The F-22 made its first flight in 1990 and has been in service with the US Air Force since 2001. The Raptor is also the most expensive fighter in the world (the production cost of one copy is $146.2 million, the total cost including development costs is $350 million), but it should be noted that the aircraft is worth the money. Powerful, maneuverable, supersonic, virtually invisible and fantastically automated.
If fighters were placed on this list not in chronological order, but based on a comparison of their combat, flight and tactical characteristics, the Raptor would deservedly take first place. The Raptor is the world's only combat aircraft with the ability to launch missiles and drop bombs in supersonic flight. The F-22's biggest drawback is its price. We can safely say about the F-22 that it is “worth its weight in gold”: the cost of 19.7 tons of pure gold (the weight of an empty F-22A) is $350 million. Even America cannot afford to maintain more than 200 aircraft of this type. As of December 2013, he did not participate in military conflicts. The export of the F-22 Raptor is prohibited by the US Congress.
The F-35 Lightning II is a workhorse
The F-22 Raptor is a great airplane. However, when experts finally calculated the cost of production and operating costs (the cost of an hour of flight is 44 thousand dollars), the guys from the Pentagon felt a little worse.
Since the end of World War II, each new type of fighter has cost more than the previous one and required significantly higher operating costs. American analysts have calculated that if this continues, then by 2050 the US Air Force will be able to buy one aircraft per year, no more. Something had to be done about this. This is how a program called JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) arose, the goal of which is to develop a universal fighter for the air force. Navy and Marine Corps of the USA, Great Britain, as well as other NATO countries, which will replace outdated 4th generation aircraft (F-16, A-10 Thunderbolt, F/A-18 Hornet, SeaHarrier) and at the same time will cost less than the ultra-modern F- 22 Raptor. The aircraft, which was called the F-35 Lightning II, turned out to be beautiful, but, of course, not as powerful and functional as its “big brother” F-22. But the price turned out to be relatively low - approximately $100 million per unit.
The JSF project was funded by several countries: Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark. By 2020, they are all going to put the F-35 into service. The F-35 will become the workhorse for many countries around the world for the next 30-40 years. It is noteworthy that one of the modifications of the Lightning, the F-3513, created for the US Marine Corps and the British Royal Navy, has the ability to take off and land vertically, which makes it possible to use this fighter on aircraft carriers. Some experts suggest that the F-35 will become the last manned fighter in the history of aviation - it will be replaced by the era of unmanned combat aircraft.
The first work on designing a 5th generation stealth fighter in Russia began during the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. However, the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent economic crisis put an end to development plans - there was simply no money for such a large-scale project in post-Soviet Russia. Work resumed only in 2002, when an armada of American Raptors was already in service with the US Air Force. The Russian project was called the Perspective Aviation Complex of Frontline Aviation or, in short, PAK FA (other designations for the fighter are T-50, Izdeliye-21).
The first flight of the Russian stealth aircraft took place on January 29, 2010. As of 2013, 6 T-50 aircraft were built and used in testing. Serial production is planned to begin in 2015. Most of the technical characteristics of the T-50 are classified, the data found in the press varies greatly, however, judging by the photographs of the first prototypes, we can conclude that the PAK FA is more massive and powerful than its main opponent - the F-22. Most likely, the larger dimensions mean that the T-50 will have a longer range and heavier weapons.
In principle, this has always been the case: most Soviet/Russian fighters (in particular the world-famous Su-27) were designed “to follow” their Western counterparts. Accordingly, the aircraft turned out better than Western ones, “overtaking” them in basic parameters, but they almost always entered service with a delay of 10-15 years. In addition, one cannot help but notice the external similarity of the PAK FA with the F-22. This does not mean at all that the aircraft are the same, only the layout diagrams are similar, which, however, did not stop the American press from dubbing the T-50 with the half-joking name F-Lvventy-Lwoskiy (read “ef-tventitusky”).
Chengdu J-20 - unknown Chinese craft
In December 2010, Chinese media suddenly announced the completion of work on its own stealth fighter, designated ChengduJ-20. Several low-quality photographs were presented that seemed to depict a new miracle of the Chinese aviation industry.
For a long time, the photographs were not taken seriously by experts; they were considered a Photoshop fake until the J-20 made its first flight in January 2011, which was confirmed by video materials. The world community finally believed that China has its own new generation fighter. More precisely, it will be, since the commissioning of the J-20 is planned for 2018-2019. The flight and combat characteristics of the J-20 are kept secret by the Chinese.
YF-23 - Loser "Black Widow"
The aircraft, designated YF-23 and dubbed the Black Widow II by its developers, Northrop and McDonnellDouglas, has a very tragic history. The letter Y in the designation means that this is a prototype that never made it into mass production.
The YF-23 was one of two test aircraft participating in the competition to create a promising multi-role fighter for the US Air Force. Its competitor was... the YF-22, a prototype developed by Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Dynamics, which later became known to the world as the F-22 Raplor.
Northrop and McDonnell Douglas made a good airplane. The YF-23, a highly armed stealth aircraft with shielded engines, met all the formal requirements established by the US Air Force leadership. however... the F-22 Raptor turned out to be better. There must be one winner. As a result, the F-22 went into production, becoming the most expensive and most formidable (today) fighter in the world, and the Black Widow II sank into oblivion. Only 2 copies were built; after the program was closed, both were transferred to museums.
X-32 - an attempt by Boeing Corporation
The Boeing company is known throughout the world as a leading manufacturer of passenger airliners. During World War II, as well as at the height of the Cold War, Boeing was the leading manufacturer of strategic bombers (B-52, B-47, B-29, B-17, etc.).
Moreover, after 1945, the company was almost never involved in the design of fighter aircraft (Boeing produces components for the F-22 Raptor, but the development of the F-22 was carried out by Lockheed Martin). In 1993, Boeing decided to join the fight within the framework of the JSF project and independently created a prototype, designated X-32. In 2001, according to the results of in-depth testing and comprehensive flight tests, the X-32 lost to the X-35 prototype developed by the same Lockheed corporation, which, after modifications, went into production and became the F-35 Lightning II.
It should be noted that the X-32 deservedly lost. Despite this, it is still included on our list because it formally meets the requirements of a stealth aircraft.
« Stealth technology "brought us back to that fundamental principle of war called surprise," said John Welch, vice chief of the Air Force, shortly after the end of Operation Desert Storm. - “If you can achieve surprise, you will have a big advantage.”
The advantage claimed was convincingly demonstrated during six weeks of continuous night bombing of Baghdad stealth aircraft Lockheed F-117A. These “black ghosts” flew freely into the heart of one of the most secure airspaces in the world and, having dropped their deadly cargo, returned unharmed.
WHAT IS STEALTH TECHNOLOGY?
The technology that has enabled such significant progress did not appear suddenly. The Navy has been using the same camouflage techniques on strategic and attack submarines for more than 30 years. The Army has also long used similar technologies to reduce infrared radiation from tanks and other equipment.
The essence of stealth technology is to reduce the visibility of equipment in the radar and infrared radiation spectrum. Typically, equipment reflects radio waves that fall on it, which are picked up by the radar - this is radar signature. It is characterized by the effective scattering area (ESA) - the ability of an object to scatter an electromagnetic wave. For example, the ESR of a B-52 bomber is 100, a heavy bomber is 13-20, a conventional fighter is 3-12, and an invisible aircraft made using stealth technology is only 0.3-0.4 sq.m. Stealth technology is based on two techniques: firstly, maximum absorption of radio radiation by the surface of the aircraft body, and secondly, reflection of radio waves in such a direction that they do not return back to the radar. For this purpose, special coatings and a specific shape of the aircraft body are used.
In aviation, attempts to develop something similar to the F-117A stealth aircraft have been made for a long time. Back in 1962, Lockheed was hard at work developing the stealthy A-12 aircraft. Another aircraft of that time, the SR-71 Blackbird, implemented stealth technology in the form of special coatings and structural materials.
In the early 70s, progress in the field of computer technology and... programming gave impetus to the development of aircraft manufacturing. The software, called ECHO, allowed Lockheed to simulate various aircraft body designs on a computer and obtain their expected appearance on a radar screen without building the actual aircraft. As a result, in 1975, she built a full-scale model of the prototype F-117A stealth aircraft, the Have Blue. At the same time, the Northrop company presented its development, but after testing both models using a real radar, the Lockheed version won. In the winter of 1977, an experimental flight of Have Blue took place, after which the US Air Force immediately ordered 24 F-117A fighters, the first of which was built in June 1981, and in 1983 the aircraft was put into service.
Convinced by the example of the F-117A fighter of the technical validity and feasibility of the stealth aircraft concept, the US Air Force command commissioned Northrop to develop a new strategic bomber with extensive use of stealth technology. Design work on its creation began in 1979, and the official ceremony of presenting the new aircraft, designated B-2 Spirit, to specialists and representatives of the press took place in November 1988.
FEATURES OF THE INVISIBLE AIRCRAFT
After a brief introduction to the history of stealth aircraft, let's look at the basic principles of stealth technology that were used in their creation.
1. A special ferromagnetic coating of the aircraft body is used to absorb radar radiation. Electromagnetic radiation falling on such a coating causes microscopic particles of the magnetic material included in its composition to change their orientation with a high frequency, which is what the radiation energy is spent on. In addition, as much as possible of the aircraft itself is made from radio-absorbing composites such as carbon fiber.
2. Rounded surfaces in the body shape are almost never used. Instead, it consists of many planes that reflect radar radiation not in the opposite direction, but in different directions. For the same purpose, the sweep of the wings is increased.
3. Conventional turbojet engines are designed so that the radar can “see” a compressor with a large reflection area that reflects radiation well. According to the new technology, a special diffuser is installed in front of the compressor, the sharp top of which reflects radiation into the engine housing and thus extinguishes it.
4. The flat-shaped engine creates a jet torch with a wide angle of divergence of hot gases, which dissipates the heat flow and reduces the degree of visibility in the infrared range.
5. Both engines of the stealth aircraft are equipped with noise-reducing casings, as well as a forced cooling system that reduces infrared emissions. Some of the cold air entering through the air intakes is supplied directly to the exhaust area and, mixing with the hot reactive gases, cools them.
6. Even parts of a stealth aircraft that should be roughly vertical, such as the pilot's seat, are corrugated to dissipate radar energy.
7. The aircraft’s V-shaped tail (also called a “butterfly”) replaces two horizontal and one vertical planes of a traditional tail, which also reduces visibility.
Stealth technology also applies to other types of military aircraft. For example, in 1990, the General Dynamics AGM-129A ASM air-to-surface cruise missile with a low level of unmasking characteristics entered service with the US Air Force strategic aviation. It was developed using stealth technology and is intended to arm the B-52N, B-1B and B-2 bombers. The ACM cruise missile is close in size to the Boeing AGM-86B ALCM cruise missile.
"STEALTH TECHNOLOGY": "FOR" AND "AGAINST"
Stealth technology has long been ambiguously perceived by many military experts. One of the disadvantages of using this technology is the high price of “stealth aircraft”. The B-2 bomber is the most expensive aircraft in aviation history - $1.157 billion per unit. In addition, although American aircraft made using stealth technology are called “invisible” in the press, this is an exaggeration. They can, in principle, be detected by modern radar equipment. A radar with a powerful emitter will still detect an “invisible aircraft,” albeit from a shorter distance. For example, the S-300 complex could “see” the F-117A from a distance of 50-60 km. In addition, short-range air defense systems equipped with television-optical sighting equipment can generally capture a target via a visual channel, in which the “invisible aircraft” is as clearly visible as any other material object.
At the same time, excessive emphasis on radar stealth leads to a decrease in the aircraft's flight qualities: it loses greatly in speed, maneuverability and flight safety. The fact is that an aircraft with such geometry and aerodynamics as the F-117A cannot stay in the air on its own and its flight requires every second adjustment using the controls. This function is performed by the computer. At least one F-117A stealth aircraft was lost due to misconfiguration of the flight control system.
A significant advantage of stealth technology, however, is that homing missiles and other automated air defense systems cannot lock on such an aircraft as a target with sufficient accuracy and, as a rule, miss.
The combat career of the “stealth aircraft” F-117A also turned out to be not entirely clear-cut. On the one hand, this aircraft quite successfully participated in five wars: the US invasion of Panama (1989), (1998), the NATO war against Yugoslavia (1999), and the Iraqi war (2003). At the same time, only one aircraft was lost in combat missions (in Yugoslavia). On the other hand, during operation, out of 64 F-117A “stealth aircraft” built, six were lost due to flight accidents - almost 10% of the total number, which, of course, is a lot. Only the most experienced pilots were put on the F-117A, but still the “stealth planes” regularly crashed. But the F-117A were withdrawn from service in 2008 not even because of this, but because of a banal lack of money for their maintenance. The freed up funds were used to purchase new F-22 multirole fighters.
Nevertheless, stealth technology continues to be used in the American aircraft industry. American fifth-generation fighters Lockheed/Boeing F-22 Raptor and Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II are stealthy, although their appearance is not as exotic as that of the F-117A. These aircraft are also extremely expensive, and even a country like the United States cannot afford to build them in large numbers. A total of 184 F-22 Raptors were built before production ceased.
Russian experts have long viewed stealth technology with skepticism, although certain methods of reducing the visibility of aircraft have, of course, been introduced. However, in the latest aviation developments, visibility reduction technologies occupy an important place. New Russian aircraft: the Su-34 fighter-bomber, the MiG-35 light front-line fighter and the Su-35S heavy fighter have reduced visibility. Promising Russian aircraft: the PAK FA heavy multirole fighter and the PAK DA long-range strategic bomber are being developed as “stealth aircraft.”
Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk - American tactical bomber developed by Lockheed Martin in the late 1970s. The first production aircraft based on the use of stealth technologies.
History of the F-117
The ability to create a combat aircraft that would be invisible to enemy radars has been a military dream since the advent of air defense radars. Even during the Second World War, German aircraft designers tried to make their aircraft invisible; this work continued after the war as part of various research programs. In the 1960s, as part of a project to create a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft, some techniques were actively used, however, due to the enormous power of the engines and the speeds that literally heated the body, the aircraft did not become invisible. However, the potential was noticeable.
In 1977, the XCom experimental committee was formed at the Pentagon, whose task was to bring Stealth technology to the level of practical applicability. It was then, on the basis of developments on the SR-71, as well as the results of tests under the secret XST program, that the committee authorized the Senior Prom program (from which the ACM stealth cruise missile grew), ATB (which became a bomber), and, finally, Senior Trend, which resulted in the F-117.
Since most of the work on Senior Trend was carried out in the Skunk Works laboratories, the development contract went to the owner of the laboratories, Lockheed Martin. The requirements of the secrecy regime were extremely high, evidence of this is the name of the aircraft - the F-117 fell out of the general line of aircraft:, and so on. According to an unspoken rule, the US Air Force assigned three-digit numbers to secret aircraft.
F-117 design
The design of the aircraft is based on stealth technology. The aircraft itself is built according to the “flying wing” aerodynamic design with a V-shaped tail. Completely uncharacteristic of subsonic aircraft, a highly swept wing (67.5°) with a sharp leading edge, a wing profile outlined by straight lines, a faceted fuselage formed by flat trapezoidal and triangular panels are located in such a way relative to each other as to reflect electromagnetic waves away from the radar enemy. The flat air intakes located above the wing on both sides of the fuselage have longitudinal partitions made of radio-absorbing materials. Part of the cold air flow is separated at the entrance to the air intakes and, bypassing the engines, enters flat nozzles shielded by the wing, the lower panels of which are covered with heat-absorbing ceramic tiles, which significantly reduces the aircraft’s IR signature. The aircraft does not have external suspensions; all weapons are located inside the fuselage.
Polymer composite materials and radio-absorbing materials and coatings are widely used in the design of the aircraft; only 10% of the structure is made of metals. As a result of these measures, the effective scattering surface of the aircraft when irradiated by a radar from the front was reduced, according to some data, to 0.025 m², which is several tens of times less than the EPR of conventional aircraft of similar sizes.
Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk - the first stealth aircraft. Skyships channel video
It is worth noting that the high stealth characteristics had to be paid for with low flight characteristics. The plane is very difficult to control - a complex automatic control system was developed just so that it could remain stable in the air. Naturally, if visually detected by enemy fighters, the F-117 was doomed - its maneuverability was barely higher than that of the Shuttle. In addition, the shape of the aircraft completely excluded the possibility of breaking the sound barrier. However, when criticizing the vehicle, it is worth considering that the F-117 is a tactical bomber, not a fighter, and maneuverable combat in targeting was not envisaged for such an aircraft at all.
The weapons compartment is two-sectional, with a system of retractable beam holders. Typical weapons are two GBU-10 or GBU-27 guided bombs. It is possible to install AGM-88 HARM, AGM-65 “Maverick” missiles, B-61 or B-83 atomic bombs (two each), GBU-15 bomb or BLU-9 container. It is possible to install rail guides for AIM-9 “Sidewinder” on the beam.
Production
All production aircraft were produced in modification “A”. 64 units were produced, with the last production example delivered to the US Air Force in 1990.
Operation of the F-117
The existence of the F-117 aircraft was first officially recognized on November 10, 1988, when the Pentagon issued a press release describing the history of the aircraft and released one retouched photograph. The first public display of two F-117s took place on April 21, 1990. The aircraft was first presented at the Le Bourget air show only in 1991 after Operation Desert Storm.
Accidents and disasters
In the entire history of operation of F-117 aircraft, according to official data, 7 aircraft were lost, including one F-117 that was shot down during combat operations.
Combat use
- US Invasion of Panama (1989)
- Gulf War (1991)
- Operation Desert Fox (1998)
- NATO war against Yugoslavia (1999)
- Iraq War (2003)
Removal from service
The US Air Force planned to use the F-117 until 2018, but rising costs for the program and the obsolescence of the bomber in front of the new fighter forced it to abandon the F-117 in favor of the F-22.
The Lockheed F-117 aircraft became the winner in the competition of secret ("black") projects of experimental stealth technology (XST - Experimental Stealth Technology) 1975-76. Powered by General Electric CJ610 turbojet engines, the first XST aircraft first flew in December 1977 from Groom Lake, Nevada. Two scaled-down prototypes of the aircraft were created to test various variants of the experimental technology. Although both aircraft in 1978 and 1980. crashed, promising test results led to the development of two prototype YF-117A-LO full-scale aircraft, followed by 57 production F-117A aircraft. The F-117A was declared operational in 1983, but to maintain the secrecy of the program, the aircraft only took off at night from a secret base in Tonopah. Only at the end of 1989, when the program was finally finally declassified, the aircraft began its flights during the day. The F-117A, eloquently nicknamed the "Wobblin Goblin", was more in keeping with its pilots' nickname "Black Jet", and was officially called the Night Hawk. The first of these vehicles was used in December 1989 in one of the phases of Operation Just Goat, carried out by the United States to transport Panamanian General Manuel Noriega. The next action was participation in the Persian Gulf conflict, when one of these aircraft carried out the first bombing attack in Operation Desert Storm on January 17, 1991.
The F-117 is a dedicated tactical strike aircraft designed primarily for night precision attacks on high-value targets in autonomous solo missions. It can also be used for tactical electronic reconnaissance of areas covered by enemy air defense systems. The F-117 is radically different from previous generations of aircraft. Firstly, conventional missile and bomb weapons have given way to high-precision weapons. Secondly, survivability in the air defense coverage area is ensured not so much by armor as by flight secrecy.
The F-117, which first flew in 1981, was kept secret for a long time because it was the first to use a new low-reflective shape and its main secret was its external contours. And only on April 21, 1990, its first public demonstration took place.
The low visibility of the F-117 allows the aircraft to fly over territory covered by enemy air defense systems at an elevated altitude. This improves the pilot's awareness of the tactical situation, facilitates the search for ground targets at long range and provides a more vertical bomb trajectory, which improves bombing accuracy and increases the penetrating power of the ammunition. The ability to fly not at an extremely low altitude also increases the effectiveness of laser target illumination for its own guided bombs. According to those who saw flights in 1990, the F-117A typically cruises at an altitude of 6100-7600 m, then descends to an altitude of 600-1525 m to improve bombing accuracy. It is made from level flight, and its accuracy is about 1 m.
The F-117 is a low-wing aircraft with a V-shaped tail and over-wing engine air intakes. Facet forms are widely used, which provide the main share (90%) of the ESR reduction. First of all, this applies to the fuselage, which has an unusual pyramidal configuration. The upward-opening canopy is made in the form of a one-piece structure; the five glazing panels have a multi-layer electrically conductive gold-containing coating to prevent radar radiation from in-cabin equipment and the pilot's equipment. The wing is highly swept, trapezoidal, with beveled faceted tips, and has a two-spar design.
The cabin is single with forward visibility only. Behind it, on top of the fuselage, there is an in-flight refueling system receiver, which is illuminated at night by a headlamp located in a protrusion on top of the cockpit. The aircraft is unstable in pitch and yaw, and therefore a complex artificial stability system is used. Since 1991; According to the OSPR program, automatic traction is installed. The air signal system has four PVDs on facet-shaped rods in the nose of the machine. Angle of attack sensors are retractable. The autopilot ensures flight along the programmed route. Autothrottle allows the aircraft to reach the point where weapons can be used with an accuracy of a few seconds. An optoelectronic system for navigation, target detection and tracking was also used.
The first large-scale operations using the F-117 took place during the war with Iraq in 1991. The aircraft flew 1,271 missions and dropped 2,000 tons of laser-guided bombs. Lieutenant General C. Horner, commander of the Air Force of the multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, said that stealth aircraft such as the F-117A and B-2 will continue to be indispensable in local emergency conflicts in the future.
Since the Second World War, the main means of detecting aircraft has been radar, which to this day has no equal in range and all-weather use. Almost simultaneously with the first radars, electronic countermeasures (ECM) appeared, which interfered with their operation. The first attempts to reduce the radar signature of military equipment date back to the same period. So, in 1944, the Germans began to cover snorkels (devices for operating diesel engines under water) and periscopes of their submarines with radio-absorbing materials (RAM). According to some reports, in Germany in 1945, one of the first aircraft was created on which it was supposed to use the RPM - the Horten No.IX (Gotha) Go.229 jet fighter. On production samples of this “flying wing” it was planned to use plywood sheathing impregnated with a special adhesive composition containing charcoal and sawdust. The emergency defense program of Nazi Germany included the production of 20 such machines, but the disaster of the only prototype and the collapse of the Third Reich interrupted this work.
"Kelly" Johnson (Clarencel "Kelly" Jonson)
In the first post-war years, aviation developed at such a rapid pace that radar technology could not keep up with them, and the task of reducing the radar visibility of aircraft became less urgent. However, some work in this direction was still carried out. Thus, when designing the Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, its creator, the outstanding American aircraft designer Clarencel “Kelly” Jonson, sought to minimize the dimensions of the aircraft, making it less noticeable to enemy radars. In the USSR, research was carried out to reduce radar visibility through the use of special radar-absorbing structures and materials. In particular, the V.M. Myasishchev Design Bureau considered ways to reduce the effective dispersion surface (ESR) of the ZM strategic bomber.
By the end of the 1950s. With the advent of anti-aircraft missile systems in the USSR and the USA, equipped with powerful radars and high-altitude missiles, the issue of reducing the radar signature of aircraft has again become relevant. After all, the main means of avoiding detection by enemy radars was then considered to be going to low and extremely low altitudes, and this led to excessive fuel consumption, increased crew fatigue and a decrease in combat capabilities in general. This explains the key idea of a low-visibility strike aircraft: it must fly over territory covered by air defense systems at medium and high altitudes. This improves crew awareness of the tactical situation, facilitates the search for ground targets at long range and provides a more vertical bomb trajectory, which improves bombing accuracy and increases the penetrating power of ammunition. The ability to fly at medium altitude also increases the effectiveness of laser illumination of the target by its own guided weapons (when bombing from low altitudes, the rapid angular movement of the aircraft relative to the target, as well as its shadowing by terrain folds, make laser illumination difficult).
The first major attempt to reduce the EPR was the Lockheed SR-71 high-altitude supersonic reconnaissance aircraft program, developed under the leadership of the same Johnson. The layout of this aircraft was determined mainly by aerodynamic requirements, but its features (the cross-sectional shape of the fuselage and engine nacelles, their smooth connection with the wing, small fins deflected inwards) also contributed to a decrease in the ESR of the machine. The company also developed a radio-absorbing spike-shaped internal structure with a plastic honeycomb core and used it in the side flaps, wing tips and elevons of the original version of this aircraft, designated A-12. Based on the latter, the SR-71 was created, which first flew on December 22, 1964. Its radio-absorbing material was retained in the design of the wing tips and elevons. The SR-71 was coated with a special paint with high thermal emissivity, which reduced the temperature of the skin during high-altitude cruising flight. Made on a ferrite base, it also reduced the radar signature of the aircraft due to a more uniform reflection of electromagnetic waves. The EPR of the A-12 and SR-71 aircraft was significantly less than that of the U-2, and the later developed D-21 drone (launched from the SR-71 and the B-52 bomber) had even less visibility. Later versions of the U-2 (U-2R and TR-1) were also coated with ferrite paint.
SR-71B Blackbird in training flight
Lockheed U-2
The SR-71 and U-2 are usually classified as the first generation of stealth aircraft; the F-117A is considered a representative of the second. Its creation was preceded by long-term research and development work (R&D), which was carried out in the United States since 1965. The incentive for them was the appearance in the Soviet Union of the S-75 and S-125 air defense systems, which demonstrated unexpectedly high performance in Vietnam and the Middle East. efficiency. The Americans' hopes for airborne electronic warfare equipment were not justified - air defense systems were rapidly improving and, in addition, containers with equipment “ate up” part of the aircraft’s combat load. In 1972-73 In the United States, they tested a four-seat civilian piston Eagle aircraft, made mainly of plastic, built by Windecker, and its further development - the experimental YE-5A, which had a fiberglass skin and an internal structure in which RPMs were used. The tests were successful, and in 1973 the US Air Force, together with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), began secret in-depth design studies aimed at creating a stealth jet combat aircraft. A special task was sent to leading aviation concerns, to which Boeing, Grumman, LTV, McDonnell-Douglas and Northrop responded.
Lockheed was not among the companies that received the task, since it had not been involved in fighter aircraft for the previous 10 years. But she nevertheless submitted her initiative proposal to DARPA for consideration, which, along with the Northrop project, was selected for further
work on the XST (experimental Stealth Technology) aircraft. All further work on “stealth” at Lockheed was entrusted to the Advanced Development Division, located in Palmdale, PC. California and semi-officially called "Skunk Works". It was there that the SR-71 and U-2 were previously created.
The technical specifications for the XST aircraft imposed strict requirements, first of all, on the size of its EPR. The analysis showed that using only RPM and individual “inconspicuous” structural elements will no longer be possible; fundamentally new solutions are required. The real solution was the widespread use of low-reflective shapes. If earlier the contours of the aircraft were determined mainly by aerodynamics, now it had to recede into the background, and the dominant position in developing the airframe configuration should have been given to reducing its reflectivity. By that time, the most powerful reflectors of electromagnetic energy were already known. These are the so-called mirror (shiny) points that reflect energy exactly in the direction from which the wave came, surface joints that act as corner reflectors, as well as sharp edges of the aircraft's load-bearing surfaces. Thus, the low-reflective airframe configuration had to be characterized by an integral layout with a minimum number of edges and the absence of protruding elements. To do this, it was necessary to ensure a smooth interface between the wing and the fuselage, inside which the engines and target load should be placed, eliminate vertical flat surfaces or reduce their sizes as much as possible (these are the strongest on-board reflectors, since the irradiation of the aircraft by ground-based radars occurs, as a rule, at a flat angle ), and the keels, if they are preserved, should be deflected from the vertical, to prevent direct radar irradiation of engine compressors by using curved air intake channels, etc.
Generally speaking, these requirements are most satisfied by the “flying wing” design with traditionally smooth contours, which, in addition to its low-reflective configuration, is distinguished by large internal volumes to accommodate engines and load. In the United States, confirmation of the small EPR of such an arrangement was first received in the late 1940s, when the Northrop YB-49 bomber was irradiated by a coastal air defense radar located south of San Francisco. Later, during NATO maneuvers, the Americans noted the difficulty of radar tracking of another “flying wing” - the British Vulcan bomber, which was not inferior in size to the B-47, but had a reflected impulse several times less powerful.
Avro Vulcan strategic bomber (UK)
It could be assumed that a design similar to the Vulcan would be chosen by the developers of the XST aircraft, especially since the traditional disadvantage of such an arrangement - insufficient longitudinal stability - was eliminated by the fly-by-wire control systems that had appeared by that time. However, the magnitude of the aircraft's RCS, in addition to the geometric shape and electromagnetic properties of its surface, is influenced by the ratio of the dimensions of the aircraft and the wavelength of the irradiating radar, as well as the irradiation angle. This makes it much more difficult to determine the optimal shape of a complex curvature surface for a “flying wing.” The limited capabilities of computers in the seventies and the complexity of mathematical modeling of EPR did not allow such a problem to be solved then. It turned out to be much easier than for surfaces of complex curvature to determine the dependence of the ESR on the irradiation angle for a combination of flat surfaces. As a result, Lockheed and Northrop decided to use a design close to the “tailless” design with the so-called faceted (multifaceted) body shape in their XST aircraft projects. This configuration does not eliminate shiny points, but with a certain orientation of flat surfaces and edges it allows you to combine the angles of intense reflection from several structural elements, thus reducing their number and removing them from the sectors of the most probable irradiation directions. This means that in these directions the facet shape provides a significant reduction in the level of the reflected signal, over the entire wavelength range of the irradiating radar. That is, the aircraft becomes practically invisible to air defense radar calculations.
First pancake
The XST projects of both companies turned out to be close. In addition to the faceted hull, both aircraft had a highly swept wing and a two-fin tail with fins inclined inward to shield the engine output nozzles. The main difference was in the location of the air intakes: Northrop proposed one dorsal intake, located immediately behind the cockpit, Lockheed - two side ones. In the first stage of the XST competition program, firms created special 1/3 scale models to evaluate EPR. Their tests in anechoic chambers began in 1976, and in the middle of the same year, Lockheed emerged victorious from the competition, receiving a contract to build two experimental aircraft under the Have Blue program (Have Blue can be translated as “a task for deceptive, fraudulent an object"). According to Lockheed engineer A. Brown, the success of his company was greatly facilitated by the use of Soviet technical literature and, above all, the theoretical works of P. Ufimtsev, an employee of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. An article by this physicist on computational methods for determining EPR, published in 1962 in a small-circulation, narrow departmental journal, was translated into English in 1971 and used by Lockheed in the development of the Echo program, designed to calculate the EPR of bodies of various configurations. As the Americans themselves write, this made it possible to reduce the costs of developing the XST aircraft, and later the F-117, by 30-40%. Tests in the chambers made it possible to clarify the aircraft configuration, developed on the basis of only calculations using the Echo program. Next, blowing took place in low and high-speed wind tunnels with a volume of 1920 hours. Lockheed then produced a full-scale radar model of the aircraft, which allowed the design details to be finalized and two flying prototypes to be built in a short time.
DOD DARPA Have Blue
The experimental "Have Blue" was a small (length with nose boom 14.4 m) subsonic single-seat aircraft, equipped with two General Electric J85-GE-4A engines, taken almost unchanged from the North American T-2B carrier-based training aircraft. The sweep angle of the leading edge of its almost delta-shaped wing was 72.3°. The plane had neither flaps nor air brakes, because... they inevitably increased the ESR. The only control surfaces were simple elevons and two all-moving keels tucked inside. The airframe structure is mainly aluminum, with the use of steel and titanium in the most heat-stressed components. The pilot piloted the plane using a side stick and conventional pedals, the signals from which were received by a fly-by-wire control system, which, by the way, did not have mechanical duplication. The weight of the vehicle during testing varied between 4200-5680 kg, of which up to 1600 kg was fuel.
The first start of the Have Blue engine took place on November 4, 1977 at the Skunk Works site adjacent to the Burbank Airport. To protect the secret product from prying eyes, it was placed between two trailers, with a camouflage net stretched on top, and the engine races were carried out at night, when the airport was closed. Then the plane was dismantled and on November 16 aboard the C-5A was delivered to the flight test site - the secret Groom Lake base in Nevada. On December 1, 1977, test pilot Bill Park took to the skies the first Have Blue, intended to study the characteristics of stability and controllability. There were 36 successful flights, but on May 4, 1978, during a landing at high vertical speed, the plane hit the runway surface hard, causing the right landing gear to jam in a half-retracted position. The pilot tried to shake it out three times, pressing his left wheel against the runway, but to no avail. Then Park climbed to an altitude of 3000 m, ran out of fuel and ejected. The second copy of the aircraft, intended directly for research into visibility characteristics, took off on July 20 and over the next 12 months performed 52 flights, completely completing the test program. Their final phase included a “game” with real air defense, when they tried to detect the aircraft using all available means. "Have Blue" demonstrated truly low visibility in the radar, infrared and acoustic ranges, proving the practical possibility of creating a stealth combat aircraft.
"Invisible" in battle
The F-117A was created to solve “special” tasks, primarily in the initial stages of an armed conflict. The Americans carefully studied the experience of the Israelis, who managed to paralyze Egypt’s air defense system in the 1967 war with powerful, well-calculated strikes and clear the skies for their aircraft. They also took into account the Soviet experience of 1968, when the massive use of airborne electronic warfare systems, especially Tu-16 jammers, practically deprived the very powerful air defense system of Czechoslovakia of combat effectiveness, which made it possible to freely land a large airborne assault force in Prague. It was concluded that it was necessary to have in the armed forces a special air defense breakthrough aircraft capable of paralyzing the enemy in a short time, striking at its “nerve nodes” (of course, covered by the most powerful means of defense). Aircraft for this purpose were called “silver bullets” in the USA (as you know, only a bullet cast from silver can kill a vampire). The main targets of the Nighthawk in the first hours of the great war were to be headquarters, communications centers, air defense infrastructure, special ammunition depots and their delivery vehicles. However, the F-117A was also tasked with more exotic tasks. In particular, in accordance with the secret plan “Downshift-02”, aircraft of this type were supposed to attack one of the dachas of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee on the Black Sea coast, located within the reach of tactical aviation based in Turkey.
Having at its disposal such a superplane as in the early 1980s. It seemed like the F-117A, the American command found itself in a well-known situation in life, when they want to use it, and are hesitant, and mom (in the sense of Congress) does not order it. For the first time, the F-117A was supposed to be used “in action” in October 1983, those. even before the 4450th Group officially achieved operational readiness. They were supposed to take part in the attack on terrorist camps in Southern Lebanon. According to various sources, from 5 to 7 aircraft received weapons, and the coordinates of the targets were entered into the on-board inertial systems. However, US Secretary of Defense K. Weinberger canceled this order 45 minutes before departure to the Middle East.
The same thing happened in 1986, when planning a raid on the residence of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. It was assumed that heavy military transport C-5s would transfer several stealth aircraft from Tonopah to the Rota Air Force Base in Spain. Having penetrated the airspace of Tripoli, covered by highly advanced air defense systems (including the S-200 air defense system), several Nighthawks were supposed to strike the colonel’s villa with controlled air bombs. However, this plan, lobbied by the Air Force command interested in testing its most modern weapons, was categorically opposed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff W. Crowe. He stated that “stele technology is too valuable to be put at risk.” As a result, the attack on Tripoli on April 14, 1986 was carried out by F-111 aircraft. Having lost two vehicles, the Americans did not achieve the main goal of the operation - the physical elimination of the Libyan leader.
The F-117A was first used in combat on December 21, 1989 as part of Operation Just Cause, the American intervention in Panama. Two Nighthawks each dropped one laser-guided 907 kg GBU-27 bomb on the Panamanian National Guard barracks in Rio Hato, where President Noriega was believed to be located. The press service of the US Department of Defense reported that “the operation was successful”, the bombs hit pre-selected targets with pinpoint accuracy - areas of the terrain located at a distance from the barracks, guaranteeing from destruction, but at the same time, capable of causing panic among Panamanian soldiers. Indeed, the guardsmen jumped out of the barracks in their underwear, however, as it turned out later, they still planned to get into the buildings. The bombs landed with a large deviation from the targets due to unfavorable weather conditions and pilot errors. Panama's air defense, which did not even have a radar, of course, did not pose a serious threat to American aviation, and the only reason for the F-117A's participation in this operation was the same desire to test it in combat, as well as to facilitate (by creating favorable "PR") passage through The US Congress finances another stealth bomber program, the B-2A.
The first large-scale operations using the F-117A took place during the war with Iraq in January-March 1991. However, for the stealth crews, this war began long before the first explosions in Baghdad - back on August 19, 1990, when the “night stalkers” from The 415th TFS left its permanent home base and headed to Saudi Arabia. The squadron's 18 Nighthawks completed a non-stop 14.5-hour flight with refueling from the nine KC-10s accompanying them. Their new home for the next six months was the Khamis Masheit airbase in the southwest of the country, located on a desert plateau at an altitude of more than 2000 m. This airfield is separated from Baghdad by more than 1750 km, and it was chosen because Iraqi missiles could not reach it “ earth-earth." With the appearance of secret aircraft in Khamis Masheit, unprecedented security measures were taken and the regime was tightened to the limit, providing the pilots of 415 Squadron with ideal conditions for preparing for war, which they diligently did for 5 months.
Training flights were carried out exclusively at night in maximum autonomy and stealth mode. Particular attention was paid to practicing in-flight refueling in complete radio silence. They flew mainly within the borders of Saudi Arabia, only in some cases approaching the Iraqi border to check the reaction of Hussein's air defense. Not once were stealth systems detected, as evidenced by the constant operation of Iraqi radars (when an ordinary plane flew up to the border, the air defense immediately “raised its head”). According to the squadron pilots, their invisibility became an important moral factor that added courage to them during night raids over enemy territory. The success of the training flights prompted the American command to increase the number of F-117A in the region. In December 1990, another 18 Nighthawks from the 416th TFS arrived at the base.
And then came midnight from January 16 to 17, 1991 - the finest hour of the F-117A, when the first group of 10 Nighthawks of the 415th squadron, each carrying two 907-kg adjustable bombs, took off to deliver the first strikes in a new war. Neither before nor after the events of that night did the crews of the One Hundred and Seventeenth achieve such significant successes. A participant in that raid, Mr. Donaldson (call sign “Bandit 321”) recalls: “We did everything in complete radio silence, guided solely by time. Now we must start the engines, now taxi out of cover, begin the takeoff run, etc. At the estimated moment, we met 10 tankers taking off from the Saudi Arabian base of Riyadh and refueled. In a common formation they flew to the Iraqi border, then split up and each went to their own target. We did everything so that they could not detect us; we turned off all the lights and removed the radio communication antennas. We could not say a word to our comrades and could not hear if anyone wanted to convey a message to us. We followed the route, carefully monitoring the time. The first bombs were dropped by a pair led by Mr. Fist (Bandit 261) on an Iraqi interceptor and tactical missile control center southwest of Baghdad. Thanks to the precise timing of our actions in the following minutes, most of the planned targets were taken by surprise and hit, incl. The 112-meter tower in the center of Baghdad is the key to the entire military command and control system. This most important target was destroyed by Mr. Cairdavid (“Bandit 284”).”
As soon as the first explosions occurred in Baghdad, all ground-based air defense systems, especially artillery, opened indiscriminate fire across the night sky, trying to hit targets that were invisible to them and which by that time were already on the opposite course. For its unconditional picturesqueness, this moment was especially loved by artists: on most canvases depicting the F-117A, the subject is the same - fireworks of fiery trails in the black southern sky, silhouettes of mosques against the backdrop of fires and shadows of mysterious, almost alien “stealth”, dissolving in the darkness.
The list of objects damaged by the first group included two command posts of air defense sectors, the Air Force headquarters in Baghdad, and the joint control and tracking center in Al Taji, the seat of government. The second wave of F-117A (3 aircraft from the 415th and 9 from the 416th squadron) carried out repeated attacks on the Air Force headquarters, air defense command posts, as well as telephone, television and radio stations in Baghdad, and the satellite communications center. “These strikes blinded the Iraqis,” continues Bandit 321, “and they were unable to detect in time the attack of conventional aircraft that were approaching after us. The air defense was completely disorganized. We saw on the indicators in our cockpits how Iraqi MiG-29s flew around us. But they were blind and could not detect us and carry out the capture.”
During the first 24 hours, all 36 Nighthawks carried out similar 5.5-hour raids, of which 24 were in the air exclusively in the dark, and 12 were partially in the light, taking off after 17:00 local time. Most of the attacks were carried out by single aircraft, and only three ground targets were attacked in pairs; in these cases, the wingman, using the infrared system, could evaluate the results of the leader’s bombing and adjust his attack. As a rule, F-117A operated autonomously, without the involvement of electronic warfare aircraft, since jamming could attract the attention of the enemy. In general, during the war, in order to increase secrecy, stealth operations were planned so that the nearest Allied aircraft was at least 160 km away from them. Only in some cases did the “one hundred and seventeenth” interact with the EF-111 and F-4G.
The F-117A crews made sorties against planned targets every night. After two weeks of the war, it became clear that the combat effectiveness of the Nighthawks was quite high. They began to be sent on missions more and more often. The workload on the crews grew. To help the exhausted pilots who flew combat missions every night, on January 26, 6 more stealth fighters, pilots and some equipment from the training 417th TFTS were transferred to Khamis Masheit. Thus, the total number of F-117As that took part in the conflict reached 42.
The arrival of reinforcements made it possible to somewhat reduce the load on the crews and equipment. Now the pilots took to the air once every one and a half to two days, and still each of them ended up flying from 100 to 150 hours in combat conditions.
The thesis about the high efficiency of the F-117A in that war is considered indisputable. In particular, this is evidenced by the successful use of stealth systems to destroy strategic bridges on Iraqi territory, whereas previously more than 100 unsuccessful sorties were carried out against them by F-15, F-16 and F/A-18 aircraft. Another example: four days before the start of the offensive by the Allied ground forces, seventeen F-117A within 27 minutes struck oil pipelines, with the help of which the Iraqis intended to fill the ditches in Kuwait with oil: out of 34 targets, 32 were hit. An equally important result The combat work of the Nighthawks was the destruction of air defense missile systems in Central Iraq, which made it possible for the B-52 crews to carry out carpet bombing without hindrance. Stealth aircraft are also credited with the destruction of several Iraqi Tu-16s, allegedly preparing to strike with chemical munitions: In general, during the war, F-117As carried out 1,271 missions lasting more than 7,000 hours and dropped 2,087 laser-guided bombs GBU-10 and GBU-27 with a total weight of about 2000 tons. Their effectiveness (the relative number of sorties hitting designated targets) was, according to official estimates, 80-95%. In particular, it is alleged that stealth pilots achieved 1669 direct hits, making only 418 misses. (Note that during the Vietnam War, efficiency averaged 33%, and by the early 1990s, 50% was the norm for conventional aircraft.) But perhaps most impressive is the statement that with a strength of only 2, 5% of the total number of aircraft deployed in the Persian Gulf, F-117A hit about 40% of all strategic targets attacked by the allies.
Speaking later at a meeting in the US Congress, the commander of the Air Force of the multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, Lt. C. Horner, based on these data, said that stealth aircraft such as the F-117A and B-2 will be indispensable in future local conflicts , similar to the Gulf War.
The centerpiece of Horner's presentation was a comparison of two raids against heavily defended Iraqi nuclear installations at al-Tuwait, south of Baghdad. The first raid took place on the afternoon of January 18, involving 32 F-16C aircraft armed with conventional unguided bombs, accompanied by 16 F-15C fighters, four EF-111 jammers, eight anti-radar F-4Gs and 15 KC-135 tankers. This large aviation group failed to complete the assigned task. The second raid was carried out at night by just eight F-117As, each armed with two GBU-27 bombs, accompanied by two tankers. This time the Americans destroyed three of the four Iraqi nuclear reactors. According to Horner, the same damage could have been caused by two B-2 bombers in one flight without the use of tankers.
However, we will not continue to quote here the enthusiastic responses to the successes of the Nighthawks from American generals, senators and other persons responsible for processing public opinion. Partly because there is other information about the effectiveness of the F-117A in Iraq. For example, some sources claim that out of several KABs, only one hit the target, and the real effectiveness of the “stealth” did not exceed 30%. With the cost of one GBU-27 bomb being 175,000 USD, this made the use of precision weapons very burdensome. According to official statistics, in the Persian Gulf, smart weapons accounted for less than 8% of all air munitions used by the allies, but their cost amounted to 85% of the cost of all missiles and bombs dropped on the enemy.
In addition, the F-117A has several sad incidents on its combat record (and at the same time on the conscience of its crews). For example, the destruction of a bomb shelter in Baghdad on February 13, which was mistakenly taken for a command post. As a result of this attack, more than 100 civilians were killed, which caused great resonance in the world. Another interesting point: all sources of information controlled by the US Air Force unanimously claim that during the entire war not a single “stele” was not only shot down, but even damaged by enemy fire. At the same time, there is information that one F-117A was shot down on January 20, 1991 by an Iraqi Igla MANPADS.
Another F-117A stealth aircraft was shot down over Yugoslavia about 20 km from Belgrade, in the area of the Batajnice airfield, by an ancient S-125 air defense system with a radar missile guidance system.
The plane allegedly crashed in the desert in Saudi Arabia, and Hussein's subordinates simply did not have the opportunity to present its wreckage as proof of their victory.
With the end of Operation Desert Storm, the successes of the F-117A began to decline, although stealth aircraft periodically fought in this region throughout the next decade. Thus, during the “punitive” operation against air defense facilities in Southern Iraq (command posts, air defense systems, radar positions), which took place on January 13, 1993, the F-117A turned out to be ineffective: six of these vehicles were able to hit only 2 targets out of 6 assigned. In two cases, the laser guidance of the bombs was disrupted as they passed through the clouds, in the third, the pilot was unable to detect the target, and in the fourth, he incorrectly identified the turning point of the route and bombed the false target. This speaks to the F-117A's ability to perform operations only in simple weather conditions. And the described raid, in which, by the way, 38 different types of aircraft took part, took place at night with poor visibility. It was the weather, according to Pentagon representatives, that was the reason for the low effectiveness of the raid: out of 32 planned targets, only 16 were hit. In December 1998, F-117As operating from bases in Kuwait took part in Operation Desert Fox. - bombing of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction factories. In 4 days, American aviation carried out 650 sorties against 100 targets, and the fleet fired 100 Tomahawks. However, almost nothing was reported about the results of the operation, which can be interpreted as evidence of their absence. A low-intensity war involving “stealth” forces in the so-called. the no-fly zone in southern Iraq continues to this day (article dates back to 2002 - paralay).
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It has long been known that survivability in battle can be ensured not only by good protection, but also by camouflage. For a long time, too little attention was paid to camouflage in aviation. In fact, it all came down to only a special camouflage color: the upper surfaces of the aircraft are painted “camouflage”, and the lower surfaces are painted blue, to match the color of the sky
Discovery of physicist Peter Ufimtsev
About thirty years ago, while leafing through a popular scientific and technical magazine, American intelligence officers came across an article by Russian physicist Pyotr Ufimtsev, which stated that wing-type aircraft made of certain materials, cut and painted in a special way, are practically invisible to radar. .
Stealth American stealth aircraft, invented by a Russian scientist. "Dead end" branch of aviation.
Construction and testing of the aircraft
The article was of great interest to American military specialists, and the United States decided to build and test such an aircraft.
There were opportunities for this. Then the Pentagon - the US Department of Defense - was developing a program to create a new generation of aircraft - a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft and a high-altitude interceptor, which were intended to be inaccessible to enemy detection and destruction means. So in the mid-1970s, the US Air Force received a first-class reconnaissance aircraft SR-71, which They were distinguished by an unusual aerodynamic shape and special painting, made according to Ufimtsev’s “recipes” and reducing the radar visibility of the aircraft.
Inspired by their success, the Americans moved on and began to develop new types of stealth aircraft based on the ideas of the Russian physicist. The project was called “stealth” (from the English word “stealth” - quietly, furtively).
Creation of a stealth plane
Attempts to create a “completely invisible aircraft” were unsuccessful for a long time. Only twenty years ago, the United States showed the world a miracle of military technology that looked like a bat or an alien ship. Two modifications of the stealth aircraft were manufactured: the F-117 fighter-bomber and the B-2 heavy strategic bomber, which were used in the war against Iraq. A little later, the F-22 stealth fighter entered service. Externally, the F-117 is similar to a flying wing with a span of 13.2 m. But in addition to the specially selected shape, its entire structure was developed with the maximum possible use of radar-absorbing materials.
They reduce the level of reflected signals, which, moreover, are not reflected back, as from ordinary surfaces, but up and down in narrow sectors. With the help of special exhaust nozzles and the supply of ambient air, the intensity of the infrared radiation of the engine jet stream is significantly reduced, that is, the enemy’s “thermal” sensors will also not detect this aircraft.
The “invisible” even has a special communication system - a laser one, which is almost impossible to find direction. True, the F-117, to put it mildly, does not shine with its flight performance qualities. You can’t do modern aerobatics on it - that’s the price to pay for “invisibility.”
Stealth technology
All “stealth” technology was designed for the enemy to use centimeter-range locators, for which American “stealth” aircraft actually become inconspicuous. However, in Russia, and the air defense forces of other countries today have meter-range locators, for which it does not matter Is it a stealth plane or a regular plane?
The news of the invisibility of “stealth” devices for only one type of locator caused a real scandal in the US government. After all, billions were spent on the development of stealth aircraft, but it turned out that the effectiveness of new aircraft in combat may be inferior even to older machines. It turned out that the Americans’ technological breakthrough in the production of “stealth” aircraft was associated with the emigration to the USA of Ufimtsev, who was involved in the creation of invisible
Ufimtsev did the same thing for many years in the USSR. And not only him.
At least two Soviet design bureaus built and tested stealth aircraft of various types. The conclusion of the authoritative commissions was as follows:
1) the stealth aircraft, manufactured according to Ufimtsev’s ideas, due to its shape has low speed and maneuverability - essentially it is a hang glider, poorly adapted for combat maneuvers and incapable of aerobatics;
2) the aircraft can be detected visually and by special high-frequency radars; in addition, when the bomb bays are opened and in some flight modes, it is visible to conventional radars and after “notching” it can be easily shot down;
3) the cost of the aircraft is prohibitively high.
Conclusion: the construction of such aircraft is impractical
; Moreover, this type of aircraft is “a dead-end branch in the development of military aviation.”
Therefore, in the early 1980s, work on the Ufimtsevo “stealth” in the USSR was stopped. The offended designer left for the USA, where he implemented his “senseless” ideas, as time has proven, at the expense of the Americans.
Implementation of the designer’s ideas in the USA
The modern development of combat aviation has taken a different path: development of a new generation of aircraft is underway, characterized by ultra-high speed, flight altitude, maneuverability and stealth (due to these properties) for enemy air defense systems.
