"Raptor" F-22 (F-22 Raptor) - a multi-purpose fighter of the fifth generation

In early September 1997, the fighter Raptor F-22 made its debut flight. Despite the outrageousness of many domestic and foreign experts, the LTX of the plane is excellent, but several years ago it was finally taken off the production line. And it's not so much in its stunning costliness, but with the incidents that arise when it is used.

Beat on taxpayers

The story, which the "Raptor" F-22 conceals behind itself, can be published in adventure books. In it everything is intertwined: the uncompromising nature of the US Congress, the hysterics of the developers who were forced to combine the incompatible, and the raptures of the first flights, and the mysterious deaths of the pilots, and the constant limitations on the operational loads ... The amount spent on the development of the aircraft exceeded 70 billion Dollars only on official information.

Where did the origins come from?

The technical design for the creation of the new F-22 Raptor was received by American designers back in 1981, but the customers in the person of the government understood perfectly (but not all) that the development would last for a couple of decades at best. In principle, the Armed Forces of the Air Forces just in those years received the new F-15, whose capabilities should have been sufficient for several years. So Washington immediately wanted to get a technique that would outnumber both the Soviet and the European. Politicians dreamed of a completely universal airplane that could work as a fighter or as a stormtrooper. How far did it turn out? To judge you.

Perestroika does not end never

To the instrument filling were presented simply unthinkable for those times requirements. So, the on-board computer should have a performance of at least 10 G flops and RAM in one gigabyte. I must say that the developers still managed to solve such a non-trivial task, using a simple processor i486. But then the military was waiting for a blow: in 1996, just one year before the first flight, Intel Corporation announced the curtailment of the production of an outdated model. Meanwhile, initially the Pentagon expected to receive at least 1200 aircraft, each of which required 80 (!) Processors. Where do you get them from? Lockheed Martin repeatedly tried to "press" developers, but Intel was a tough nut to crack and did not want to release very old equipment in small batches.

So I had to quickly rewrite all the software for a new processor. Only for alterations, according to official information, had to spend at least a billion dollars. In general, "unlimited time limits" turned out to be a devilishly costly affair. And this was only the beginning. Indeed, the fifth-generation fighter ...

Count and tear

The military itself dreamed of a Wunderwaffe, whose value would not exceed $ 40 million per aircraft. But the price has steadily increased, but because the Pentagon had to reduce their appetites. When in 2011 187 aircraft were built (and production was curtailed), it turned out that the cost of one machine exceeds $ 150 million. So the cost of the F-22 Raptor "surpassed" (and much more) even the price of the F-117 (the same as the "Lame Goblin"), which had previously been considered the record holder for this indicator. However, this machine still has much more positive features than the model 117, which the American pilots respectfully called "The Flying Iron".

Set of contradictions

Purely hypothetical, since the "Raptor" F-22 was not yet in real combat, in the sky the plane is extremely good. From the point of view of radar visibility, it is no longer so different from the "standard" machines. From the assault point of view, the aircraft is just nonsense, as for this money you can buy at least a dozen ordinary ground-attack planes, the cost of maintenance of which is hundreds (!) Times cheaper.

And all this is by no means a consequence of the unprofessionalism of designers. Americans have always done good planes, they can not take experience in this field. Simply to the developers at the time of the first flight had to do from the car a whole set of compromises. And this, as any technically savvy person can understand, has never led to anything good.

The Path of Compromise

So, it was necessary to constantly go on deterioration of technical characteristics. For example, the Raptor F-22 does not have an external suspension for missile and bomb armament, which reduces its assault value to zero. This was due to the fact that, subject to the presence of this suspension, the aircraft became perfectly visible for radars. How much noticeable the machine for modern radar detection systems is for certain is unknown, since the "combat" application of "Raptor" is limited to today by computer modeling.

So the whole "stuffing" is in the inner compartments. There are four in total. In two - one missile, in the other two - two. And, according to the requirement of the customer, they had to start both in the assault and in the fighter version. As a result, it was required to create a complex device that could "shove" the missile at supersonic speed. And this is done in two stages. At first, a powerful pneumatic drive literally knocks weapons out of the outer compressed air layer, and then the hydraulics throws the projectile onto its trajectory.

Commanders of the US Air Force wanted that the response time of this wise mechanism should not exceed 0.2 seconds. That's only in spite of the titanic efforts of engineers and scientists, in practice this value is 0.9 sec. And the point here is not the slowness of the mechanics: if the rocket is forced out faster at an afterburner speed, its destruction takes place. So the reaction on the plane, let's say, is slow.

It should be noted that not all missiles and not all flight modes are launched so trickily: when using a ground attack, a simpler device is used. If you do not go into details, then if you need to launch a projectile, a bomb-latch is opened, the missile is laid on the guides, and starts from them.

Designation of priorities

In the end, it all got to the conclusion that the F-22 Raptor aircraft would not go further than the Kulmanovs, so they would have to sacrifice something. Scientists have been given the task to maximally improve the flight performance of the fighter. Then the engineers decided to use engines with variable thrust vector, and also significantly improved the contours of the airframe itself. For some reason, the Americans preferred to stop only on the vertical variation of the thrust (our Su-35, for example, can change it in the horizontal direction).

Invisibility on the radar screens put in second place. In contrast to the "Lame Goblin", that is, the F-117, they were used so as not to damage the classical outlines of the airframe and not to turn the aircraft into an iron in terms of aerodynamics. Stepping back from the topic, let's say that in 1990, when the production of the Night Hawk was hastily curtailed, all the money from this program passed to the "Raptor" inheritance. It is theoretically assumed that the scattering area of the F-22 Raptor is 0.3 m2. In the Goblin, this figure was from 0.01 to 0.0025 m². But "Raptor" still decided to make it an airplane, not a volatile iron. Simply stated, Lockheed Martin this time decided not to endure the patience of the Congress.

However, a normal compromise between the invisibility and accuracy of the bombing did not work out. Even if considerable funds were spent to find a solution. So, for the sake of "Raptor" in due time created "smart" bombs with guidance to the target on GPS. The fact is that in the small B-22 bombs, ordinary bombs with active guidance on the target simply did not fit. If we use "simple" ammunition, guided by a laser beam on a target, then the entire invisibility of the aircraft flies under the tail. So the help of the satellite was almost the only possible solution to this problem.

In general, the bombs were impressive: they can fly to a distance of 30 kilometers from the point of discharge, deviation from the target does not exceed 11 meters. Strictly speaking, it is a rocket rigidly attached to specific coordinates of the earth's surface. So if the target is maneuvering, it's unlikely that the fifth-generation fighter will be able to hit it. Which again puts a cross on his assault capabilities. But this is not the only drawback. To hit a "smart" bomb stationary target, "Raptor" must fly literally under the nose of the enemy's air defense forces. So, as an additional load in the bombers, the machines are also loaded with missiles specifically designed specifically to counter air defense.

Assault sickness

It is noteworthy that the universal F-22 Raptor, whose characteristics we dismantle, does not have any special equipment for detecting and maintaining ground targets, which again reduces its assault capabilities to a minimum. In general, and this is not the fault of the designers: originally, this equipment was on the plane, but it was withdrawn from the construction at the request of the Pentagon, when the cost of the program is very much off scale. To the credit of the engineers from Lockheed-Martin, it must be said that at least the basic weapons for targeted bombing were still able to be retained. So, in the aircraft software there are all necessary options that allow you to quickly and without special losses still connect the necessary on-board equipment, if the good leadership gives it.

However, for the time being, the main means of hitting targets on the ground are the above-mentioned GPS bombs, the effectiveness of which is great, but only when working on stationary objects. In general, this is the reason why the Raptors did not take any part in US combat operations in the same Afghanistan. Who is there to catch on GPS? So even for this reason, the Americans still have old F-16s armed with Americans, which have not been adequately replaced so far.

In general, taking into account the war in Iraq, where the US military met a more or less serious enemy, which had aviation, one single conclusion suggests: using F-22 for war with the countries of the Third World is an utter folly. The flight hours of this aircraft are almost more expensive than a couple of old F-15s, which will successfully perform the same tasks.

Pilot life support system

It may seem that the US Air Force received a machine that is a set of technical nonsense. In principle, there is a basis for such an opinion, but in fact this technique has many breakthrough technologies. But they are so "raw" that all the advantages they give are nothing in the face of the problems that they create. Novelties are complex, expensive and capricious in debugging. One of the most characteristic examples is the pilot's life-support suit. As a matter of fact, this "suit" on complexity hardly surpasses a space suit.

The system is so sophisticated that it has to be managed using not the weakest computer. If she refuses, there is an option of manual switching to manual control (now switching is automatic). But already at the first tests in combat units, the commanders of the pilots began to receive reports from pilots with requests to transplant them with the Lockheed Boeing F-22 Raptor to something more adequate. The fact is that at the entrance and exit from maneuvers with a strong overload all pilots experienced acute oxygen starvation, on the verge of fainting. Then the army bureaucrats did not attach any importance to complaints. That's only in 2010, another pilot was "weak" and simply fainted at the withdrawal of "Raptor" from the bend. As a result, the car collapsed, the person was killed.

Later it turned out that the system of bleeding and pumping air into the pilot's suit was poorly worked out. More precisely, the "chemichil" valve: because of its inadequate operation, the air did not have time to escape normally, as a result of which people were simply squeezed by excessive pressure. And the overload was so strong that even the pulmonary alveoli contracted. As a result, one and a half hundred cars, which were at that time in the ranks, had to be converted urgently. More than a year, Raptor was strictly forbidden to climb over five thousand meters (with a ceiling of 20 thousand).

The conclusions drawn

It is believed that by now the car seems to have been brought to its final condition. But the question remains - why it was necessary to spend so much money on the development of this aircraft. Hypothetically flawless fighters can be replaced by 4+ generation aircraft, and the Pentagon does not try to remember about their assault capabilities once again.

However, one should not be deluded: an unpleasant lesson by the Americans was learned well. When the development of the F-35 began, they decided to sacrifice maneuverability in favor of stealth. The customer then decided that with high dispersion of the radio signal, such ideal flight characteristics are no longer necessary. True, this time the Americans stepped on other rakes, but it's not about that ... In conclusion, I would like to say that at present the tests of our PAK-FA are underway. Most likely, our designers were able to take into account the negative experience of their overseas colleagues and are unlikely to repeat their mistakes.

It should be specially emphasized that, despite all its shortcomings, the F-22 Raptor fighter is almost the only Western aircraft capable of carrying out the famous "Pugachev's Cobra". And this is a very unpleasant sign, indicating a high maneuverability of the machine, which is certainly capable of competing on an equal footing with our Su-37 and later models.

Main technical characteristics

• The total length of the glider is 18.9 m.
• The maximum maximum height of the hull is 5,09 m.
• The total wingspan is 13.56 m.
• The total surface area of the wing is 78.04 m.
• The weight of the unloaded aircraft is 19,700 kg.
• The maximum takeoff mass is 38,000 kg.
• The area of dispersion is 0.3-0.4 square kilometers. M.
• Forced thrust of engines - 2 x 15 876 kgf.
• The maximum achievable speed is 2700 km / h.
• Speed in the normal mode, without afterburner - 2410 km / h.
• The maximum permissible speed at the ground is 1490 km / h.
• The radius of combat use is 760 km.
• The maximum achievable height is 20 000 m.
• Overload at acceleration - 9 g.
• The main armament of the F-22 Raptor is a 20-mm automatic cannon, eight air-to-air missiles or six smart bombs, or a combination of them.

Commissioning took place in 2005. Total produced 187 aircraft. Lost five fighters.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize once again that "Raptor" is an ideal example of a negative PR, which is largely spread by the very same American military. Yes, the aircraft has a lot of economic plan problems, to which the Pentagon can not pay attention at all. But from a technical point of view, the car turned out very worthy. The only real drawback is the lack of that multitasking.

For ground targets, the F-22 Raptor fighter can not practically work, the effectiveness of three or four bombs is clearly insignificant. But in terms of fighting with enemy fighters, the aircraft is probably good, even in practice it is not confirmed.

By the way, our T-50 also has only closed internal compartments for weapons, and there is no information on the presence of an external body kit ... So our American fighter of the fifth generation is clearly similar to each other. I would like to hope that in the combat conditions, verification of their capabilities will not be carried out. In addition, with all the technical limitations of Raptor, one should not forget that in modern air combat the lion's share of success is the use of modern missiles. And with them, the Americans are all in perfect order.

Finally, a huge plus of programs on F-22 and F-35 (for the US, of course) is the movement of science and the breaking-in of completely new technologies. Domestic Su-47 "Berkut" was created and rolled with the same goals.