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THE GLORY OF "STEALTHIES" FADES BECAUSE OF THEM
Red Star. January 28, 2005. Anatoly Dokuchaev
 ВThe
tenth volume of the unique Encyclopedia "Russia’s Arms and Technologies.
The XXI Century Encyclopedia" has been published. The volume is entitled
"Aircraft Armament and Avionics". It should be noted that this book
is the second one of the books covering the Russian Air Force armament. The
project is a common work made by competent experts of the Russian defense industry,
scientists, historians as well as journalists of the Publishing House "Arms
and Technologies". The Encyclopedia is being published under general supervision
of the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.
On March 28, 1999 the public saw wreckage of a stealth fighter Lockheed-Martin
F-117A "Nighthawk" flaming in the air. This historical fact advertised
not only the skill of the Yugoslavian pilot who detected the praised "invisible"
aircraft, but also the beautiful MiG-29 fighter and the air-to-air missile with
remarkable potentialities, which surmounted the F-117 protection system.
Now we can be familiar not only with avionics and the missile, which terminated
the stealth era, but also with its brothers and sisters, as they say. Thanks
to the new volume of the unique project implemented by the Publishing House
"Arms and Technologies". It describes modern and prospective models
of Russian military aircraft armament and avionics, discovers potentialities
of defense industry enterprises in design, manufacture and export of these kinds
of weapons and airborne radio-electronic equipment.
At the present time Russian battle aircraft systems are being improved intensively.
The armament, avionics and equipment of existing systems are being modernized.
Fifth generation aircraft are being designed. This fact adds authority to the
volume published. As it is known, the design of a prospective front-line aircraft
has the highest priority. With respect to avionics and armament the plane should
concentrate new technologies, first of all information ones, which allow the
crew to use a wide range of weapons, modernized and newly created, at new level
of automation. Having multiple information links with other combat facilities
belonging to a common combat control system, and with external control systems,
the plane will have own on-board information sources operating in all electromagnetic
spectral ranges. For the first time in Russian practice a concept of an open
architecture applied to the on-board integrated equipment will be implemented
in a full scale. The equipment will be connected to a common "brain"
– the on-board information and control system. New designs in the sphere of
aircraft armament will improve the aircraft intellect, which has influence on
armament autonomy, accuracy and number of channels used.
There are being designed models of high-precision aircraft weapons for twenty-four-hour
operations, new systems for control and information support using new technologies
and sensors. The further development in avionics is directed towards functional,
hardware and software integration of separate subsystems based on advanced modern
digital equipment.
"New requirements on avionics and armament find practical implementation
in the aviation component in the State Program of Armament of Russia for the
Period till 2010." – stresses General of the Army Vladimir Mikhailov, the
Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force. – "This program envisages a wide spectrum
of work on the upgrading of the existing fleet of aircraft. The basis of upgrading
are measures aimed at the perfection of the onboard equipment and improvement
of the performance of onboard avionics and the development of new airborne weapons,
including precision weapons."
It should be stressed that modern aircraft armament facilities are the most
science-intensive parts of aircraft systems and they evolve rapidly. The combat
potential and the competitive ability of native four- and fifth-generation aircraft
systems mostly depend on the implementation of programs to create the aircraft
facilities mentioned above. It has crucial influence on Russia’s ability to
remain an aviation power.
The book systematically describes guided air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles
(including anti-ship and anti-radar ones), guided bombs, homing heads, heliborne
anti-tank and air defense systems.
In particular, the reader can find information about air-to-air missiles including
the long-range missile R-33E, which is a part of MiG-31 armament and has the
operating range up to 120 km in the front hemisphere; the middle-range missile
R-27 used by the fighters Su-27, Su-30, Su-30MK, Su-32, Su-33, Su-35, and MiG-29S;
the short-range missile R-73K, designed for hitting air targets at close distances
from any direction and under any weather conditions.
The book contains interesting information about the air-to-surface cruise missile
Kh-55 arming the strategic missile carriers TU-160 and Tu-95MS. Its range is
2500 km, and it carries a 250 kt nuclear warhead. It is used for destroying
enemy’s targets in far regions and in the rear of continental theatres of war.
The advanced version of the Kh-55 – the Kh-55SM is described as well. The cruise
missile Kh-22 arming the missile carrier and bomber Tu-22M3 has the range of
400 km. The Kh-22 (and its modifications Kh-22N, Kh-22NA, Kh-22MP) was designed
for destroying radar-visible targets on the open sea and near the coastal line,
as well as separate ground targets.
Anti-radar missiles (Kh-27, Kh-25MP, Kh-31P, Kh-58E, and others), and anti-ship
missiles (Kh-15S, Kh-31A, Kh-35E, supersonic cruise missile "Yakhont",
and others) are described as well. Heliborne missile systems are represented
by 9 anti-tank and 4 anti-air systems.
There are described in detail unguided bombs (from the high-explosive bomb
FAB-9000 M-54 to the concrete-piercing bomb BETAB-500ShP), unguided aircraft
missiles (S-8, S-13, S-24B, S-25) and release slips for their launching, as
well as aircraft cannons.
A significant part of the book covers on-board radio-electronic aircraft equipment.
It includes sighting-navigation and pilotage-navigation systems; on-board radars;
optoelectronic systems and facilities; equipment for reconnaissance, long-range
detection and observation, radio-electronic warfare, and communications; on-board
computers and digital equipment; facilities for information display, recording
and interpretation.
Thus, we can look at sighting-navigation systems of the Su-30MK and MiG-29SMT
aircraft, on-board radio-electronic equipment of modified helicopters Mi-24PN,
Mi-28N, and Ka-52. Radio-electronic systems for patrol aircraft are represented
by the search and sighting system "Morskoy zmey" ("Sea Dragon").
The book describes in detail on-board radiolocation systems (the families "Zhuk"
("Scarab"), "Kopyo" ("Lance"), "Smerch-A"
("Tornado-A"), the control system "Bars" ("Ounce"),
the system "Arbalet" ("Arbalest"), and others). Thus, the
multi-function on-board Doppler radar "Zhuk-E" is a very important
component of fighters. It deals with air, ground and water-surface targets,
controls over high-precision weapons and maps the surface with high resolution.
It is able to detect 10 – 24 targets simultaneously, to follow position of 2
– 8 targets, and supports a missile attack in the mode "shoot-and-forget".
Those who are interested with on-board systems for reconnaissance, long-range
detection, radio-electronic warfare, and communications will not be deprived.
It is the first time when information about these systems has been published.
There are described, for example, the observation system "Open Sky";
the unmanned system VR-3D for tactical air reconnaissance; a system for reconnaissance
and battle field observation in real time with the small-sized unmanned aircraft
"Pchela-1" ("Bee-1"); the A-50 system for long-range detection;
and other facilities.
In total, the volume contains information about 530(!) models of aircraft armament
and avionics. Separate sections cover modernization programs for certain models
of military planes and helicopters, as well as training systems.
Of course, the section containing information about main defense enterprises
of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (68 enterprises) designing and manufacturing
aircraft armament and avionics, adds value to the new book. The well known companies
like the State Scientific-Industrial Enterprise "Bazalt", the Design
Bureau of Machine-building, the A. E. Nudelman Precise Engineering Design Bureau,
the State Machine-building Bureau "Raduga" named after A. Ya. Bereznyak,
the Corporation "Fazotron" – Scientific-Research Institute of Radio
Design, the A.S Yakovlev Experimental Design Bureau, and others are among them.
Nikolai Spassky, the Director General and Editor-in-Chief of the Publishing
House "Arms and Technologies", stressed that the book is oriented
towards experts in modern aircraft manufacturing, aircraft armament and equipment;
representatives of companies and enterprises manufacturing armament and military
equipment. Models of military equipment are designated according to the Common
Classifier of Supply Items for Russian Armed Forces, compatible with similar
foreign classifiers by its parameters.
The volume becomes more "solid" due to comprehensive articles "Aircraft
armament and avionics as key components of technological efficiency of Russia’s
Air Force" written by General of the Army Vladimir Mikhailov, the Commander-in-Chief
of the Air Force; and "Priority tasks in the field of creation of aircraft
armament" by Lieutenant General Alexander Zelin, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief
of the Air Force.
It should be noted that the new publication contains 780 pages with text in
Russian and English and illustrations. By the way, such a wide scope has been
supported by Vneshtorgbank, which is the general sponsor of this unique publication.
But the volume is valuable not because of its size. All we have a possibility
to "sense" the technological advance in the sphere of avionics and
aircraft armament, which seems to be the main prerequisite for increasing efficiency
of native aircraft systems, their further integration into the common national
defense system, and increasing the share of the Russian defense industry in
the world weapons market.
Строительство домов. .
Kupizoloto.ru предлагает: . Все кольца в России.
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