Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union's Su-27 emerged, and the Americans immediately felt the pressure. All the data of this fighter surpassed the F-15, so they had to develop a new generation of fighters, which led to the ATF program.

The result of this program was the F-22 fighter, which became the world's first heavy air superiority fighter. For a long time, it dominated the world. However, not only the Air Force needed it, but the Navy needed it too.

The Navy planned to develop its own, but Congress disagreed, continuing to force the issue and demanding that the Navy's project merge with the Air Force's project. The Navy's project was NATF, and Congress required improvements to be made based on the ATF.

Converting a land-based fighter into a carrier-based fighter is not uncommon. The Soviet Union's carrier-based fighters came about this way, and the French Rafale also went to sea. However, the Navy's needs are very different from the Air Force's.

For example, the Navy required the new carrier-based aircraft to have good low-speed performance, to withstand the humid air and salt corrosion at sea, and to have long-range interception capabilities. At the same time, considering the situation of their own aircraft carriers, they required the maximum take-off weight of the carrier-based fighter not to exceed 30 tons, and the maximum landing weight not to exceed 24 tons. Then, after calculation, if the F-22 were converted into a carrier-based aircraft, it would definitely be overweight.

Grumman Corporation was very excited when they heard about this project and modified the Tomcat into a stealth version, hoping it could be deployed on carriers and continue to write legends. However, Grumman failed because countless people despised the Tomcat, considering it an embarrassing fighter because the Iranians were also using it!

That's right, such a ridiculous reason led to the Tomcat's complete departure from the decks of the US Navy's aircraft carriers. The US Navy could only rely on the slow-flying 'Rhino' (F/A-18E/F Super Hornet). If the United States wasn't already globally invincible, they would definitely be miserable.

Some say the Tomcat's departure was due to high maintenance costs, but this is actually a misconception. If you look at the specific data, the Tomcat fighter's maintenance costs are not much higher than the Rhino's. Especially the later F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which was originally said to inherit the excellent performance of the previous Hornet. Who would have thought that more than half of it was redeveloped, making it even more troublesome to operate. The Americans once calculated that, adding up all the costs, the average cost per hour of flight was as high as $30,404!

Unfortunately, the Tomcat is gone, so even if they are annoyed, they have no other choice but to grit their teeth and accept it.

No matter how expensive a fighter is, when it comes to the East, the cost can be reduced. We have no other advantages, but we can turn everything expensive into dirt-cheap prices. Look at the warships, the British Type 45 destroyers can't even afford four-sided phased array radar, and need two back-to-back rotating searches. The East's Aegis warships are being built like dumplings.

Fighters are naturally the same. We are not afraid of maintenance costs, we have ways to reduce them.

The world's most famous variable-sweep wing fighter is the Tomcat. The European Tornado fighter is a fighter-bomber. Except for the British, who use it as an interceptor, other countries use it as a bomber. As for the Soviets, there was only the MiG-23, and practice has proven that its performance was not very high, so the Soviets gave up and started playing with leading-edge extensions and blended wing-body layouts.

Another problem with variable-sweep wings is the increase in weight.

This is indeed a problem. After all, the wings of a variable-sweep wing can rotate, which requires a pivot at the wing root. At the same time, a wing box is needed there to hold it in place, as well as a dedicated hydraulic cylinder. This makes the structure complex and increases the weight, which is unavoidable.

The Soviets used stainless steel, while the Americans used titanium alloy. The two sides had different ideas for solving the problem, and the results were different. The East took the path of titanium alloy. Qin Yang also found foreign helpers and successfully solved the welding problem of titanium alloy. It can be said that there was indeed an increase in weight, but not much.

However, the advantages brought by the variable-sweep wing are huge. In the case of insufficient engine power, this fighter has excellent performance, capable of both dogfighting and interception.

"Will the gap in the wing box of this variable-sweep wing damage stealth performance?" At this moment, Old Lin spoke.

Old Lin is indeed amazing, always able to find the key points.

In order to achieve good stealth, stealth aircraft generally use diamond-shaped wings, but variable-sweep wings are not possible, and there are also seams. This area will strongly emit electromagnetic waves.

"Yes, this gap will have a negative effect. However, as long as we design carefully, we can still reduce the reflection of radar waves from this seam. Moreover, this gap is towards the rear, and for stealth aircraft, the most important thing is forward stealth," Qin Yang said.

Gaps are everywhere. When the leading-edge flaps of other stealth aircraft rotate, there will also be gaps between them and the main wing. Stealth aircraft that do not use DSI intakes, such as the F-22 and Su-57, need a boundary layer isolation device where the intake meets the fuselage, which is also a large gap. Gaps cannot be eliminated, only ways to reduce the radar reflection area as much as possible can be found, which requires special research.

Old Lin nodded.

Reflection and absorption are the two magic weapons of stealth aircraft. The surface of the aircraft needs to be sprayed with a coating.

When fighter jets first appeared, they were made of wood. In order to prevent rot, it was certainly necessary to paint them. In that era of showing off individuality, the paint had to be particularly eye-catching, such as the famous Red Baron, or painting an eagle or tiger on the nose.

Entering the jet age, the aircraft skin evolved to aluminum alloy. At this time, painting became a bit awkward, because painting seemed to be useless. The aluminum alloy surface would form a thin layer of aluminum oxide film, and this film was enough to protect the inside. Therefore, in that period, silver fighters often appeared.

However, as aircraft performance continued to improve, painting began again, generally in gray and blue. This was to hide themselves. Above 5,000 meters, the difference in color has disappeared, and the visual color is basically gray, so the aircraft is painted gray to easily hide itself. At the same time, if you look down at the earth, you will see gray-blue, so the bottom and top of the fighter are painted in these two colors.

As for black aircraft, it is of course for night flight.

As for stealth aircraft, painting is not only visual stealth, but more importantly, radar stealth.