SandBoxx published an interesting article, the content of which is roughly "Which countries will have the most powerful fighter fleets in 2022?". It compared the countries and models of fifth-generation aircraft in the world. The accompanying article announced A picture of the global fifth-generation fighter and the quantity. It is estimated that everyone is attracted by the quantity!
The number of fifth-generation machines in each country: the United States is first, China is second, and Russia is not counted.
The number of fifth-generation machines in the United States with 600+ ranks first. There should be no suspense about this! China occupies the second place on the list with 150 aircraft, and the top spot is occupied by Australia with 44 aircraft. Others, such as , Norway, , Israel, and South Korea, have bought a lot of fifth-generation aircraft. It seems that Americans form cliques to sell them. fighter is indeed a good idea.
There are several surprising things in this list. The first is that the number of China's J-20 has unknowingly reached 150 (the number comes from the report of the "South China Morning Post" in 2021). Of course, this number is only calculated by the author. It's a quote, no comment on it;
The other one is Russian Su-57, but it's not on the ranking list. What's going on? Insufficient performance to qualify for the list? Why is
Russian SU-57 not on the ranking list?
is not on the list. The first issue everyone considers is performance. In fact, there are some correlations, but not all. Su-57 is the T-50 that everyone is familiar with. This is the internal of Sukhoi The numbers used in early test flights and other tests were all T-50. After entering service, it was actually numbered Su-57.
The Su-57 is a multi-role fighter capable of air combat as well as ground and sea strikes: stealth, super maneuverability, super cruise , integrated avionics and relatively large internal mounting capacity, although Many problems were exposed during the test flight. Its performance is basically at the bottom among fifth-generation aircraft, but it still belongs to the ranks of fifth-generation aircraft.
is not included in the ranks of the world's fifth-generation aircraft. According to data provided by SandBoxx, there are currently a total of 16 Su-57 Su-57s, but 12 are prototypes. What does this mean? These fighters are all aircraft that have been tested in various states and cannot be counted as active fighters. Therefore, the number of Russia's fifth-generation aircraft cannot be included in the top ten stealth fighter equipment countries in the world.
However, SandBoxx also explained that Russia is one of the three largest countries in the world with stealth fighter production lines. Although it will temporarily be affected by economic conditions and sanctions after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia still has the ability to mass-produce fifth-generation aircraft, which is amazing ( sic).
F-22 is about to be retired? Can F-35 hold up the scene?
In this ranking, the United States is the only country with two fifth-generation aircraft. The number of F-22s is about 150-186, and the number of F-35 Lightnings is about 450. The total number is 600+, which is more than all fifth-generation aircraft in other countries around the world. There are even more machines combined, and I have to say that the accumulation of old-style imperialism is quite fierce.
A hidden worry: F22 may be retired
On April 1, 2022, Business Insider published an article reporting that the U.S. Air Force plans to retire 33 of its oldest F-22s that are no longer combat capable to optimize resources. "Air Force Magazine" reported that Lieutenant General David Nahom, the deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force in charge of planning, said that these fighters that are expected to be retired early are F-22 Block 20s used by training units and lacking upgrades.
This batch of is used by training units and the combat effectiveness of the F-22 Block 20 that lacks upgrades has been affected. Upgrading to the latest Block 30/35 will consume a lot of money, so the U.S. Air Force will convert some F-22 Block 30/35 training, and the budget savings will be used to develop the next-generation air superiority NGAD system, the successor to the F-22.
DefenseNews reported on May 14, 2022 that Lt. Gen. Clinton Hinote, Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements, said the retirement of the F-22 will be "event-driven." , will be tied to the development progress of NGAD, which will essentially occur closer to the 2030s in the upcoming fiscal year 2022 budget cycle.
F-22 is about to retire: Can the F-35 still hold up the scene?
A more interesting topic. Although the United States has two fifth-generation aircraft, the price of F-22 is as high as US$150 million to US$200 million per unit. It is too big for the US military to use, otherwise it would not only equip less than 200 aircraft. , and Lieutenant General Clinton Hinault said in an interview that only four types of aircraft will be retained in the future, namely: NGAD, Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Boeing 's F-15EX and Lockheed German F-16.
NGAD is obviously not mature enough. Among these three fighter jets, the F-35 is obviously the most advanced. So the question is, if the F-22 is retired and the NGAD still fails to reach service status, can the F-35 compete with the world's most advanced fighters? A showdown between fifth-generation aircraft?
F-35 Lightning: It is actually a fighter attack aircraft
I believe everyone must know that another nickname of F-35 is "Fat Electric". It is ironic that the F-35 is too fat. This statement is really not what everyone describes. , you can find a photo of the F-35. Whether it is A, B or C type, they all look fat and fat:
The ratio of its wings to the fuselage is really relatively small, which means the wing load of the F-35 It is very large, and the US military has increased the wing area on the F-35C (carrier-based short take-off and landing type), as shown below:
increased from 460 square feet (42.74 square meters) in A and B to 668 square feet (62.06 square meters); and more importantly, the design concept of the F-35 is a single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multi-purpose fighter. Another important meaning of this multi-purpose is that it comes with ground attack capabilities. Sea attack function:
The F-35 only has a belly magazine and no side magazine. This is completely different from the combat positioning of the F-22 and J-20. To put it simply, it gives up fighting and relies entirely on mid-range bombs. In the world, once the mid-range bullet is missed, it is difficult to take advantage of the launch speed after entering the combat range. This is really worrying.
But as a ground attack, the F-35’s internal magazine is not large enough. Two JDAMs are obviously not enough, so there is a fully armed Feidian in the picture below. With this kind of virtue, the F-35 What are the chances of winning?
Are you familiar with this hanging egg mode? That’s right! It is the bomb truck mode commonly used by third-generation aircraft. A fifth-generation aircraft is used to do the work of a third-generation aircraft, and the wing load is not even as good as that of a third-generation aircraft. Do you really have to rely on all-round sensing electronic equipment to save your life? It is estimated that even the pilots of the F-35 do not have much confidence.
Another fatal weakness of the F-35 is its cruising speed. Although the thrust of the F-135 engine is as high as 18 tons, the F-35 engine with a maximum take-off weight of close to 30 tons is obviously insufficient and cannot cruise at supersonic speeds. The maximum flight speed It's only Mach 1.6, and its combat radius is less than 1,000 kilometers. It's unbearable.
Therefore, Israel, which is equipped with the F-35, plans to install the auxiliary fuel tank for the F-35. Obviously it is very dissatisfied with its range. Like the external weapon mode, once the auxiliary fuel tank is mounted, its stealth performance will inevitably drop significantly, but this It also makes up for its lack of performance. After all, Israel cannot find a more advanced fighter jet than the F-35.
The F-35's AN/APG-8 active phased array (AESA) radar has only 676 T/R components, which is far less than the 1956 T/R components of the F-22's AN/APG-77 radar, but the F The phased array radar of the -35 is still higher than the 1526 T/R components of the SU-57 phased array radar. Obviously, the more T/R components per unit area, the better the performance of the radar .
The side magazine of the SU-57 is really a radically modified version
Therefore, I am still a little confident that the F-35 can be used to bully the Su-57, which is the weakest among the fifth-generation aircraft. The situation is different from the F-35 but the performance is somewhat similar. Russia Because its own technology has lagged behind, the SU-57 also has many problems, such as poor stealth performance. Although its maneuverability may be better than that of the F-35, the F-35 may not give it a chance to demonstrate combat. In this encounter, it is estimated that the F-35 still has a lot of advantages.
F-35's EOTS
is not as good as F-35's AN/ASQ-239 Barracuda electronic warfare system and AN/AAQ-40 electro-optical sighting system (EOTS) have many advantages, but it is obvious that the EOTS performance on J-20 is definitely not weak. , if you are interested, you can also learn about the relevant information.
NGAD What is the performance of the sixth generation machine?
NGAD is the abbreviation of "Next Generation Air Dominance" (Next Generation Air Dominance), a fighter program launched in 2014 to develop air superiority for the US Air Force in the 2030s. In addition to its more advanced designs in engines, stealth, advanced weapons and aircraft infrared signature management, the
NGAD program can also appear as the core combat command aircraft of the system. Other parts of the system may be unmanned escort aircraft to carry additional Ammunition performs auxiliary or other tasks.
NGAD may have two models: one has long range and payload and will be deployed in the Indo-Pacific region in the future, and the other is more oriented to possible theaters in Europe (with a shorter range). It is expected that NGAD fighters will be equipped with adaptive cycle engines (AETP) and the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program, this engine will reach practical status around 2025. The emergence of
F-22 has given everyone a reference category for fifth-generation aircraft, and the emergence of NGAD may subvert the way of combat. For example, performs unmanned missions, and at the same time forms an integration with satellite , drone groups, and the overall combat system. Integrated systems, but the US military may no longer be able to achieve the effect of the F-22 that shocked the world in its sixth-generation aircraft plan!
For example, the current concept of sixth-generation aircraft probably has the following integrated functions:
- . Advanced digital capabilities (AI, big data, network warfare);
- . Unmanned driving (can be manned and unmanned fighter aircraft );
- , advanced cockpit system (the helmet display presents virtual cockpit instruments, and the cockpit is all digital);
- , more advanced aerodynamic shape and stealth coating and avionics equipment;
- , engine for sustained supersonic cruise;
- , ultra-long-range air-to-air missiles The technical difficulty of NGAD, which is stacked with advanced technologies such as laser weapon ;
, can be imagined. For now, the US military has also encountered huge economic and technical difficulties in developing NGAD. The equipment is likely to be delayed in 2030. , and the related technologies involved have already been caught up by some countries. According to rumors, the conceptual design of a sixth-generation aircraft in a certain country has already begun, and it will not be later than the United States. Crossing the river by groping for eagle sauce is always faster than blindly groping with your eyes closed. good.
reference:
https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/stealth-fighters-by-the-numbers/
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/05/13/the-f-22-is -going-away-eventually-but-not-before-the-air-force-gets-comfortable-with-its-successor/
https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-wants-to-retire-oldest -f22-raptor-fighter-jets-2022-4
