Russia has long struggled with the United States for priority in creating a twenty-first century fighter that combines the characteristics of a supersonic super-maneuverable combat vehicle and Stealth technology. A plane with such qualities should not be detected by radar and infrared surveillance. The construction of such a future fighter can not only dramatically increase the effectiveness of the national air force, but also provide a powerful argument in the competition in the global arms market.
Until very recently, leading design bureaus and aircraft manufacturers did not manage to combine such conflicting technological aspects in one combat aircraft. Moreover, Russia was predominantly in the role of catching up. Combining all these qualities, a Stealth-built aircraft should become a major trump card in solving various geopolitical problems.
For example, the MiG-29 was developed as an adequate response to the creation of the American F-18 fighter, and the Su-27 was a kind of counterweight to the F-15. And although all these models at one time were a real breakthrough and a major achievement in the field of aircraft manufacturing, modern doctrines require the development of a fundamentally new fighter that combines excellent flight performance with Stealth technology. An airplane whose construction is based on such a concept should not only be inaccessible to radars, but also possess the qualities of a multi-purpose supersonic and super-maneuverable combat vehicle.
The American stealth F-117 stealth aircraft could not bring its designers closer to their desired target. This car had very modest flight characteristics and could not take part in serious air battles. The United States Air Force spent huge budget funds to develop a truly effective and invisible winged predator for radars. However, they could only get closer to the realization of this task in the fall of 1997, when tests of the F-22 Raptor fighter began.
But this time, American aircraft manufacturers could not count on unconditional superiority. Since the Sukhoi Design Bureau began flight tests of the S-37 Berkut only two weeks later than its competitors. According to authoritative estimates of military experts, the Russian fighter is significantly superior to the Raptor, mainly due to the unique wing of the reverse sweep. All this brought the competition of engineering and technology to a new round of confrontation.
After completing an operation to seize Iraqi oil fields, ambitiously called the Desert Storm, US military officials tirelessly praised their Lockheed F-117A aircraft. These "black ghosts" who made several devastating raids on Baghdad, Iraqi air defense could not even see on the monitors of their radar stations. This Stealth aircraft, whose photo shows the ideal geometry of the machine, was the embodiment of thirty years of effort by American engineers to develop this technology.
Back in 1962, Lockheed attempted to create an A-12 invisible aircraft. At first, these attempts did not bring the desired result. You can also recall the “Stealth” plane, the famous air reconnaissance aircraft of the time, the SR-71, nicknamed “The Black Bird” due to the corresponding color of the special coating that absorbed radio waves. In the early 1970s, with the rapid development of computer technology and programming, it became possible to simulate computer flight. So the car was designed, which had a minimum radio visibility. In 1975, Lockheed designers created the first prototype of an invisible aircraft. In the winter of 1977, the F-117A new generation combat vehicle first flew into the air, and six years later it was adopted by the U.S. Air Force.
Encouraged by such success, the Pentagon instructed Northrop to develop a new strategic bomber using the same technology, which is invulnerable to enemy air defense. The work, which lasted nine years, ended with the construction of a machine that received the code designation B-2. When creating all their "invisibles", the Americans did not use the technology of aliens, which was a lot of fables, but the theoretical developments of our compatriots.
To absorb radio emission, they used a special ferromagnetic coating of the casing. In addition, the Americans resorted to many additional tricks. For example, in the machine itself, almost all elements were made of non-reflective composite materials, such as carbon fiber. All engines were equipped with noise reduction hoods and forced cooling systems that reduce the intensity of infrared emissions. And much more was used in American "invisibility".
But here a reasonable question arises about the effectiveness of all these tricks. And then it turns out that huge funds (many billions of dollars!) Have been spent in vain. First of all, these machines turned out to be so capricious in operation that they could be prepared for flight only at the base airfields. In addition, it turned out along the way that as soon as the Stealth gets wet, it begins to appear distinctly on the radar screens, like an invisible person from the famous novel by Herbert Wells. Perhaps for this reason, during the hostilities in Yugoslavia, the F-117A was shot down in one of the very first sorties.
But the invention made in Russia, where a fundamentally new technology for creating radio-invisibility was finally completed, was finally completed by the research of American scientists and aircraft manufacturers in this area. Special plasma clouds are generated near the aircraft that absorb electromagnetic waves so intensely that the visibility of the machine on the screens of radar stations decreases by more than a hundred times.