Sergei Tchaikovsky
Wednesday April 7, 2021 18:11 MSK / Vladimir Karnozov
Russia is developing a next-generation interceptor, which will complement and eventually replace the MiG-31, which was put into service forty years ago. The project of a promising long-range intercept aircraft complex (PAK DP) under the symbol "MiG-41" is at the stage of development work.
The work under the PAK DP program is being carried out by the designers of the engineering center of the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG, which is part of the UAC, subordinate to Rostec. It is proceeding on schedule approved by the Department of Defense, albeit at a slightly slower pace than previously promised by industry officials.
MiG-31BM aircraft with the hypersonic missiles Dagger
For the first time, the beginning of the process of shaping the appearance of a promising car was publicly announced in 2017. Judging by the news of January 25 this year, over the past four years, the project has gone from scientific research and concept formation to R&D. Completion of this stage involves the construction of an experimental prototype for flight tests.
Earlier, representatives of RAC MiG stated that the MiG-41 would not be a deep modernization of its predecessor, but an “absolutely new aircraft” with better flight performance and a high degree of automation. In an interview with Russia Today at the ARMY-2017 International Military-Technical Forum, the then head of RAC MiG, Ilya Tarasenko, argued that the new aircraft would be capable of accelerating to speeds of 4-4.3 times the speed of sound. As you know, the M = 2.83 limit is set for the MiG-31. The difference is significant. To reach the speeds indicated above, a fundamentally new power plant is needed, and the airframe of the aircraft must be made of such structural materials that would withstand the corresponding aerodynamic heating.
Talking to reporters, Tarasenko explained the need to develop the MiG-41 with the following arguments: «We are convinced that our country needs such an aircraft. This is the next, very big step towards strengthening the defense capability of the state, protecting the borders of our Motherland. And we are talking here not only about the Arctic and the East, as it is commonly believed. We are working on an integrated global defense system for Russia's borders. We expect that the PAK DP will replace the MiG-31 when its resource comes to its logical conclusion. The promising aircraft will use new types of aviation weapons, it will be created using new stealth technologies, it will be able to transport the required amount of weapons, and will operate at a very large interception radius.»
The development of a next-generation interceptor is required as a response to the plans of the leading NATO countries to create new, more advanced weapons, including attack aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles - cruise missile carriers. The latter, in the process of evolutionary development, become less noticeable and more long-range, which allows carriers to carry out launches outside the affected area by air defense weapons. In addition, shortly before the end of his presidential term, Donald Trump announced the ongoing development of hypersonic weapons in the United States.
The answer to these challenges will be to equip the Russian Aerospace Forces with aviation complexes capable of intercepting existing and future weapons, as well as their carriers. They will complement surface-to-air missile systems, favourably differing in the line of interception - for aircraft it is much larger.
A feature of the MiG-31 that distinguished it from other fighters of its time was the possibility of a long flight at supersonic speeds. At the same time, however, the D-30F6 engines operated in afterburner mode. Modern technologies make it possible to create more efficient winged aircraft capable of maintaining supersonic speed for a long time without the use of afterburner - the so-called "super cruise" flight mode. Most likely, the MiG-41 will be not just a "super cruiser" aircraft, but also a higher-altitude aircraft, which will allow it to patrol in the waiting area for a long time, while remaining ready to repel enemy strikes.
Development, testing and setting up serial production of aircraft take time. Until the MiG-41 came to the troops, the tasks of protecting the air borders of our country will continue to be solved by the aircraft of the formation. For this, a multifaceted work is underway to maintain the required number and combat readiness of the Russian Aerospace Forces fleet.
Historical aspect
The development of the MiG-41 represents a project of particular importance for RSK MiG, since the very existence of the renowned design bureau, created in December 1939 under the leadership of Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan, depends on the implementation of this program. Since the formation of the Design Bureau in December 1939, it has implemented over 450 projects of combat aircraft. Of these, 170 are in metal, and 94 went into series. The domestic aviation industry has built more than 45 thousand MiGs, including 11 thousand exported to more than forty countries of the world. Also, according to the drawings of the Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau, more than 14 thousand fighters were assembled abroad.
Alas, most of these machines have already served their time and retired. Today, the Russian Aerospace Forces is armed with two families of MiG aircraft, with numerical indices "29" and "31". Also delivered for testing the first batch of six MiG-35s, built by order of the RF Ministry of Defense, placed during the IMTF "ARMY-2019". Note that all these machines are twin-engine.
Meanwhile, starting with its firstborn, the MiG-1 (I-200), the Mikoyan and Gurevich design bureau for a long time specialized in front-line light class fighters, made according to a single-engine scheme. These were the serial MiGs with numerical indices "1", "3", "15", "17", "21", "23" and "27". Collectively, they were issued in a circulation that is an order of magnitude higher than the total production of twin-engine models with numeric indexes "9", "19", "25", "29" and "31".
The vast fleet of MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighters, as well as the MiG-27 fighter-bomber created on the basis of the latter, which the Russian Air Force inherited after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was written off back in the “nineties”, under the pretext that single-engine aircraft were “much more dangerous” twin-engine in operation. World practice says otherwise, but remembering what was happening in the country and the army at the turn of the century, such an "argument" was not questioned. Today, around the world there are up to a thousand obsolete, physically worn out, but not terminated flights of front-line fighters MiG-21 and MiG-23. So, the Syrian government army today quite successfully uses them for bombing and assault strikes on the rebels.
Of the twin-engine aircraft, the MiG-25 has been in service for a long time. It was created as an interceptor capable of dealing with high-speed high-altitude targets such as the Lockheed A-11 and others. It was produced from 1967 to 1984. This is one of the most advanced machines of its time - the MiG-25 set 39 world records, including an absolute height record of 37,650 meters, reached on August 31, 1977 by pilot A.V. Fedotov on an experimental modification of the E-266M.
The last "twenty-fifths" were removed from the armament of the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2013, and, moreover, the aircraft in the "RB" version served the longest - a reconnaissance aircraft capable, if necessary, of bombing from high altitudes. The export version of this aircraft was supplied to India, where it has also been withdrawn from service. Abroad, the MiG-25P interceptor continues to be in service. It was supplied to four Arab countries. Iraqi and Libyan aircraft no longer fly today, Syrian aircraft flew infrequent sorties during the Civil War, and Algerian aircraft are kept operational to this day.
MiG-31
The development of the direction of high-altitude interception was the MiG-31 - the first domestic fourth-generation fighter. The aircraft made its maiden flight in 1975, entered service in 1981. It was designed to intercept and destroy various air targets, primarily enemy bombers and cruise missiles. Its main difference from the MiG-25 was the ability to destroy not only high-speed targets, but also low-altitude ones. To do this, the on-board complex included the Zaslon radar with a phased antenna array and electronic beam scanning developed by the N.I. V.V. Tikhomirov. This is the first radar of this type installed on a fighter jet. The Zaslon can not only detect targets in free space and against the background of the earth, but also direct long-range (launch range up to 110 km) R-33 missiles at them.
The R-15 engine was installed on the MiG-25 aircraft, which is a development of the cruise missile power plant. It was powerful, but not economical. For the MiG-31, a D-30F6 bypass engine was specially developed with much higher performance, including better fuel consumption characteristics. The range and duration of the flight increased, which made it possible to cover vast areas in the Arctic and the Far East from enemy air strikes.
In Soviet times, the MiG-31 regiments were part of the Air Defense Forces, but after their elimination as an independent branch of the armed forces, they went to the Air Force, and then to the Russian Aerospace Forces (the Navy also has a small number of such aircraft). The military units on the MiG-31 belong to Front-line Aviation, but this fact itself does not give the right to speak of the aircraft as a “front-line fighter”. This vehicle is of a heavy class, created as a high-altitude interceptor based on well-prepared airfields with a large hard-surface runway.
A high maximum speed, corresponding to the number M = 2.83 (for a short time the plane can reach “three swings”), causes strong heating, therefore the airframe of the aircraft is made with wide use of steel. The distribution of materials in the airframe structure is as follows: half - steel, 16% - titanium, the rest - duralumin and composite materials. The aircraft turned out to be large and heavy, its maximum take-off weight is about 47 tons.
Of the five hundred aircraft assembled in 1994, half are still in service today. The MiG-31 was not delivered abroad, the only exception is Kazakhstan. And today, the MiG-31 is the only type of aircraft developed by the design bureau that has survived in the combatant regiments of the Russian Aerospace Forces, since by now its famous brother, the MiG-29, is operated only in centres involved in training and retraining of pilots.
Modernization
Previously released copies are maintained in good condition and undergo deep modernization to the “BM” version. This is a multipurpose aircraft capable not only of performing the tasks of a target interceptor, but also of delivering high-precision strikes against ground targets with the use of guided weapons, and also being a platform for launching hypersonic missiles.
Work on the BM modification began in 1997, using the achievements and technologies tested on the MiG-31M - a modification that was tested but was not serially built. Among the differences of this version is the updated "Zaslon-M" radar. The updated radar has a detection range of air targets up to 320 km and ensures their engagement with long-range missiles at a distance of up to 280 km. At the same time, ten targets are tracked, with the simultaneous firing of six of them.
Instead of dial gauges in the front and rear cockpit, multifunctional indicators on color LCD matrices are installed. They display navigation, radar and tactical information. The new equipment significantly expands the capabilities of the MiG-31BM. For example, the aircraft can be used as an air command post, coordinating the actions of other fighters, moreover, of different types, directing them to selected targets. In addition, the updated interceptor interacts more effectively with anti-aircraft missile systems. Due to the modernization of avionics and weapons, the effectiveness of the MiG-31BM in comparison with the MiG-31 has increased 2.6 times.
The modernization of combat vehicles to the level of the MiG-31BM began in 2008 at the Nizhny Novgorod aircraft building plant "Sokol" (a branch of RAC "MiG"). It is known about contracts for the modernization of 114 aircraft in formation. Work is underway to extend the life of the MiG-31BM by several thousand flight hours, which will allow the interceptors to remain in service for about ten more years. According to the head of the UAC, Yuri Slyusar, the entire MiG-31 fleet will be modernized by 2023.
At the same time, the modernization of the airframe and aircraft systems will be in vain if you do not pay due attention to the power plant. The assembly of the D-30F engines stopped back in 1992, when the 1357th copy was produced. By now, the resource of the hot part of the engine park has been largely exhausted, and the question arose about the manufacture of repair kits for ARZ 218. Over the past several years, UEC-PM (Perm) has restarted the production of a high-pressure compressor, and is currently engaged in turbine. These and other elements will be sent to Gatchina and used in carrying out forms of maintenance at the power plants of fighter-interceptors.
At the turn of 2022, the Perm plant will actually be able to assemble the first completely new gas generator. The further fate of the D-30F depends on whether the engine builders can effectively use their developments and accumulated potential, and create highly efficient power plants for ground use on the basis of an aircraft engine. In this case, aviation and ground issues will support each other, increasing the chances for the future in two directions at once.
Conclusion
It was noted above that the development of a completely new interceptor is a project of particular importance for RSK MiG, since the very existence of the renowned design bureau depends on the implementation of this program. The recent news about the completion of the preliminary research phase on the topic of the PAK DP and the transition to ROC on the MiG-41 inspires optimism. Especially today, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the first entry into combat units of the MiG-1 fighters - the firstborn of the famous Mikoyan and Gurevich design bureau. I would like to believe that the followers of Artyom Ivanovich and Mikhail Iosifovich will be able to continue the business they started and raise the domestic aircraft industry to new heights.
Photo by Julia Loris
MiG-41 Interceptor To Be Ready By 2020
Materials on the PAK DP/MiG-41 have been submitted to the Ministry of Defense
Materials on the PAK DP/MiG-41 have been submitted to the Ministry of Defense
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