Air superiority fighter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

F-15 Eagle This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008) An air superiority fighter is a type of fighter aircraft intended to gain air superiority in a war, by entering and seizing control of enemy airspace. Air superiority fighters are designed to effectively engage enemy fighters, more than other types of aircraft. They are usually more expensive and procured in fewer numbers than multirole fighters.

Contents
[hide]

1 Evolution of the term 2 Lessons in combat 3 Air superiority fighters 4 Current fighters 5 U.S. Next Generation Air Dominance 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Evolution of the term

During World War II and through the Korean War, fighters were classified by their role: heavy fighter, interceptor, escort fighter, night fighter, and so forth. With the development of guided missiles in the 1950s, design diverged between fighters optimized to fight in the beyond visual range (BVR) regime (interceptors), and fighters optimized to fight in the within visual range (WVR) regime (air superiority fighters). In United States, the influential proponents of BVR developed the fighters with no forward-firing gun, such as the original F4 Phantom II, as it was thought that they would never even need to resort to WVR combat. These aircraft would sacrifice high maneuverability, and instead focus on remaining performance characteristics, as they presumably would never engage in dogfight with enemy fighters.

[edit] Lessons in combat

However, combat experience in Vietnam proved the BVR proponents wrong. Owing to restrictive rules of engagement and the failings of 1960s missile and radar technology, combat often devolved into a close-range dog-fight, one for which American fighters and pilots were unprepared. The lessons from this conflict spurred a rethinking of design priorities for fighter aircraft, in which the Navy's TOPGUN and the Air Force's Red Flag programs, developed specifically to teach pilots the lessons of dogfighting, were created.

[edit] Air superiority fighters

This rethinking drove the Navy's VFAX/VFX of the 1960s and Air Force's FX (Fighter Experimental) concept of the 1970s, which resulted in the Navy's F-14 Tomcat, and Air Force's F-15 Eagle. The VFX would compromise the air superiority role for better interception abilities with more powerful radar and longer ranged AIM-54 Phoenix missiles necessary to destroy large fleets of bombers at standoff ranges. The FX was to be a specialized air superiority fighter built to excel at the shorter ranges of fighter combat.

[edit] Current fighters

F-22 Raptor, a fifth generation stealth fighter jet featuring supercruise and thrust vectoring.

Eurofighter Typhoon, also featuring supercruise.

Dassault Rafale

Su-30MKI, featuring thrust-vectoring

Su-27

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is the USAF's current air superiority fighter. It incorporates many advanced technologies like supersonic cruise without afterburner (supercruise) and supermaneuverability as a result of thrust vectoring. Some early advertising material for the F-22 billed it as an "air dominance fighter". It is one of the most expensive tactical combat aircraft ever produced, with a current "flyaway" cost per jet of US$137 million. The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle has been the USAF's premier air superiority fighter aircraft for nearly 30 years. The F-15 is in service with the USAF (F-15C), the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) (F-15J), the Israeli Air Force (F-15I) and the Royal Saudi Air Force (F-15S). The USAF will keep 178 F-15C and 224 F-15E fighters in service past 2025 which will serve alongside the F-22 Raptor.[1] The General Dynamics F-16 was one of the first of a series of multirole fighters designed to perform both air superiority and ground attack. Although not a pure air superiority fighter, it introduced inherent instability into fighter design. This allows for a large increase in maneuverability and is made possible by a computer-aided electronic flight control system dubbed "fly-by-wire". When the F-14 retired from frontline US Navy service in the second half of 2006 it was replaced in the interim by the multirole F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. When the F-35C becomes operational, it will assume the roles of fleet defense and air superiority fighter for carrier air groups. This changeover from an interception leaning design to a more typical air superiority type is due to a change in the type of threat that US aircraft carriers face. The primary threat

of large formations of Soviet bombers has been replaced with the threat of small high-speed aircraft penetrating through the carrier's screen. The Sukhoi Su-35 'Flanker-E' is newest Russian fighter aircraft, a modern upgrade to the Su27 'Flanker' family which shares a lot of similarities to the Su-30MKI. Although intended as the last of the 'Flankers', it was upgraded even further in 2008 with the introduction of the Su35BM. Only a small number of Su-35 has been fielded by the Russian Air Force with about 5 in active service. The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is the main air superiority fighter of the Indian Air Force. The Su30MKI is a successful outcome of collaboration between Sukhoi, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), French and Israeli avionics firms and DRDO to produce a customized Su-30 for the Indian Air Force. It is believed that Su-30MKI is the most advanced of all 'Flanker' versions available to nations around the world.[2] The Indian Air Force has over 150 of these aircraft in service as of July 2011.[2] The Taiwanese AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo, commonly known as the "Indigenous Defence Fighter" (IDF) is a technologically advanced indigenous multi-capability air-superiority fighter. A new technologically upgraded IDF variant known as the "Brave Hawk" was recently introduced in 2008, including advanced glass cockpit avionics, increased fuel tank, improved flight range and performance, and upgraded weapons capability. The ROC (Taiwan) military also deploys the American F-16 Fighting Falcon and the French Mirage 2000 as additions to their arsenal of air-superiority fighters. The Chengdu J-10 and J-11 are the air-superiority fighters of the People's Republic of China (PRC). They are currently experimenting with the new Chengdu J-20. The French Air Force fields the Mirage 2000-5 as its air-superiority fighter. The new generation of European fighters currently entering service are all capable of the air superiority mission, as only one of many roles. They are the Saab Gripen, Dassault Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon. In order to maximize their combat effectiveness and strategic usefulness, air superiority fighters usually operate under the control/co-ordination of an Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft.

[edit] U.S. Next Generation Air Dominance

Both the Super Hornet and the Raptor will need a replacement in the 2020s and the USN and USAF are exploring the possibility of a common platform, dubbed Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD).[3]

[edit] See also

Air supremacy Interceptor aircraft Multirole combat aircraft

[edit] Notes
1. ^ [1] 2. ^ a b Fred T Jane (2005). Jane's All the World's Aircraft. Jane's Information Group. pp. 443-444 3. ^ Boeing displays concepts for F/A-18E/F replacement

[edit] External links

Glossary of Nato Definitions Rand: Revival of the Air-Superiority Fighter

View page ratings Rate this page What's this? Trustworthy Objective Complete Well-written I am highly knowledgeable about this topic (optional) Categories:

Aerial warfare tactics Fighter aircraft Log in / create account Article Discussion Read Edit View history

Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction

Help About Wikipedia Community portal

 Toolbox

Recent changes Contact Wikipedia

Print/export Languages

Catal Espaol Bahasa Indonesia Bahasa Melayu Polski Romn This page was last modified on 2 August 2011 at 17:15. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Contact us Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Mobile view