iscover
Reece aircraft supreme - the Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird. Proof of the Lockheed Skunk Works' capability to produce extraordinary aircraft, the 1960s-designed SR-71A is still the world's fastest aircraft, being capable of sustained cruise at Mach 3 +. Aside from its bad habit of leaking JP-7 while on the ground, one could note the fact that the aircraft becomes stronger every time they are flown, due to heat treatment of the Titanium alloys used for the structure and skin. The relatively flattish profile, blending wings and body, would serve to reduce the radar cross-section, on the other hand, the JR signature is enormous, as the airframe alone heats up to 300 degrees Celsius, in some places.
Technology Explained
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Advanced Concepts Stealth Technology
The aerial battlefield of the 1990s is liable to be a very hostile environment. The USSR is currently completing the development of a whole new generation of air combat aircraft and AAMs, aircraft designed to match or exceed the performance of the teen-series fighters, equipped with long-range lookdown-shootdown radar and configured to operate in conjunction with AWACS/AEW class aircraft. The current MiG-25M Foxhound Foxbat derivative and the new Sukhoi Su-27 Ram-K, apparently a derivative of the F-111 Tornado class Fencer, both appear to be equipped with a Soviet development of the Hughes AWG-9 radar/fire control, a valuable gift from Khomeini’s regime.
One may, in fact, reasonably assume that the AWG-9 was copied down to the last transistor, in the same fashion as the Tupolev and Shvetsov bureaux duplicated the state-of-the-art 8-29, in 1946.
If we set aside the air-superiority role, where the Russians are preparing the MiG-29 Ram-L, a Mach 2. 5 twin-engine, twin-fin air combat fighter with a reported thrust-to-weight ratio of 1. 4:1, and focus on penetrating Soviet air-defences, be it battlefield or homeland, Western aircraft will have to penetrate not only swarms of lookdown-shootdown fighters, but also SAM belts, supported by massive phased array radars, and presumably also AAA point defence systems. As one may observe, a rather nasty lot to contend with, as a whole.
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