Comparison with a foreign car stimulated the development of Mikoyan Design Bureau aircraft, the crews of MiG-31BM fighters of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) won the first aerial victories in the sky over the Donbass.
This conclusion can be made based on the information heard at the daily briefings of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the course of the special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine. In addition, another modification of the aircraft is taking part in the fighting - the MiG-31K strike missile carrier. "DAGGER" – the MIG WEAPON</span>, the Russian military continues to strike with precision weapons (WTO) at the objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine to the entire depth of its territory, including those located near Nikolaev, Odessa, Kharkov and other major cities.
According to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, among the ammunition used during the special operation is a hypersonic missile of the Dagger complex.
"It was used in our country during a special military operation three times and three times showed its brilliant characteristics, which no similar missile in the world has," the minister said. Due to the fact that the rocket develops a speed almost 10 times higher than the sound, can change the trajectory in the vertical and horizontal plane, it is virtually impossible to take it in sight by means of air defense. This means that it has invulnerability to all existing air defense systems. "Therefore, we use it to strike particularly important targets," the head of the military department explained.
The creation of the Dagger complex showed Russia's scientific and technological leadership in the field of rocket engineering. "Actually, no one has such a rocket yet: both hypersonic, and with such speed, and with such penetrating capabilities," Sergei Shoigu added.
According to reports from the daily briefings of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the conduct of the SVO, for the first time "Daggers" were used in a combat situation on March 18 to destroy an underground warehouse of missiles and aviation ammunition in the village of Delyatin, located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Strictly speaking, the "Dagger" is a complex that includes a means of destruction: the X47M2 missile and its carrier, the MiG–31 interceptor, modified into a variant of the MiG-31K with a reinforced central external suspension unit under the fuselage.
Brief characteristics of the complex were listed by the President of Russia in a speech to the Federal Assembly on March 1, 2018. Then Vladimir Putin called the flight Mach number (M > 10) and the launch range (more than 2 thousand km).
The complex was put into operation by the Russian Aerospace Forces in the experimental combat duty mode towards the end of 2017. Since then, the MiG-31K has participated several times in the aerial part of military parades on Victory Day, flying over Red Square.
For the first time, visitors of the Army-2022 forum from among those who went to Kubinka airfield were able to view this aircraft up close. There, a MiG-31K with the tail number 36 was exhibited on a static platform. The MiG-31BM represents a deep modernization of the MiG-31B combat interceptors of the 1988 model and MiG-31BS of earlier construction modified to their level, with additional functionality and an expanded arsenal of weapons of destruction.
The aircraft's onboard radar received a new digital computer from the Leninets holding and other elements, thanks to which the target detection range increased to 320 km, and their defeat with the new R-37 missile - up to 280 km. It became possible to simultaneously escort 10 enemy aircraft and aim missiles at 6 of them. The overall efficiency of the aviation complex has increased 2.6 times. Multifunctional MiG-31BMs have been used in the military since 2008. To date, about half of the 250 MiG-31s in the Russian Air Force units have been upgraded to the "BM" and "K" variants.
Thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the domestic industry, this type of aircraft, which entered service more than 40 years ago, is maintained at the height of modern requirements. Stating this fact, it should be remembered that the MiG-31 owes its appearance and development to a large extent to the F-14 Tomcat carrier-based fighter, which was in service with US naval aviation from 1974 to 2006. Details about the fate of the Tomcat are described in the article " Tom Cruise changes the interceptor " (see the issue of "HBO" dated August 04, 2022).
MIG-25 RECORDS A team of Moscow aircraft designers under the leadership of Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan has developed a number of high-altitude interceptor projects.
In 1972, the MiG-25P was adopted. Numerous world records of altitude, speed and rate of climb, which have not been beaten so far, belong to this aircraft in a special design.
And the reconnaissance version of the MiG-25R became famous during local conflicts with its flights over Israel and Pakistan. Neither anti-aircraft missiles nor enemy fighters could reach him.
The flight characteristics of the machine turned out to be outstanding, but there were also disadvantages. For lack of anything better, aircraft designers had to settle for engines of the R-15 family, originally designed for an intercontinental cruise missile. The Smerch radar was taken from a previously created and at that time already obsolete Tu-126 barrage interceptor.
Even in this form, the MiG-25P was quite suitable for solving the task assigned to it – protecting the skies over the Soviet Union from the penetration of American strategic bombers and aerial reconnaissance aircraft. However, in 1976, the traitor Viktor Belenko hijacked his MiG to Japan. The US aviation specialists who studied it were shocked by the combination of the highest flight data and the backwardness of the onboard electronic equipment.
Having gathered together data from open and intelligence sources about what conclusions the Americans made for themselves on the strengths and weaknesses of the MiG-25, the Soviet leadership decided to urgently modernize the entire fleet of such aircraft. So there were variants of the MiG-25PD (new construction) and MiG-25PDS (modified aircraft building)
The radar RP-25 "Smerch-A" was replaced by a more advanced "Sapphire-25" (based on the equipment of the MiG-23M front-line fighter), capable of detecting a target not only in free airspace, but also against the background of the earth. The R-40 missile was converted into the R-40D by replacing the homing head with one from the R-24 from the MiG-23ML arsenal. The R-15B-300 engines were replaced by the more advanced R-15BD-300.
Thanks to the traitor Belenko, the MiG-25 theme received additional funding and an impetus for development. But the rearmament of the air Defense regiments of the Soviet Union with the MiG-25PD / PDS did not ensure the achievement of technological parity with a potential enemy.
In 1974, the US Navy adopted the F-14A carrier-based interceptor. Inferior to the MiG-25PD in terms of altitude and speed characteristics, the new defender of the fleet carried much more advanced onboard equipment and long-range missile weapons. This allowed him to shoot down enemy aircraft at a much greater distance from the protected objects.
Although the MiG-25PD appeared several years later than the F-14A, it was inferior in a number of key indicators. This happened because the modernization was carried out in a hurry, guided primarily by the consideration of making the information obtained by the Americans on the MiG-25 irrelevant.
Since the direct comparison was not in favor of Soviet technology, the management had to allocate additional funds for the development of the MiG brand line. As a result, a more advanced aircraft appeared – the MiG-31.
The IMPROVED MIG-31 Project under the factory index E-155MP began in 1972 – a couple of years after the first flight of the F-14A.
The MiG-31 is characterized as a specialized interceptor of the 4th generation (the MiG-25P belongs to the 3rd) for use in the country's air defense system. It is capable of performing long-term patrols and fighting high-altitude high-speed aircraft (like the MiG-25P), as well as low-flying helicopters and small-sized cruise missiles (which the predecessor did not know how to do). The main opponents of this machine were considered to be SR-71 scouts, B-1 strategic bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles. In short, the MiG-31 was made capable of fighting aerodynamic air targets of all types.
The D-30F6 engines specially designed for the MiG-31 provided the aircraft with a supersonic interception range of 720 km (without outboard tanks, with landing at the departure airfield). For the first time in domestic practice, digital computers appeared on the fighter as part of aircraft control systems and guidance of air-to-air missiles. The MiG-31 became the world's first serial fighter with a pulse-Doppler onboard radar (radar) with a phased array antenna having electronic scanning.
The Zaslon radar has a maximum target detection range with an effective scattering surface of 16 sq. m over 200 km, which was twice as high as the corresponding indicator RP-25. The radar can accompany up to 10 targets and aim missiles at four of them. Complex radio equipment required the introduction of a navigator-operator into the crew (the MiG-25P was a single-seater). His main tasks were to control the airspace, work with the weapon control system, and choose tactics for intercepting single and group targets.
According to the Military Balance handbook for 2000, at that time there were up to 300 MiG-31s in the Russian air defense aviation (other sources speak of 425 aircraft in Russia and 32 in Kazakhstan), 255 F–14A/B/D in the USA, 25 combat–ready F-14AM in Iran. At that time, the MiG-31 and F-14 were the only fighters in the world armed with long-range air-to-air guided missiles (P-33 and AIM-54 Phoenix, respectively).
COMPARISON WITH THE ENEMY According to domestic experts, these aircraft represented "alternative developments that solve similar problems" and "the embodiment of the best achievements of scientific and technological progress" of the first half of the 1970s.
This is stated in the collection "Russian Air Defense aviation and scientific and technological progress. Combat complexes and systems yesterday, today, tomorrow" edited by Academician Fedosov, published in 2005.
The F-14AM fighter of the Iranian Air Force comes in to land at the Mehrabad airfield. Photos from the website www.tasnimnews.com The compilers of the collection cite such an observation:
"The MiG-31 and F-14 are close and unique in their functions, tasks to be solved and many characteristics. Both are two-seat, twin-engine supersonic interceptors capable of long-term patrolling and interception of aerial targets at a great distance."
When performing interception sorties, the domestic machine has a take-off weight of 41-43 tons against 31-33 tons from a foreign competitor, while it has significantly more capacious fuel tanks (full refueling of 15.5 tons against 7.5). The thrust of the D-30F6 engine is 9.5 tons, with afterburner – 15.5 tons against 5.6 and 9.5 tons, respectively, of the American TF30-P-412A. Thrust-to-weight ratio at takeoff: 0.76 for the MiG-31 versus 0.72 for the F-14A. Interception boundaries: afterburner – 730 km for the MiG-31 against 250 for the F-14A, afterburner – 1250 against 800.
Maneuverability capabilities when flying with four to six long-range air combat missiles and the available thrust-to-weight ratio in the characteristic flight modes of these aircraft are estimated as close. The maximum horizontal flight heights (practical ceilings) of the F-14A are 1500-2500 m lower (the absolute figure for the MiG-31 is 20600 m). The maximum flight Mach number of the MiG-31 is higher at altitudes of more than 13 km, at 17 km (where it is M = 2.83) the superiority reaches 670 km/h. At altitudes of up to 13 km, the speed advantage is behind the F-14A.
The available overloads and maximum angular velocities of an unsteady turn at Tomcat are higher in the entire range of speeds and heights. In subsonic modes, aircraft have almost equal characteristics of steady turns and climb, on supersonic MiG-31 gets a significant advantage.
When performing spatial ascending maneuvers without loss of speed, the MiG-31 has superiority, including in terms of energy rate of climb. When climbing and accelerating, the F-14A lags behind the opponent, but consumes less fuel. The MiG-31 reaches the interception line faster, and the advantage increases with increasing range to the border. So, for the 500 km milestone, the difference is 3 min. The RADAR WITH Smerch MISSILES</span> belongs to the 2nd generation of radar for domestic interceptors.
The next step forward was the station "Sapphire-23" on the MiG-23M, on the basis of which the station "Sapphire-25" for the MiG-25PD and a number of others were created. They are able to detect an aerial target against the background of the ground and aim a missile at it when a fighter attacks from top to bottom.
The 3rd generation radars are made on semiconductor elements and micromodules, practically without the use of electronic lamps. They have implemented the illumination of the target with continuous radiation for Doppler radar homing heads of missiles that ensure the defeat of targets flying at low altitude. The disadvantage of the mentioned domestic radar was the use of analog computers (for example, the AVM-23 on the MiG-23) when the Americans had already switched to digital information processing.
4th generation – pulse-Doppler radar, providing detection and tracking of targets against the background of the earth and in free space. The mode of quasi-continuous radiation of probing pulses is implemented. The element base is made on microchips and microassemblies using shell-less semiconductor devices.
The AWG-9 became the first serial radar of the fighter that implements the pulse-Doppler method with a high frequency of repetition of the radiation of probing pulses. It uses a target antenna array with a diameter of 900 mm and a traveling wave lamp transmitter with an average output power of 2.4 kW. Combat tasks are solved using analog computers, but the final data processing is carried out by an on-board digital computer (BCVM) CDC-5400B.
The AWG-9 was not fully digital. The first such station (with a BCVM and a digital signal processor) was the APG-63 (with an antenna from the AWG-9) of the F-15A fighter, adopted in 1976. However, due to the relatively low power of the transmitter (1 kW), the detection range of the aerial target was 80-100 km - at the level of "Sapphire-25" and half that of the AWG-9.
The MiG-31 was the first of the domestic interceptors to switch to digital equipment. The Argon-15 computer is coupled with digital-to-analog devices for primary processing of information from the radar. Work on the "Barrier" began in 1968. The first flights on the MiG-31 took place eight years later, and in 1978, the station demonstrated the possibility of simultaneously tracking 10 targets and aiming missiles at 4 of them.
Zaslon and AWG-9 are on the same level in terms of energy characteristics. The average power of the transmitter is 2.4–2.5 kW. However, the American system has a slit antenna with mechanical beam scanning, and the domestic one has a more progressive phased array antenna with electronic scanning. The AWG-9 continuously accompanies only one target, and the "Barrier" – several. The AWG-9 can target up to six AIM-54s simultaneously (against four P-33s for the "Barrier"), but due to the characteristic features of the American radar antenna - only in a narrow range of solid angle.
In the final section, missile guidance is possible only with the use of its own radar operating in active mode (for radiation). The "barrier" has no such restrictions, therefore it is preferable for simultaneous firing of several targets. At the same time, the AWG-9 can perform better when detecting and firing at a large single bomber-type target.
The maximum ranges at which it becomes possible to launch missiles from the AWG-9 and the "Barrier" are practically the same (110-120 km). At the same time, the accuracy of determining the range and angular parameters of the domestic system is several times higher.
An analysis of the aircraft's capabilities in counter-missile combat at high altitudes showed that the F-14A has an advantage due to the large available overloads of the AIM-54 missile compared to the P-33. In order to deprive the enemy of this advantage, the MiG-31 crews were recommended to start the battle with an excess in height.
According to the estimates of the 2nd Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense, referred to by the compilers of the above-mentioned book edited by Fedosov, the combat potential coefficient of the MiG-31 exceeds the F-14A by 30-40%.
While the F-14 was still in service with the US Navy, the Western media and Hollywood heavily praised the car, presenting it as the most advanced fighter in the world.
After the decommissioning of the last aircraft in 2006, publications began to appear where Tomcat received other assessments, including derogatory ones. TF30 engines are sharply criticized for their tendency to surge during energetic evolutions of the aircraft. It is claimed that the failures of the power plant led to the loss of 40 F-14. The extinction of the engine when performing a spatial maneuver at high angles of attack threatened to break into a flat corkscrew, from which the aircraft did not exit.
On–board equipment often failed, even more often it gave "glitches", because of which the crew could not perform a combat mission. All three AIM-54 missiles launched by American pilots in a combat situation "went into milk".
Soviet intelligence was aware of the low reliability of the aircraft and its equipment. However, instead of an objective assessment of the F-14A, specialized military institutes and industry representatives continued to assure their superiors of its high combat effectiveness.
Deliberately overestimating the quality of the equipment of a potential enemy, the domestic "defense industry" tried to knock out additional funds from the country's top political leadership for the development of the product line and the improvement of mass-produced products. Whether this is good or bad is the subject of a separate study.
We can only state that with its existence, Tomcat helped the development of domestic interceptors of the MiG brand. Large funds were repeatedly allocated for their improvement, which eventually led to the creation of really powerful combat complexes, which still form the basis of the country's air defense.
Vladimir Karnozov
