The Zvezda TV channel team visited Rostec enterprises where the front-line bomber is being manufactured, repaired and modernized
One and a half speeds of sound, eight and a half tons of combat load, the world's largest range of weapons used. And also the record of lifting with a load to a height of 15 thousand meters, which has not been broken in 25 years! All this is about the Su—34 front-line bomber.
The program "Military Acceptance" of the Zvezda TV channel visited one of the airfields in the area of the special military operation and the enterprises of the Rostec State Corporation to show why this bomber turned into a Russian superweapon with the advent of guided bomb modules.
We are looking into how much the "battle drake" has changed since the beginning of hostilities.
High-precision "duckling"
The Su-34 fighter-bomber is affectionately called the "duckling" by the military, sometimes the "combat drake" because of the unusual shape of the cockpit, slightly flattened like a duck's beak. In NATO, the Su-34 was officially designated as a Fullback, "defender", but the Western press is increasingly leaning towards the Russian interpretation, adding the adjective "infernal" — "infernal duck". This is logical, especially after the ducklings have mastered a new weapon for themselves − bombs with UMPC, a universal planning and correction module, thanks to which bombing has become, in fact, highly accurate. And after these modules were attached to a three-ton bomb, it was also hellish destructive.
What distinguishes the Su-34 bomber from other Su family aircraft? This is a cabin, which is a titanium armored capsule in which you can safely stand tall. The crew commander and the navigator in the cockpit are next to each other. It's very convenient — just one glance is enough to understand each other.
A real heavyweight on the wings, the Su-34 is a multiple world champion in its nomination for flight altitude with cargo. He climbed to a height of 16,206 m with a load of two tons, and the maximum load lifted to a height of 15,000 m was 2,330 kg. These records, set in the category of aircraft weighing more than 35 tons, have not yet been broken.
The length of the Su-34 is 23.4 m — comparable to the height of a seven—storey building. The wingspan is 15.2 m, which is about the width of a four—lane highway. The height is more than six meters. The normal take—off weight is 39.5 tons, about the same weight as a cargo truck with a full trailer. But at the same time, the duckling equipped with jet engines is able to accelerate to almost one and a half sound speeds.
Another important factor is the range of the bomber. There is a known case when, taking into account refueling, the Su-34 lasted 10 hours in the sky.
The Su-25 attack aircraft is considered the survivability champion among combat aircraft. The guarantee of its reliability is a large number of duralumin rods and mechanical drives. At the same time, on all new aircraft, designers are moving away from such an avionics control scheme using electric drives, as, for example, on the Su-35. The Su-34 bomber combines both systems: thrust and electric drives. He has a control system, which in its composition provides for the presence of rods, rocking chairs, cables. We can say that the Su-34 is the only modern aircraft that was made using "grandfather's" methods. During its operation, this manifests itself from the best side — due to the duplication of systems, the aircraft remains controllable even with combat damage.
How bombs learn to plan
The Su-34 uses 16 types of guided precision weapons and 19 unguided ones. According to the chief designer of the machine, Rollan Martirosov, there has never been such a nomenclature in the world on airplanes. The Su-34 can fly twice as far with the same ammunition as the Su-24, or at the same range, but carry twice as much weapons in weight. The aircraft can use weapons simultaneously on four ground or surface targets.
But since our hero is primarily a bomber, let's focus on bombs in more detail. In the footage of the Ministry of Defense, you can see how the Su-34 hit enemy positions with bombs FAB-250, FAB-500 and a real tsar bomb FAB-3000 weighing 3 tons. Despite its impressive size and weight, the FAB-3000 easily fits between the engine nacelles, and the Su-34 also easily goes into the air with it. After dropping the bomb, the wings open. According to the laws of aerodynamics, the bomb in flight turns over so that the wings are on top, and the FAB-3000 begins planning towards the target. This is how UMPC works, a universal planning and correction module that changed the course of hostilities.
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| Su-34. |
| Source: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation |
"Of course, UMPK ammunition is a new type, a new means of armed struggle," said the first Deputy director of the Su—34/Su-25 programs of the Sukhoi Design Bureau of the UAC. — It seems to me that this is a very successful decision, because the aerial bomb retains its striking effect, its combat power, but at the same time the accuracy of its use increases significantly. And this means that fewer bombs and fewer aircraft sorties are needed to hit the target."
At the same time, the bomb drop range also increases many times. Accordingly, the aircraft minimizes its time in the enemy's air defense zone, and the risk of its defeat is reduced. Experts do not name the exact figure for increasing the range, but these are no longer kilometers, but tens of kilometers. But these are still the most ordinary bombs, which would simply fall down without the module.
They come to the airfields of the UMPC folded, for each type of bomb − its own set. Right at the airfield, the engineering staff connects each such kit with its corresponding bomb. According to the engineer of the aviation armament maintenance group, on average, it is possible to assemble from 50 to 100 modules per day, depending on the intensity of work.
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| A bomb with an UMPC. |
| Source: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation |
Today, bombs are no longer used without UMPC. According to the pilot, of the four bombs carried by the Su-34, all four reach the target. This is largely the result of using modules.
The universal planning and correction modules developed by Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation, along with drones, are called by many experts the discovery of their own. Having a low cost, both FPV drones and UMPC bombs have become truly high-precision weapons. Foreign experts also recognize the significant impact of the modules on the course of hostilities.
Where "drakes" are born
Since the beginning of its production, the number of Su-34s assembled in the workshops of the Novosibirsk Aircraft Factory named after Chkalov United Aircraft Corporation Rostec has grown significantly. The number of employees collecting them has also increased. According to the head of the workshop, in order to accelerate production, new workers are now being trained and achieve the required qualifications in just three months. Even some technological processes have been changed, which made it possible to increase the capacity of the enterprise without compromising quality by the same means, that is, without involving additional human resources and additional equipment.
Novosibirsk residents make the glass of the cabin lamp of the "thirty-fourth" themselves. The glasses arrive at the site in blanks in sheet form. Next, the sheet is colored using templates and fed to the section of the molding furnaces. In the oven, the glass takes shape. Then it is cut and the edges are processed. At all these stages, the most important thing is to preserve the optical properties of the product. The difficulty lies in the thickness of the workpiece. The lantern must withstand enormous loads, and in such a situation it is especially difficult to achieve the absence of distortion. Another important factor affecting optical properties is the absence of reflections. For this purpose, a special anti-reflective coating of the aircraft elements is used.
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| Assembly of the Su-34. |
| Source: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation |
Another important element is the folding part of the lantern, through which the pilot is ejected, which has a characteristic golden hue. This is a special thin-film multifunctional coating that protects pilots from electronic radiation.
There is a radar in the nose of the aircraft, which allows the pilot to see hundreds of kilometers ahead. But during operation, it creates radiation that is dangerous for the health of the crew. Plus, there is an impact of the Khibiny electronic warfare complexes located on the wingtips. A special coating protects the crew from all this.
What other means of protection, now from enemy actions, are there in the arsenal of the Su-34? Firstly, it is a set of anti-radar and anti-infrared passive interference from various missiles with homing heads. When the Khibiny complex shows that someone is irradiating the aircraft and, according to the report of the fighters or the guidance point, the aircraft was launched, interference is shot. Secondly, the Su-34 is covered by fighters from such an attack. Professional anti-missile maneuvering skills also help to evade enemy missiles.
The heart for the Su-34
The bomber itself is assembled in Novosibirsk, and the engines for it are produced in Ufa. The Ufa Engine-Building Production Association is also part of Rostec as part of the United Engine Corporation. It is easy to guess that if the number of bombers produced has increased by a multiple, then in the case of engines, this is already a considerable number that must be multiplied by two, because there are two engines on the Su-34.
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| Su-34. |
| Source: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation |
In order to keep up with the production of engines for both military and civilian aviation, a large-scale reconstruction was carried out here. Says the head of the workshop: "We have doubled the number of assemblies, and also introduced modern technological equipment. All work was carried out without stopping production. We divided the workshop into parts, built walls up to the ceiling: on the one hand we built, on the other we assembled engines."
A special pride of the assembly shop is the new Russian laser scanner. This is an example of how, in conditions of a multiple increase in production, factory workers try to minimize the time of any operation. If earlier the control of the overall dimensions of the engine after assembly could take up to 12 hours, now, with the advent of the scanner, 45 minutes are enough. Using the device also allows you to significantly save production space, because measurements are carried out directly at the assembly stand.
The "Thirty-fourth" is being updated
In addition to bombs, the bomber itself has changed since the beginning of its operation. Head of the Design Department of Military Aviation Equipment of the National Academy of Sciences. Chkalova said that the revision of the Su-34 was not fundamental, which did not require much reworking. "The beauty of our aircraft is that the modularity of its avionics system makes it possible to increase its combat capabilities at little cost," he added. "All it took was to teach the on—board computer how to aim these bombs, work with them, and that's it." As a result, the updated bombs of various calibers noticeably displaced the rest of the arsenal.
In the workshops of NAZ, not only new aircraft are being assembled, but also those that were already at the front and were seriously damaged are being repaired. An important detail: all Su-34s that enter the workshop undergo not only major repairs, but also modernization. According to the technical director of NAZ, as a result of modernization by refining the side and installing radar reconnaissance containers, the aircraft receives a new reconnaissance function. A new communication system is also being installed on the aircraft, which allows real-time receiving operational information from the ground.
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| Su-34. |
| Source: UAC |
Every aircraft leaving the factory, whether new or repaired, arrives at the flight test station (LIS). The test pilots are the first to lift the car into the air. They make at least four departures on each plane, checking the operability of all its systems. First, the aircraft is checked by factory pilots, then by the military, who perform three more flights.
The crews of the Su-34 invariably talk about the high reliability and survivability of the machine: in case of any malfunctions, the aircraft is able to return the crew home. Planes with hundreds of sorties that were seriously damaged and returned to the airfield fell into the lens of the "Military Acceptance". Sukhoi Design Bureau aircraft, which turned 85 this year, continue to serve for the benefit of the Motherland, effectively fulfilling the tasks assigned to them, and aircraft designers continue to work fruitfully on improving aircraft.
