tarasv, 21.01.2004 11:42:00:
С самого начала
F-22 ударная роль была настолько рудиментарна что про нее и говорить не серьезно: "Вот когда уничтожим ПВО противника мы поставим пилоны на F-22 и он полетит бомбить". Вот когда оказалось что с противника и
JSFов вполне хватит и буковку в название добавили и боеприпасы начали оптимизировать.
Воистину.
Вот статья - правда, довольно старая, но, возможно, кто-то и не читал...
Alphabet Soup of the Sky: The F/A/FB/EF/RF 22 Raptor
Brendan Rivers
At the 2002 Air Force Association National Convention on September 17 in Washington, DC, Air Force Chief of Staff General John Jumper announced that the F 22 Raptor would no longer be called the F 22. Rather, to reflect its "multiple roles and many dimensions," the Raptor will now be designated the F/A 22 – "A" for "attack." But wait. Wasn't the Raptor supposed to be a pure air-superiority fighter? Wasn't that supposed to be the reason the Air Force needs it? How did this new letter get tacked on to its designation, and why?
For years now, budget hawks have tried to cut the Raptor program – by either scaling back the number of aircraft to be procured or by terminating the program entirely – but have met with only success in reducing the number of Raptors the Air Force will buy. However, with the recent successes in lining up international participation for the F 35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, the Raptor camp must be getting nervous. Until this recent change in designation, the F 22 was said to have been designed as a pure air-superiority fighter. The JSF, on the other hand, is more of a multirole aircraft with ground-attack capabilities, as well as air-to-air. Now, suddenly, we are supposed to believe that the Raptor is a multirole aircraft, too.
The Raptor camp must sense danger. Over the past few years, every time it seemed as though some cuts to the program might be on the horizon, the Air Force and Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the Raptor, were quick to point out other roles that the controversial fighter might fill. In 1999, the notion of an RF 22 was floated (see "A Reconnaissance Role for the F 22?" JED, July 1999), and sources indicate that Lockheed Martin is still chatting up this idea. When the joint Airborne Electronic Attack Analysis of Alternatives (AEA AoA) was released earlier this year, it noted the possibility of creating an electronic-attack variant of the Raptor, dubbed the EF 22. As recently as August, frequent JED contributor Bill Sweetman penned an article for Popular Science discussing the notion of converting the Raptor into – get this – the FB 22, a bomber. For a pure air-superiority fighter, the Raptor sure seems versatile, doesn't it?
Now the Raptor, in addition to being an air-superiority fighter, is a ground-attack plane as well – the F/A 22. But isn't that exactly what the JSF is? Why does the Air Force need the Raptor then? Why should the Air Force (or more accurately, the US taxpayer) shell out $45 billion to get 295 Raptors? Do the math. The Air Force and Lockheed Martin need to do more than tack an "A" on the aircraft's designation to justify such an exorbitant per-unit cost.
Defenders of the Raptor will be quick to point to the aircraft's stealthiness, noting its advantage over the JSF in that area, and they're right. But so what? Stealth is a desirable characteristic in a long-range bomber, which may need to penetrate deep into hostile territory to reach its target. Stealth would also benefit a reconnaissance or surveillance aircraft so that what it's looking at doesn't know it's being looked at. But a stealthy fighter? What's the point? If there's going to be a battle for control of the skies, the enemy will know you're up there anyway.
As for the Raptor's potential as a stealthy strike platform (the purported reason for the new "A" designation), let's look at armament. For every Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) carried internally, the Raptor loses two AIM 120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs). Moreover, the Raptor can only carry one JDAM in each weapons bay. Of course, the Raptor also has four external hardpoints that can be used to carry ordnance, but doing so would compromise its stealth profile.
So why the "A" designation? It's clearly another attempt by the Raptor camp to justify the continuation of the program and the eventual expenditure of heaps of cash. Raptor can be modified for attack missions, it would be an overlapping capability, duplicating that for which the F 35 JSF was specifically designed. Right now, the Air Force's ground-attack missions are being carried out by a mix of aircraft that includes F 15E Strike Eagles, F 16CG Fighting Falcons, and A 10 Thunderbolts. When the JSF enters service, the Air Force will have another ground-attack aircraft. It doesn't need the Raptor for this mission, too.
For many years now, the Raptor has been billed as an air-dominance fighter. But the US Air Force already dominates any skies in which it chooses to fly. From the outset, then, the Raptor was being designed for a mission that is already accomplished (and with less expensive aircraft). Adding yet another overlapping capability to its repertoire won't make it any more useful and actually serves to underscore the Air Force's lack of a need for the F 22, or whatever designation is chosen.