Take off, take off!
The 513 regiment, although they only came over recently, they are still fully prepared. Now, following the orders of their superiors, a MiG-25, with a fiery tail flame on the tail, is flying. Up to the sky.
If it is an emergency, the MiG-25 can take off with afterburner and sprint with afterburner to reach the battlefield at the fastest speed.
However, Andre did not give such an order.
Sitting in his cockpit, flying at an altitude of 18,000 meters, Andre was also thinking about his own tactics.
What is the mission of the 513 regiment? Of course it's not a fight with those miscellaneous fish, they have a more important task, which is to shoot down the opponent's early warning aircraft!
Up to now, one's own cross-sea landing operation has encountered huge variables and will soon fail. The most important reason is that the other party has taken off an early warning aircraft!
The early warning aircraft is a multiplier of air combat power. When there is an early warning aircraft, all the opponent's actions are transparent. Therefore, if you want to gain the advantage in air combat, you must first knock out the opponent's early warning aircraft.
As an interceptor capable of reaching Mach 3, knocking off the early warning aircraft is simply their best task. However, the radar of the MiG-25 has high power, but most of it turns into heat. At the same time, Its supporting missiles can't complete the sniper killing of more than 100 kilometers like the Phoenix.
But now, Andre is still confident, because the MiG-25 he drives is somewhat different from others.
The MiG-25, with dual-engine and double-vertical tail layout, looks tall and mighty. The huge rectangular air intake is the most obvious feature.
From this point of view, it is an authentic MiG-25, but if you look closely, you can find some strange places.
The MiG-25 is a single-seater, two-seater coach type. The rear cabin is much higher than the front cabin.
But now, there is obviously a cockpit behind the one that Andre is driving. Although it looks very small, there is indeed a person operating there.
This is the latest achievement of the Mikoyan Design Bureau. Although there are still some test flight projects that have not been resolved, it was specially delivered to the 513 regiment for this battle. Its number was not changed to maximize confidentiality. In fact, it It looks very similar to the ordinary MiG-25, but in fact, it has changed completely!
Before Belenko defected, improvements to the MiG-25 had been carried out. Although the turbojet engine of the MiG-25 was powerful, it was quite fuel-consuming, which limited the range of the MiG-25. Now, After improvement, it has begun to use the latest Soloviev D-30 turbofan engine with an afterburner thrust of 14,886 kg.
Now, the newly developed fighters are almost all turbofan engines, because it has a big advantage, that is, low fuel consumption!
The lower the fuel consumption rate, the longer the aircraft will stay empty. The aircraft has a range of 3,000 kilometers with auxiliary fuel tanks, four R-33 missiles, and a cruise at Mach 0.8.
The disadvantage of the turbofan engine is that the high-altitude and high-speed characteristics are not as good as the turbojet, because its outer duct leads to an increase in drag, so the top speed of this improved aircraft is lower than the original version.
After repeated arguments, the MiG-25's high-altitude and high-speed theory is outdated. It is useless to deliberately pursue Mach 3. It is worthwhile to reduce the maximum speed slightly to bring about a substantial increase in range.
In addition to the turbofan engine, the important problem this aircraft solves is the problem of long-distance hunting.
The dozens of six Tomcat fighters gave the Soviets too much excitement. At the same time, through the emergency landing EP3, the Soviet Union also saw the advanced technology of the West, but because of the problem of the industrial foundation, the difficulty of the flat-panel radar was not all of a sudden Conquerable.
In order to solve the weapon system problem as soon as possible, the Soviets couldn't wait any longer, and simply took a different approach and directly installed the passive phased array radar on this interceptor!
In later generations, when there is no potential for the development of flat-panel slot radars, the new generation of fighters all adopted phased array radars. In short, it is to control the phase of radar waves to achieve more powerful performance.
However, the later phased array radars are all active phased array radars, which are composed of T/R units. Now, the radar on this aircraft is a passive phased array radar. The difference is Will it emit radar waves by itself
Its radar wave is still launched by the wave guide at the back, but the phase is changed by the ferrite phase shifter at the front. The structure is complicated and super heavy. However, by this means, the Soviet Union also achieved what it wanted. Function, can guide R-33 missile with a range of more than 100 kilometers!
It takes a lot of effort to install this radar in order to be able to guide the R-33!
The origin of R-33 is quite mysterious. In later generations, some people call it Phoenix. According to some sources, the combination of this new interceptor and R-33 missile Only served in the early 1980s.
In fact, just like the MiG-25, it is in an extremely confidential project.
The earliest time, from May 24, 1968, the design of Mikoyan started. At that time, the test flight of the MiG-25 was not completely over, and the next generation of pre-research began.
The matching missiles are deployed between the K-33 of the chief designer of the "Pennant" A. Leaping and the K-50 of the chief designer of M. Bisnovat. In the end, the "pennant" design was adopted.
It has been developed since the late 1960s. After entering the 1970s, the test flight of the missile has begun. First, it was tested on the MiG-25. Two years ago, it was fired with live ammunition, and the first time it was shot down. A test drone MiG-17.
The acquisition of the Phoenix missile is of great benefit to the improvement of the R-33 missile and the overall technology of the Soviet air-to-air missile. However, the current R-33 missile cannot find much relationship with the Phoenix. .
In order to operate complex phased array radars and launch such anti-sky missiles, this aircraft has also added a radar officer in the back seat. At this time, sitting in the back is Colonel Fedotov, who was originally designed by Mikoyan. The test pilots of the bureau have been flying this aircraft all the time and are quite familiar with these equipment.
Andrei has not been flying this super abnormal MiG-25 for a long time. In total, it is not enough for ten sorties. However, he has mastered the operation of the aircraft. After all, the dashboard in front of him has hardly changed positions. , Although the turbojet is changed to turbofan, the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft has not changed, and the operating characteristics are the same.
Your own secret weapon must have something to gain and kill the American early warning aircraft! (End of this chapter)