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Go-ahead for the F-22 came on 23 April 1991 when Team One ATF winners Lockheed-Boeing had cause to pop some champagne corks. The USAF's decision to proceed with the F-22 model of the ATF on that day came as both a financial blessing to the partners, and as a vindication of their aero-engineering and managerial skills. Low risk and low cost were cited as the key issues which swayed the decision in their favour. Initial plans called for a low-rate initial production anticipated to kick off in Fiscal Year 1998 (FY88) close on the heels of an intense, four-year FSD effort, peaking at 48 aircraft annually between FY2003 and FY2015, when the USAF should have taken delivery of a grand total of 648 aircraft worth

$98 billion. However, in the light of recent budget cuts and major programme stretches, that schedule has been knocked back nearly four years and procurement already reduced to 442 aircraft, and possibly will be halved. Nevertheless, it still represents the fighter Sale of the Century as it represents one of the most

technologically advanced products to emerge from American industry at the start of the new millennium.

What precisely is this new fighter concept?

The aesthetics of the runner-up YF-23 design captured the hearts of many. Nicknamed the 'Black Widow 2' by Northrop workers, the curvaceous YF-23 embodied such innovative features as Allison's patented Lamilloy photo-etched titanium transpiration exhaust ducts to massively reduce the infrared signature, and a wing-body blended airframe for all-aspect stealth. Many of these Northrop trademarks were pioneered on the B-2A Spirit. It exuded hallmarks of a Gerry Anderson creation. Pilots loved the look of it above all other factors. Why, then, was the F-23 proposal considered to be so high risk compared to the winning design, given that on aesthetic grounds, Lockheed's own F-104 Starfighter appeared to be from a comparatively more futuristic epoch than its winning design which was 30 years older?

Some of the reasons are more obvious than others, but most revolve around the simple fact that the future lies in technology beneath the skin of the fighter, in more ways than one. We are now delving back into computers and the micro-miniature hardware that make them work so magnificently. Within the context of the ATF fly-off, the YF-23's technological stablemate the B-2A rose in cost by an alarming factor. The 20 being manufactured (reduced from the originally intended 132) are being housed in luxurious

$5 million hangars at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, where humidity, temperature and cleanliness are kept firmly under control and the aircraft preened at comparative leisure. All this is with the knowledge that most of them will take to the air only twice a month.

By contrast, the ATF is expected to be deployed in

Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23. The butterfly tail and low heat signature jet nozzles of the 'Black Widow 2' looked impressive, but the USAF preferred the 2-D vectoring nozzles and made-to-turn-and-burn characteristics of the YF-22. (Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas)

FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES 181 relatively large numbers at locations where the

facilities and prevailing meteorological conditions can be austere, placing much more exacting demands on the aircraft - such as air defence alert in such far-flung locations as the icy vastness of Alaska and the steamy Gulf of Mexico. The marginally superior supercruise performance and all-aspect stealth allegedly possessed by the YF-23 Prototype Air Vehicles (PAVs) would be of questionable value if half the force remained chocked in their hangarettes awaiting specialized maintenance. The baby-smooth skin has to be capable of enduring the rigours of endless ICT turnarounds, and of pilots routinely attempting to break it during gut-wrenching aerial combat manoeuvres.

The Lockheed-led team clearly foresaw this, and drawing upon experience gleaned during the F-117A Senior Trend effort, took a more straightforward approach. The F-22 incorporates zig-zag signal-trapping edging (the so-called sawteeth or chevrons) in frequently articulated components such as canopy frames, key access panels, and undercarriage and weapons doors, ensuring that stealth integrity is maintained at all times, even when panels become slightly out of true as a result of rough treatment in the field. These are bigger than those found on the F -117A to lower RCS further and add structural bracing.

Similarly, bumps in the skin have been refaired. To top it all, Lockheed's Advanced Composites Center has perfected durable radar-absorbing electrochromic and thermalchromic coatings which, as well as massively reducing the F-22's radar signature, also eliminate some 60-70 per cent of infrared emissions in the 3-5 and 8-12 micron ranges. This makes the aircraft difficult to acquire by heat/IRST and FLIR sensors, respectively, when operating at up to 100 per cent mil power.

The technology is classified for obvious reasons and so some of the finer points remain conjectural.

Essentially, however, the new coating is embedded with modified carbon molecules. The coating comprises a matrix of polyaniline filled with cyanate whiskers. The composite is formed into sheets or is available in liquid form. The material may also contain a high molecular weight polymer produced from such mysterious substances as red mercury, RM20. The composite can be bonded or sprayed onto the airframe - and the outside of new stealthy weapons too, which could be bolted onto the exterior to supplement the aircraft's Convair-style internal trapeze weapons fit. The whiskers effectively break-up radar waves already reduced in strength by the fourth power in relation to the distance from their point of emission, and converts them into heat which is quickly dissipated throughout the material.

Perversely, the resultant heat actually improves

stealth! Such coatings can reduce reflected energy by a staggering 25 dBm2, effectively wiping out all but one per cent of the incident energy. What is reflected, and then seldom right back at the radar source, is negligible. Moreover, some of the latest coatings can last for up to 50 hours' exposure to temperatures as high as 500°C, and are transparent, so can be used over passive E-0 sensors (and even canopies) as well as over engine housings and nozzles, necessitating only periodic respraying.

Thicker portions of RAM are employed at wing roots and other 'problem areas' susceptible to massive reflections. Dielectric 'lossy' RAMs are one such type of material used for these applications. Electrical conductance changes with depth or thickness throughout the material; the impedance of the outside of the RAM closely matches that of free space, encouraging absorption, but as the radar wave passes through the material the changing dielectric properties causes the energy to be gradually dissipated throughout the material as a low-voltage which generates heat. These tailor-made pieces of RAM also serve to isolate various electronics which might interfere with one another, a problem known as EMI, discussed earlier in the book, to improve the performance of EW devices and reduce unwanted emissions such as sidelobes. The magnetic absorbers are much thinner, coming as sheets tuned to specific frequency ranges and consist of a high density of tiny particles of a magnetic material (such as special ferrites and graphites) blended into a non-conductive binding agent thickness of which corresponds to one-quarter the wavelength of the anticipated radar waves.

This soaks-up and reflects the radar waves in phase so that they effectively cancel each other out!

Although still widely used in nooks and crannies, these latter have been superseded to a certain extent by the newer polymer spray-on coatings which are more expensive, but nonetheless lighter and much easier to apply. The earlier forms of magnetic RAM required extensive use of toxic binding agents to fix them in place over the airframes. Indeed, Lockheed's lead in applying RAM and polymer coatings was developed during the heyday of the F-117A Senior Trend programme, when the company was forced to abandon its use of wallpaper-like rolls of thin plastic 'lossy' RAM; these sheets possessed an alarming tendency to peel away in flight! Northrop Grumman developed similar coatings for the B-2A which were to be applied to their YF-23, but the fear existed that the exotic Black Widow 2 would be making far too many visits to the paint barn for relaminations and resprays.

Some pruning of the envisaged test fleet has taken place, and the final shape of the F-22 design will be

frozen during the final design reviews in February 1995. Compared to the Dem-Val aircraft, the canopy has been moved forward and wing shape refined, and the tail area reduced. Beneath the stealthy paint job, the use of composites is extensive. These include advanced bismaleimide thermoset resin and reformable and therefore easily repairable -thermoplastics, which will account for some 27 per cent of the structure. These improvements are aimed at bolstering both performance and the F-22's stealth attributes, particularly in its lower rear-quarters. (The balance of the structure comprises 33 per cent titanium, a mere 11 per cent aluminium, 5 per cent steel and 22 per cent miscellaneous or unspecified substances such as copper, silver, gold, fibreglass, plastic and ceramics).

Weight growth is being closely scrutinized.

Changes to the structure to reduce RCS, such as reducing the number of drain holes in the belly of the machine from 200 to 44, add something like 150 Ib and cost tens of millions to effect, despite extensive use of CAD/CAM techniques. To keep these hiccups in check, all departments report directly to the top, thus ensuring that the aircraft will not run into the terrible weight-cost spiral that plagued the US Navy's A-12 Avenger 2, causing its cancellation and ultimately removing long-range air power from the US Navy inventory.

As we mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this discussion, Lockheed/Boeing are aware that future technology is more than skin-deep. The US Air Force were thus reassured by the winning team's proposals for the avionics systems architecture. The USAF's Pave Pillar concept, aimed both at advancing the state of the art in avionics and visionics (displays) and at substantially reducing maintenance down times, revolves around the use of standard electronics module E-size (SEM-E) chipboards boxed-up as common integrated processors (CIPs).

This array of electronics (the YF-22 PAVs each boasted 16 CIPs), which have replaced discreet black boxes installed in previous fighters, are intended to be mutually supportive, providing massive redundancy.

Any one unit can handle mission, defensive or offensive data processing (all managed by databuses).

This confines the use of dedicated items to the flight and mission sensors such as IRST and the multi-mode AN/APG-77 radar antenna. This is optimized for low probability of intercept on enemy RWRs, of course, via beam-shaping and the judicious use of RAM near the antenna array to negate unwanted sidelobes. 'I can see you but you can't see me' is the philosophy behind the ATF avionics package, currently being flight-tested on airliner-category platforms which

can carry the hefty test equipment along with a gaggle of engineers to scrutinize the test data.

The versatile avionics will have far-reaching effects on the military maintenance organization, and systems integrators, Lockheed, seem to have struck a common chord with the Pentagon's desire to see this massively expensive system streamlined. As MTBF of the SEM-Es is in the order of 15,000 hours, line DCCs will simply pull out a defective unit and slot in a brand-new item fresh from the stores inventory, as they do now, but the difference is that they will bin the defective unit. There will be no intermediate-level or depot-level avionics shops wasting time with non-economic repairs. As outlined in the winning submission, during the course of FSD the F-22 will also gradually incorporate some smart-skin technology, using embedded microelectronics (including portions of the planned integrated electronic warfare suite (INEWS) and Integrated Communications/Navigation/Interrogation Avionics (ICNIA) suites, respectively, the core of which will in all likelihood outlive the airframe!

Building on current JTIDS, Milstar, integrated EW and targeting sensors, projected life-cycle operating costs for the stubby F-22 Rapier fighter (aircraft, crew training, the support infrastructure, maintenance, fuel and spares for a squadron's-worth of aircraft over a 20-year period) were estimated at just over $1 billion in 1990. This equates to approximately 60 per cent of the cost of operating a similarly sized eyrie of F-15 Eagles. That crops a staggering $600 million off the 0

& M budget per Wing over that time, or $30 million a year - enough to potentially finance a lot more much-needed flying. Easing the strain on the 0 & M budget is becoming an increasingly important issue as manufacturers strive to ease the 'ility' figures:

maintainability, reliability and availability. Including spares, back-up maintenance, flight-gear, training for everyone involved in the support pyramid from the commander down to the runway patchers, it costs something like $18,000 per hour of flight-time to operate a modern fighter. The UK equivalent for this American figure is something like £12,000 per hour (although raw operating costs for the actual machine are really only a third of that).

Exact performance summaries of the competing ATF designs remain classified, but the data that has trickled into the public domain provides an excellent yardstick. We shall deal with that shortly. What is equally interesting is that the decision to move ahead with the Lockheed/Boeing proposal was virtually unanimous, with little in the way of the customary grinding of teeth that was typical of the head-to-head flyoffs of the 1960s and 1970s. The 54-month-long ATF Dem-Val, which culminated in the

FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES 183 August-December 1990 flight phase, was unique in

another respect: both competing teams were given specific performance criteria to meet. They were also given the leeway in which to conduct their own exclusive demonstrations which would exemplify the virtues of their respective proposals for full-scale engineering and manufacturing development.

One-upmanship doubtless played a part in the demonstration sorties, but marks were awarded when the designs achieved or exceeded their respective performance proposals, even if one team lagged behind the other in a specific area. Very unorthodox.

Lockheed/Boeing's submission scored on all counts during its 74 Dem-Val sorties, flown by company test pilots Dave Ferguson, Jon Beesley and Tom Morgenfield plus 'blue-suiter' Maj Mark Shackleford, and this fact was stressed in the 20,000-page document which outlined the team's FSD

proposals. It is perhaps more than interesting to note that Northrop/McDonnell Douglas' slinky YF-23s generated 24 fewer sorties and 26.6 fewer flying hours, resulting in a commensurately thinner document; not that its pilots let it down.

Supercruise

The winning contractors' position was also surely aided by the demonstrably successful launch of Sidewinder and AMRAAM missiles from N22YX, proving the all-essential offensive capability was in the bag. As a BAe Dynamics engineer involved in the British side of AMRAAM noted, most fighters tend to be given pet status by aerodynamicists first, pilots second, structures engineers third, and only then are weapons integration specialists given a look-in. This was certainly true of Lockheed's last fighter, the The NF-15B S/MTD demonstrator was a key factor in Pratt & Whitney/United Technologies winning the ATF Sale of the Century engine contract, though some would argue that the GE variable-cycle YF120 engines offered more advanced technology. P &W simply had an excellent track record, and that counts for a great deal when cost is factored into the equation. (McDonnell Douglas)

F-104, but in the case of the ATF, equal emphasis was placed upon stealth, agility, speed and avionics/-weapons integration ab initio. To their detriment, Northrop/McDonnell Douglas' key cards comprised speed and stealth. Manoeuvrable the YF-23 most certainly was, with its low-slung butterfly tail and big wing, but it lacked vectoring nozzles which gave its competitor the crucial edge when set alongside the latest designs to emerge from Russia, such as the Su-35.

Experience in dealing with the USAF and knowing what it covets most played an equally big part in the concurrent engine win, which also pushes the boundaries of fighter performance. General Electric seemed to have the edge in technology with their YF120 powerplant when set alongside the competing Pratt & Whitney YF119, but lost to United Technologies who had been flying a highly reliable F100-PW-220 2-D nozzle in the NF-15B STOL/Maneuver Technology Demonstrator (S/MTD) for well over a year before the ATF demonstrators took to the skies. This helped to resolve a number of bugs inherent in the adoption of 20° vectoring nozzles in the higher performance PW5000 (father of the YF119), effectively clearing the path for a smooth Dem-Val and adding substance to their FSD proposals. The production version embodies advanced materials such as metal matrix composites (MMCs) composed chiefly of titanium reinforced with silicon carbide to give immense strength and stiffness so as to preserve flow patterns, maximizing thrust and fuel efficiency.

GE's more revolutionary variable-cycle alternative was considered just a little too radical (and suffered minor problems when some of its lines chaffed against aircraft test instrumentation, causing at least one sortie to be cut short). However, it was in many respects by far the more progressive of the two. The turbine's variable-cycle system enabled it to operate like a conventional turbojet at supersonic speed, while demonstrating the characteristics of a more fuel-efficient turbofan at subsonic cruise settings. The engine switches between the two functions by means of fan-bypass doors; the system is a core-driven fan engine in which the core drives a secondary fan that supercharges fan-bypass streams when maximum mil thrust is engaged. In essence, this means a turbojet-like quick pile on of thrust whenever needed coupled with the superb range characteristics associated with the turbofan. GE continues to work on the concept, which offers much hope for future development.

Since February 1993 its engineers have been working on a follow-on Joint Technology Demonstrator Engine (JTDE) incorporating new blade materials like MMCs to overcome the

susceptibility of variable-cycle engine fans to twisting and flutter, which degrades performance. Other materials being developed for use in the new class of superfighter engines include organic matrix composite resins such as AFR700, a lightweight material for use in casings and vents, capable of withstanding temperatures of 371°C. Already, this is being applied to the engine trough trailing-edges of the F-117A, which are currently prone to charring.

Much to its credit, the 35,000 lb-class YF119 experienced no stalls or in-flight shutdowns during the gruelling 65 sorties and 153 hours it accumulated during the Dem-Val. Perhaps more to the point, it boasts 25 per cent fewer parts overall and 63 per cent fewer moving components than its competitor, partly thanks to advances in one-piece compressor discs and MMC materials technology. Thrust growth, to match the adventurous YF120 engine, is also planned. Walter N. Bylciw, Vice-Président for the Pratt & Whitney

Much to its credit, the 35,000 lb-class YF119 experienced no stalls or in-flight shutdowns during the gruelling 65 sorties and 153 hours it accumulated during the Dem-Val. Perhaps more to the point, it boasts 25 per cent fewer parts overall and 63 per cent fewer moving components than its competitor, partly thanks to advances in one-piece compressor discs and MMC materials technology. Thrust growth, to match the adventurous YF120 engine, is also planned. Walter N. Bylciw, Vice-Président for the Pratt & Whitney