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Grisha's Missile «Shoot-Off»

Air Power Australia - Australia's Independent Defence Think Tank

Air Power Australia NOTAM 20th April, 2008

Colonel of Aviation Grigoriy "Grisha" Medved(retd)

Contacts: Dr Carlo Kopp Peter GoonMob: 0437-478-224 Mob: 0419-806-476

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Long burn R-27ET1 heatseeker variant under the wing of an Su-35 demonstrator. Note largerdiameter dual pulse motor section (KnAAPO).

Good friends,

This one Grisha’s ‘Shoot-Off’. I think Sukhoi win air combat with new missile engineeringfrom Vympel comrades.

Looking at tactics to defeat incoming AIM-120D. Have a new active radio locator selfguidance head [Ed: seeker] for R-74 – scaled down from R-77M. Use helmet sight linked toOLS-35 [Ed: electro-optical system] to point to hot AIM-120D. Fire two R-74 – one IR, oneradar, against AIM-120D. R-74 pulls 90G, AIM-120D only 30G, so Grisha thinks R-74 killsAmerikanski AIM-120D.

Agat's 9B-1103M-150 active radar guided seeker is a repackaged derivative of the 9B-1348/9B-1103M seeker family originally developed for the R-77 RVV-AE and R-27EA. I t hasbeen reduced in diameter to fit the R-73/74 Archer family of missiles, at some expense inacquisition range due to the ~2.5 dB reduction in antenna gain. I t weights 8 kg and canacquire a 5 m2 target at 7 nautical miles (Agat).

Also some bad news for AIM-120D - physics says Su-35 can outturn the AIM-120D. Mathematics here is a bit tricky, but works like this. Missile must follow track of turningaircraft, and G force in a turn is square of true speed. After firing from Mach 1.5, slow toMach 0.95 and descent to 12,000 metres – this about 900 kph and good turning speed forSukhoi.

AIM-120D rocket second pulse burning push speed up to about Mach 3.5. Ratio 3.5 / 0.95 =3.7 which squared is 13.5. So AIM-120D must pull 13.5 times G bigger than Sukhoi. Some

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say biggest possible G of AIM-120D is 30, so divide by 13.5 and get Sukhoi to pull only 2.2G to outturn AIM-120D. This is very easy I think (Referhttp://www.hochwarth.com/misc/AviationCalculator.html). Apologize for some more mathematics. Say AIM-120D lights seeker at 20 km, missileclosing at 3,700 kph. So, takes 20 seconds to reach Sukhoi. Radar Warning Receiver (RWR)tells direction of incoming missile, so Sukhoi turns to put missile in rear quarter and startshigh-G, jinking barrel roll more than 2 G. I think closer to 5G. Sukhoi has thrust vector jets[Ed: TVC nozzles], so turning at 5 G for 20 seconds no problem. Missile cannot track barrelroll, so fly past and loses lock. Even Tom Cruise thinks tactic is good! Comrades ask Sukhoi engineers to write software for flight controls computers to avoidAmerikanski missile. Arm system, and when OLS-35 or RWR see incoming missile, audiohorn sound and Sukhoi fly itself on missile avoiding path. Not much comfort on pilot, butbetter comfort as having AIM-120D blow up cockpit. Fly all air dominance missions with KEDR towed decoy, so if AIM-120D has lucky crossing,maybe fly after decoy instead. Also have new wingtip pods for radio electronic combat [Ed:Electronic Warfare] which twist phase of radar wave around [Ed: Crosseye jammer for phasefront deception] so Amerikanski single pulse [Ed: моноимпульсная антенна – monopulseantenna in AIM-120D] tracker confused .

Comparison of notional R-74-PD against existing R-74 Archer and R-27 Alamo airframes (linedrawings C Kopp).

Maybe Chuck also work out that BVR missiles can be outturned and copy Sukhoi tactic. Nowwe close to 'eyeball distance' and shoot 'dogfight' missiles – Sukhoi shoot R-74 and SuperHornet shoot AIM-9X. Mad-dog missiles in air from both sides, maybe get Mutually AssuredDestruction – MAD air combat. Not so good for pension I think.

I join big party in dacha near Moscow with missile company engineers and salesman. Grishacomplain modern air combat becoming too deadly. BVR missiles no good, with WVR missilesall pilots die. Vympel man tap side of nose and say; ‘No worry Comrade Grisha, we havenew idea. Amerikantsi clever, do smart rework on AMRAAM into ballistic missile interceptor –this NCADE. We think same but for air combat interceptor – ours better and cheaper. Takemany old R-27 [Ed: AA-10 Alamo] missiles and send back to factory. Take out radio locatorand warhead, put in new navigation computer and fit R-74 to front of missile w ith adaptor.We call this «Medusa» – cut off old tired head, grow new deadly head to kill Amerikanskicombat fighter.'

‘Choose radio locator or infra-red self guidance head [Ed: seeker] for R-74. Now, you fire R-74-PD salvo at Super Hornet at 180 Km, send radio link guidance until the R-74 sees target.Then R-74 head missile fire and kill Amerikanski fighter very quick. Vympel engineers look atNovator ‘Sizzler’ missile made to kill ships and think this good idea, so think same thing forair to air combat. Very cheap, very quick time to service. Beat Anglo-French Meteor by manyyears at small price. We hope to get industry medal for this idea.'

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Grisha thinks this is good news. Best of both worlds – long range missile shoot, put maddog missile close to Chuck long way from his missiles. Vympel man say R-74-PD have quickburn to clear R-27 booster, then slow burn to Mach 2.5. Good for tail chase if Chuck turnsand runs. More Mathematics. Chuck doing 900 km/hr and Mach 0.85 at 10,000 meters. R-74-PD doing 2,700 kph, speed ratio is 3, so missile need to pull 9 times G Chuck pulls to beatmissile. So, if R-74 PD can pull 90G, Chuck needs to pull 10G to duck Archer shot. This veryhard for slow Super Hornet and JSF pidgeon.

Grisha make this challenge to Amerikanskis. We have ‘Russki Roulette’ fry-up and shoot-outin same mission. Even give Amerikanski first AIM-120D shot at Grisha to see if Grisha canduck missile and live. Then Grisha fire R-77M and R-74-PD at Amerikanski see if APG-79 orAPG-81 can fry Adder and Archer. I think Grisha win this one – boom boom! So, bottom line is Russki engineers and pilots think about coming air war and work together.Very important this. Now have sensors, missiles and tactics working together in big aircraftto dominate future air combat war. So long Chuckie!

Critical Analysis Dr Carlo Kopp, SMAIAA, MIEEE, PEng

Editor APA

The claimed development or indeed existence of the 'R-74-PD' two stage hybrid BVR combatmissile cannot be verified easily via open sources since there have been no disclosures todate in the Russian press. The evidence is at best 'anecdotal'. Air Power Australia willtherefore not speculate on whether this missile exists, is in development, or is merely aboastful claim on the part of a Russian missile industry executive. What Air Power Australiacan do is comment on the technical feasibility of such a weapon and its likely performance inan operational environment.

As Colonel Medved points out, Russian industry has used two stage missile designs beforefor air launched applications. The 3M54AE air launched variant of the Sizzler ASCM is anexample, with a Mach 3 rocket propelled terminal stage mated to a subsonic cruise missileairframe as a midcourse stage. Vympel have also experimented with reverse firing variants

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of the R-73, specifically the two stage R-73R equipped with a booster pack to cancel themomentum imparted by the launching aircraft when firing the missile backward. Thereforethe experience required to produce a two stage missile of this ilk exists in the industry, andspecific experience exists on mating the R-73 airframe to a booster stage.

The long burn variants of the R-27 Alamo have a dual pulse motor and a range of differentseeker heads, and are credited with a range of around 70 nautical miles against a closingtarget, using the legacy analogue seeker package. Range performance for the optimiseddigital 9B1103K series seeker has not been disclosed. This missile is widely deployed withRussian units and has been exported in the semi-active radar homing and heatseekingvariants. As a result there is a large warstock available and the missile remains inproduction.

The R-74E is the production designation of the new K-74E "digital Archer" with a redesignedseeker package, and it is the most lethal short range missile developed by Russian industryto date. It employs a high off-boresight capability gimballed seeker and thrust vectoring toprovide a very high G load capability and thus high lethality in close combat. To date themissile has only been shown in the heatseeking variant equipped with the MK-80M seriesscanning two colour seeker, but a new MK-2000 gimballed seeker was in development. Agatrecently developed the 9B1103K-150 which is a repackaged "small bore' variant of the R-77AMRAAMski's 9B1348 series active radar seeker, sized for the Archer airframe. The seekerincludes Fibre Optic Gyro (FOG) inertial unit, a digital processor (using the US TMS320 chipin later variants), and a planar array monopulse antenna.

All of the technology to build the 'R-74-PD' therefore is available. The question is how wouldsuch a missile have been integrated, and what is its likely performance if it indeed exists?

The long burn Alamo is viable as a booster stage to carry a terminal kill stage into theacquisition box of a target. The missile has a launch weight of around 750 to 780 lb in theR-27ER1/ET2 variants, and uses the "butterfly" canard surfaces for control, with fixed tailsurfaces. A boost stage derivative would have to retain some shortened configuration of thecontrol section as this is required to mount the midcourse control surfaces and actuators,the main battery, the midcourse guidance computer and the datalink receiver. How long thissection is will depend on the design employed and whether newer or legacy components areused. This configuration would allow the launch aircraft to shoot this missile off thestandard R-27 AKU-470 ejection unit/APU-470 launch unit using standard umbilicals andexisting radar software for midcourse steering commands.

Interfacing any variant of the Archer to such a boost stage will require some arrangement toprovide structural stiffness and a protected interface to the Archer's umbilical port to providean emulation of the aircraft interface, including thermoelectric cooler drive for the infraredseeker variants. The simplest arrangement is likely to be a strongback rail over the R-74airframe which is joined to an adaptor. This allows the the R-74 to be fired as if off thestandard P-72-1D/P-72-1DB2 launch rail. The overall length of this configuration will dependon the length of the midcourse section and adaptor sections, but is not significantly greaterthan the larger Alamo long burn variants. Other configurations are also possible.

The integration of such a weapon could follow a different track. The cheapest configurationfor mass production would see a 'smart terminal stage' and 'dumb midcourse' stage, withthe IMU and midcourse control software in the R-74 stage, and the R-27 adaptor volumeused only for control actuators, battery and datalink receiver, with the umbilical dedicated tocontrolling the midcourse stage, and carry datalink and prelaunch aircraft commands to theterminal stage guidance computer. This approach is more reliable since only one controlcomputer and software OFP is required.

Performance presents some interesting questions. The heaviest Alamo variants are claimedto have 70 nautical miles of F-pole range, but a digital seeker with a more refined boost-glide trajectory algorithm could add a useful percentage to the range of the basic missile.The later R-73 Archer variants are credited with a range of 21 nautical miles, but this isassuming a launch from a transonic fighter rail, where the missile's motor must impart theenergy to get to the peak supersonic speed of the missile.

A two stage weapon of the kind discussed by Colonel Medved would launch from a burnedout gliding R-27 midcourse vehicle likely to be travelling at Mach 2-3 and with an altitudeadvantage over the target. Other than the initial impulse required to cleanly separate theterminal stage from the midcourse stage, the launch speed of the R-74 stage would besimilar to its design cruise speed. This begs the question of what is not being said here.The optimal rocket motor burn profile for a boosted R-74 Archer would be very different fromthe standard missile, which has a high impulse but very short burn of mere seconds.

The optimal rocket motor burn profile for a boosted R-74 is a slow burn to impart enoughthrust to overcome drag at the missile's cruise speed, but sustain that thrust for as long aspossible to maximise the missile's endgame G load capability, and make use of the thrustvectoring capability of the airframe. In a sense this is the model pursued by the Israeliswith the Python 4/5 airframes, designed to sustain maximum G capability until target

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impact.

It is clear that such a boosted R-74 Archer variant would achieve 100 nautical mile classrange, without a ramjet, using existing technology. The endgame lethality of the weaponwould also be high, and likely much greater than the 'standard' Archer variants especially ifthe motor burn was reprofiled.

Clearly there are many uncertainties remaining as to the design of such a weapon, butseveral things are abundantly clear:

1. The missile is technically feasible.2. The missile would have competitive range against the MBDA Meteor and much better

range than dual pulse AIM-120 variants.3. The missile would have higher endgame G capability and lethality compared to the

standard Archer.4. The missile would not be significantly heavier than the baseline long burn Alamos,

permitting similar warloads on the Flanker.5. The missile could be introduced very rapidly and with very modest development risk.

For comparison, the US is currently developing the NCADE, which uses a two stagearrangement packaged into the AMRAAM form factor, with an AIM-9X seeker and high energyhydroxylammonium nitrate propellant second stage motor. While an air to air derivative ofthe NCADE would provide excellent range performance compared to baseline AMRAAMmodels, the terminal stage is built for manoeuvre in the upper stratosphere and is notoptimised for maximum tropospheric G performance. A boosted R-74 Archer variant would befar better adapted to killing agile fighter type targets as it is an optimised design. It iscertain that the Russian industry is looking at the NCADE program very carefully.

Raytheon's NCADE is a two stage Anti Ballistic Missile boost phase interceptor derived fromthe AIM-120 AMRAAM. The first stage is an AMRAAM motor, the second stage sustainer usesa high energy liquid propellant hydroxylammonium nitrate motor, w ith a hydroxylammoniumnitrate four nozzle control thruster system (Raytheon images).

In short, if a program to develop an 'R-74-PD' exists, the BVR missile combat game is yetagain about to become more complicated and more lethal.

Further Reading:

1. Air Power Australia - April 2008 - Flanker Radars in Beyond Visual Range Air Combat2. Air Power Australia - March 2008 - The Russian Philosophy of Beyond Visual Range Air

Combat3. Australian Aviation - March 1982 - Heat-Seeking Missile Guidance

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4. Australian Aviation - June 1982 - Active and Semi-Active Radar Missile Guidance5. Australian Aviation - September 1986 -Quo Vadis - AMRAAM?6. Australian Aviation - July 1987 - Evading the Guided Missile7. Australian Aviation - April 1994 - The Sidewinder Story - The Evolution of the AIM-9

Missile , Mirror@FTA8. Australian Aviation - June 1994 - BAe Active Skyflash and AIM-120 AMRAAM9. Australian Aviation - April 1997 - Fourth Generation AAMs - The Rafael Python 4

10. Air Power International - Vol.4. No.4 1998 - Matra-BAe AIM-132 ASRAAM - The RAAF'sNew WVR AAM

11. NCADE - Network Centric Airborne Defense Element - Raytheon brochure.12. Defence Today - May 2005 - Missiles in the Asia-Pacific13. Flight International - 27/08/1997 - Vympel reveals previously classified air-to-air

missiles14. Усовершенствованная активная радиолокационная головка самонаведения 9Б-

1103М-15015. State Machine-Building Design Bureau “Vympel” R-73E/EL Archer16. State Machine-Building Design Bureau “Vympel” R-27P1 / R-27EP117. State Machine-Building Design Bureau “Vympel” R-27R1 / R-27ER118. State Machine-Building Design Bureau “Vympel” R-27T1 / R-27ET119. State Machine-Building Design Bureau “Vympel” RVV-AE (R-77)Footnote:

Col. Grisha Medved is a former retired fighter pilot.

Vympel R-73 / AA-11 Archer

The R-73 is the primary WVR missile currently deployed by operators of Russian fighteraircraft. When introduced during the 1980s it was the most capable WVR missile everdesigned. While more recent Western WVR AAMs are often more capable, they are by designat least a decade newer. These images show some of the interesting features of thiscapable family of missiles. R-74E (K-74E) is the reserved designation for a late build variantwith a fully digital seeker and guidance system.

R-73E Specifications (Vympel data) Unit [metric] Unit [imperial]

Launch Weight 103 [kg] 227 [lb]

Length 2.9 [m] 114.2 [in]

Diameter 0.17 [m] 6.7 [in]

Wing Span 0.51 [m] 20.1 [in]

Rudder Span 0.38 [m] 15 [in]

Off boresight engagement angle ±45° ±45°

Maximum seeker gimbal off boresight angle ±75° ±75°

Range of target altitudes 20 - 20,000 [m] 65 - 65,000 [ft]

Maximum target load factor 12 G 12 G

Launch Range

closing target, maximum 30 [km] 16.2 [NMI]

receding target, minimum 0.3 [km] 1,000 [ft]

Guidance system all aspect IR homing with aerodynamic and TVC controls

all aspect IR homing with aerodynamic and TVC controls

Warhead type rod rod

Warhead weight 8 [kg] 17.7 [lb]

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Baseline Vympel R-73E Archer WVR AAM (Military Parade).

Unlike most Western WVR AAMs with thrust vectoring, which employ vanes in the exhaust,the R-73 uses paddles (Military Parade).

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The MWIR two colour high off-boresight gimballed MK-80M series scanning seekers use aMagnesium Fluoride window (Military Parade).

At least one laser fuse design has appeared on R-73 variants in recent years, such missilesare usually designated as the R-73EL. This is evidently a 'four lobe' design with a pair ofdual aperture laser transceivers (Military Parade).

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