The mystique that today surrounds Northrop Grumman's YF-23 isn't entirely
healthy. It reflects a tendency in many americans
to look for technological solutions to
human problems. Buying F-23S instead of F-22S wouldn't
have changed the recent arc of u.s
history. It wouldn't have stopped russia's
resurgence or china's rise as a world
power. Trading lockheed stealth fighter for
northrop's own plane wouldn't have
halted the spreads of radical islamic
terrorism and right-wing militancy.
But the development and flight testing
of the YF-23 do offer important lessons
for the air force as it begins studying
a replacement for the F-22.
The air force in 2016 published its air
superiority 2030 study which called for
a new penetrating counter air system to
supplant the services roughly 180 S-22S beginning in the 2030s. The air force in 2017 initiated an
analysis of alternatives to further
refined concepts for the penetrating
counter air system.
Service officials have said they
strongly are interested in a
disaggregated approach to air
superiority that involves a wide array
of systems working together, that approach could represent a break
from the past. for its entire 72-year
history, the air force has based its air
superiority concepts on fighter aircraft.
It seems highly likely that the new
penetrating counter air system will
include fighters but more than before
these fighters might coordinate with
drones and air, space and ground-based
networks sensors and weapons. But if the YF-23 program has any
indication it could take longer than 15
years to invent a new air superiority
system whatever form it takes.
The air force in 1971 began studying
requirements for a new fighter to
succeed the F-15. which itself at the time was still in
development. According to paul metz a Former Northrop test pilot who flew the YF-23. Mets in 2015 spoke at length about the YF-23 in a lecture series at the western
museum of flight in california, studies continued for 10 years before
the service finally approached the
aerospace industry.
The air force in 1981 asked nine
companies to pitch new fighter designs seven responded, The air force in 1986
tapped lockheed and northrop each to
build and test two prototypes. the deadline was in 1991. The air
force's requirements were both vague and
ambitious, the only specifications were
that the new fighter be fast far-flying
maneuverable and stealthy. We were asked to create something that
had never existed
met said.
To its credit the air force didn't try
to tell the companies exactly what the
service meant by fast far-flying
maneuverable and stealthy or how they
should achieve those goals. The air force did a great job of leading
mets said. It had the concept of letting us try it
out and experiment.
Likewise, the air force didn't pit the
resulting yf-22 and yf-23 prototypes
against each other. rather the two companies each pursued
its own independent flight test program. It was not a fly-off, mets stressed, that
mattered the YF-22 and YF-23 were very
different airplanes, each with its own
design trade-offs and approaches to
achieving the fast far stealthy
requirement. The YF-23 was faster, the YF-22 arguably
was nimbler, the YF-23 pushed the
boundaries of avionics technology, the YF-22 probably was easier to build. you
can't make apples to apple's comparison.
Met said, if the air force applied the
lessons it learned from the YF-22 and Yf-23 to a new fighter concept, it would
meticulously study the problem before
loosely defining it for industry to
solve
and the service would avoid
micromanaging the developers efforts.
Finally, the service would assess the
results on their own merits rather than
comparing dissimilar solutions
and the air force would avoid some
obvious mistakes. In overseeing the YF-22
and YF-23, the service for example insisted that
lockheed and northrop hide their
prototypes from enemy spy satellites by
never displaying the planes out in the
open.
Bewildered northrop engineers solved the
problem by covering the YF-23 with
plastic tarps that promptly blew away in
the strong winds at edwards air force
base in California, that lunacy obviously didn't last very
long.
Tags
Military