일본의 6세대 전투기, i3 Fighter 개발 소식...

 

9월 6일字 AW&ST 에 소개된 일본(日本)의 6세대 전투기 개발 기사를 소개합니다. 일본 방위성이 공식적으로 6세대 전투기

개발을 선언한 것은 아니며, 개념 계획 단계에서의 기사라는 점 참조바랍니다.

 

개발名 " i3 " (가칭) 로 명명된 6세대 스텔스 전투기는, 2021년부터 본격 개발을 시작하여, 2030년 실전배치를 목표로 하고

있으며, 총 개발비는 5천억￥~8천억￥ (약 7조원~11조원) 이 소요될 것으로 예상한다고 합니다. 방위성은 예산 확보와는

별개로 일단 2011년 4월부터는 기본 타탕성 조사를 시작할 것이라는 언급도 있습니다.

 

또한 6세대 전투기로써 갖추어야 할 필수 요소 7가지 중, 레이더와 스텔스 기술을 포함한 5가지 핵심 기술은 2030년까지

확보가 가능할 것이라 하며, 나머지 2가지 기술 역시 2040년경에는 개발이 완료될 것으로 예상하고 있습니다.

 

계획대로 " i3 " 의 개발이 성공적으로 이루어 진다면, 2030년부터 예상되는 일본 항공자위대 운용 F-2 전투기를 대체할 것

이라 합니다.

 

아래 소개하는 사진들은 지난 5월 美 Boeing 社가 제안한 미 해군용 차기전투기 F/A-XX 입니다. 일본의 " i3 " 개념도와

유사한 점이 많이 있어 참고 자료로 소개합니다.  

 

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6th-Gen on Horizon

Funding requested to begin work on a Japanese combat aircraft for the 2030s

Aviation Week & Space Technology, 09/06/2010

Author : Bradley Perrett

 

Japan’s defense ministry proposes to develop a sixth-generation manned fighter with strong counter-stealth capability and a directed-energy ­weapon.

 

While a program description issued by the ministry is ambiguous, full-scale development of the sixth-generation i3 fighter would evidently begin in 2021 after at least a decade of predevelopment of a batch of technologies. The aircraft would go into service in the 2030s. A second batch of technologies would be ready in the 2040s, suggesting that an improved version would then be fielded.

 

The i3 is neither approved nor funded, but the ministry has asked for an undisclosed sum to kick off the program from April 2011.

 

The aircraft would be a possible successor to the F-2 in service. But it would appear far too late to replace the F-2 industrially; that gap could be filled only by a foreign aircraft chosen for the immediate F-X fighter requirement.

 

The last of 94 F-2s is due to be delivered next year, at which point Japan’s postwar fighter production will be suspended, after more than half a century. The ministry considered seeking 20 more F-2s to sustain the industrial base but has made no such request.

 

The budget request does include ¥10.4 billion ($124 million) to upgrade 36 F-2s, equipping them to fire Mitsubishi Electric AAM-4 missiles. The i3 fighter would introduce a range of new technologies. The aircraft above may be unrelated to any real design, however.

 

The i3 would exploit work on the ­ATD-X fighter-technology demonstrator that Mitsubishi is building for a test program to begin in 2014. The sixth-generation fighter’s name is supposed to mean that it would be informed, intelligent and instantaneous.

 

“Depending on the size of the aircraft, the required technologies might cost ¥500-800 billion,” the ministry says.

 

It lists seven critical technologies for the aircraft. One, jamming-resistant fly-by-light controls, is already available, while four more could be ready by 2030:

 

• Greater stealth than could be fielded by an opponent, requiring developments in coatings, weapon bays and intakes.

 

• Next-generation avionics, requiring development of advanced integrated sensors offering all-round protection and a powerful radar that could detect and track stealth fighters.

 

• Cloud shooting, in which the fighters would fire missiles using off-board targeting data — for example, from each other.

 

• A powerful slim engine.

 

 

The engine, radar and stealth technology are already in development. Two more technologies would be ready in the 2040s:

 

• Networking with sensor drones that would fly ahead of the manned fighters, helping them to remain undetected while detecting stealthy targets.

 

• A directed-energy weapon, based on research that would begin next year and focus on lasers and high-energy microwaves.

 

One aim of cloud shooting would be to make up for insufficient numbers of manned fighters.

 

The ministry points out that Russia, China and India are all developing new fighters and argues that Japan must act to preserve qualitative superiority.

 

For stealth, the i3 would exploit materials technologies in which Japan sees itself as a leader: silicon carbide textiles, electromagnetic shielding and electromagnetic metamaterials — materials with artificial structures that allow them to control electromagnetic waves.

 

An all-Japanese stealth fighter would take 10 years to develop, Hayashi Fujio, the former head of air systems at the ministry’s Technical Research and Development Institute, told Japan Military Review magazine last November.

 

An early beginning of research and design for the 2030s fighter may improve the chances of Tokyo buying the Lockheed Martin F-35.

 

The fighter industrial and technology base needs attention in each of its two main parts: development and manufacturing. The F-X program can address the manufacturing side, though not soon enough to dovetail with the F-2.

 

The development engineers have the ATD-X to work on, but it will not keep them very busy once it is flying.

 

One answer could be to choose the Eurofighter Typhoon or the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet for the F-X program and then commit engineers to an upgrade of the chosen aircraft.

 

The development skills employed would be limited to those parts of the aircraft and systems that Japan could justify upgrading.

 

As a new aircraft whose technology is tightly controlled by the U.S. government and whose engineering has already been parceled out, the F-35 offers far less opportunity for development work. That might not matter, however, if Japan’s fighter designers were engineering their own fighter while their colleagues in production got busy with making and assembling Lightning parts.

 

There are other factors, however, notably the late timing of the F-35.

 

Boeing also offered a proposed advanced version of the Eagle called F‑15FX but the ministry has narrowed the field to the Typhoon and Super Hornet.

 

Identification of the i3 as an F-2 replacement in the 2030s means that Japan does not want to develop an aircraft to replace its F-15Js, which are older. Since only about 50 Phantom replacements are needed, and the F-15 successor would follow them down the production line, it would ideally be of the same type.

 

 

  ⓒ Stephen Trimble

 

  ⓒ Boeing Co.