I couldn't see it when I was walking around the fighter before, but when I really lay on the pulley and approached the belly of the plane, Long Yun was still questioning whether the design idea of the overall fuel tank was reasonable, and at the same time he saw what was going on inside the "fuel tank" with the hatch cover open.

Lying on the pulley and observing, just above the diagonal of his position, the so-called "integral fuel tank" that almost filled most of the depressions between the engine pods and had been designed in stealth was actually a conformal magazine built into a weapon; Looking around the folded open bomb bay door and looking in, I saw a milky white R-27R missile with flamboyant wings hanging quietly in the narrow cabin space.

No wonder it was placed like this, it turned out to be a weapon magazine that could be built into air-to-air missiles!

Putting air-to-air missiles into the built-in bomb bay is also a minimum requirement for stealth fighters, of course Long Yun is very clear about this, but he suddenly saw the MiG-29N just now, and he forgot about it when he was more excited. Now that he saw the design plan of the meter pattern, he thought that this was also a necessary configuration for the radar stealth fighter, so he couldn't help but look carefully at it on the pulley, and then slowly retreated.

Yes, as a low-detectability fighter, the importance of built-in weapons is self-evident.

No matter how small the RCS fighter is, as long as one or two air-to-air missiles are hung, the radar stealth characteristics are basically completely lost, and the reflected signal strength can be increased by one or two orders of magnitude, and the more excellent the stealth design, the more so.

Then for the MiG-29N, which was improved from the MiG-29, as a medium size, there is no room for space in the aircraft (this is natural, otherwise why is it so short-legged?). Medium fighters. It is completely impossible to add a built-in magazine to the original organism. So now this one kind of design. It's probably the best compromise.

Although after some observation just now, Long Yun has found that the space of this temporary built-in magazine is very cramped, and it seems that in addition to the fuel tank structure of the first and last parts, it can only be stuffed with an over-the-horizon missile such as R-27R/ER; But just after seeing these designs, he already had an insight into the real purpose of the MiG Design Bureau's development of the MiG-29N, so it is not unacceptable to have a built-in magazine with the capacity of just one missile.

As he saw, the MiG-29N with a full-fledged radar stealth design. It is true that it is expected to achieve good "low detectability," but its flight performance and combat capability are also greatly reduced, and such a fighter with extremely obvious advantages and disadvantages is not suitable for fighting traditional air combat.

So where is the tactical value of such an aircraft?

Thinking about the next Southern Theater of Operations, Long Yun slowly got up from the pulley, he had already found a battlefield environment for the MiG-29N in his heart where he could show his skills, and now it depends on whether the next test flight will go smoothly.

……

At the Bugas Air Force Base, Long Yun felt that time had flown by.

The latest MiG-29N fighters were received from the MiG Design Bureau, and there were two at once. His task now has also become very simple, that is, to take some time to test the new fighter and familiarize himself with the temperament of the MiG in the interval between liftoffs. Prepare for the next combat operation.

Testing the flight performance of radar stealth fighters can be regarded as a kind of leisure and relaxation between battles for Long Yun.

Just like today, soaring on the shore of the vast Black Sea, driving the new MiG-29N in gray gradient camouflage through the continuous sea of clouds, using radio to keep in touch with the base tower in Bugas, Long Yun's right hand is gently resting on the joystick, and he has a bird's-eye view of the vast land in the distance through the unobstructed one-piece cockpit canopy.

Sitting in the completely improved MiG-29N fighter, without the round-arched cockpit compartment and without subconscious prompts, Long Yun felt like an unrestrained light bird, or really "riding" on the fighter to patrol the sky, this kind of completely exposed to the sky, almost hallucinatory flight experience made him very excited, and at the same time thought that this was his first time to really fly a fighter with a whole canopy, whether in reality or in the first time.

Of course, as far as his observations are concerned, the quality of this one-piece canopy on the MiG is not ideal.

Just two or three days ago, he had just seen the MiG-29N, which could be called stunning in appearance and smooth in appearance, and Long Yun was also deeply surprised by the one-piece frameless cockpit canopy that appeared on the MiG aircraft, and he felt that this fashionable gadget was not quite in line with the industrial level of the Soviet Union in the nineties, and more importantly, it did not conform to the consistent principle of the Red Empire's weapons research and development, that is, "weapons are for war purposes, and they should be as concise as possible."

But now, after communicating with Comrade Krakow of the design bureau several times, he learned that this kind of beautiful one-piece cockpit canopy, in fact, the refractive uniformity, structural strength and durability do not meet the indicators of large-scale use, in other words, it is not very durable, and it does not allow the carrier aircraft to fly more than Mach 12, in short, it is just a specially tailored test product for the MiG-29N.

Of course, as one of the design considerations of radar stealth, this looks like a decent canopy, at least it is coated with a layer of reflective film glowing with golden yellow.

If you think so, the so-called "special objects" are quite in line with the design principles of the Soviet military industry?

Regarding the cockpit canopy, sitting in a high-altitude level flight MiG-29N fighter, Long Yun is not too worried now, what he needs to concentrate most is when the fighter takes off and lands, if he is unlucky to hit a bird when the flight speed is very high, according to Krakow, this hatch cover will "burst suddenly like a kettle gall" - this kind of scene, think about it, you know that it is not fun, so he must cheer up twelve points, It's best not to have a head-on collision with a large bird such as an eagle.

"Call 'Cross Axe', call 'Cross Axe', expect to reach the turning point of the track in thirty seconds, please check the navigation beacon and report your flight status, repeat, reach the turning point of the track in thirty seconds, please check the beacon and report the status."

"The 'Cross Axe' has been received, and it is currently heading 170, with a speed of 550 kilometers per hour and an altitude of 3,500 meters."

"This is the 'watchtower', confirmed course 170, and the watch speed is 565;' Cross Axe', keep the existing track, and after turning around, conduct another radar interception range test. ”

"The 'Cross Axe' received, understood."

After communicating with the airport tower, Long Yun slightly lowered his head and looked at the RWR light panel on the dashboard, the C-band signal light that represented the ground radar scan was flashing, and it was obvious that the three-coordinate warning radar deployed near the Bulgarian seaside city of Varna was trying to search for itself with a narrow beam; However, judging from the test flights in the past few days, unless he flew a little closer, the warning radar would not be able to detect him at a distance of more than 60 kilometers.

As the number one trump card of the VVS and the dazzling star of the high command, Viktor Rezenov, who personally participated in the flight tests, is of course not limited by the principle of secrecy and can know the true capabilities of the MiG-29N.

For example, yesterday, Long Yun was already surprised to find that if the Su-27S fighter sent by the MiG-29N and VVS to undertake the test mission flew at a certain angle, as long as he kept the speed at a low level and did not provide greater Doppler frequency shift to the opponent's N001 radar, then even if he approached a very dangerous distance, and once even he was able to visually spot an friendly fighter in the clear sky, the mechanically scanned N001 still could not catch his trace, which made Long Yun interested in "low detectability" There is a deeper understanding of the capabilities of the MiG.

Although theoretically speaking, the interception distance of the N001 radar is about 110 kilometers for a target of five square meters of RCS, converted to 0.1 square meter RCS of the MiG-29N, the theoretical detection distance is about 40 kilometers, and it should not be close to the visual distance without detecting it.

If this is the case, then the Su-27S can still calmly engage in battle, at least with the R-27R/T to try a round of over-the-horizon attacks.

However, theories are just theories after all.

When analyzing the detection capability of the radar, the adverse effects such as signal noise are not discussed for the time being, and the so-called "detection range" of the mechanical scanning PD radar must have a premise, that is, "we already have a rough idea of where the target is", and then the antenna beam can be mobilized to turn to the approximate direction to start scanning, complete the signal accumulation and intercept the target.

In this way, the "maximum detection range" indicator of the machine-swept radar is not a fraud, but this process obviously takes time, and the greater the uncertainty of the initial orientation of the target, the longer the scanning time is required, and sometimes it is normal to not catch the enemy plane for more than ten seconds. Therefore, in a real air battle, when the enemy and us are approaching head-on, the distance between the enemy and us will already be much smaller than the theoretical detection distance from the time the radar starts working to the time when the target is actually intercepted, and even due to the pilot's error in judgment and improper control, the enemy plane has already flown in front of him and has not intercepted it, and this situation is not very uncommon.

Regarding the battlefield value of radar stealth technology, it is precisely because of this series of complex factors that Long Yun is full of confidence in the MiG-29N's appearance, at least flying such a fighter to meet the enemy, there is no need to worry about the threat of NATO fighters. As for the kind of target that he was gearing up to get rid of, even if the radar was working in the S-band, which was not conducive to the stealth of the fighter, he felt it was worth trying.

E-3A "Watchtower", the most critical node of the US air combat system, if it can quietly unsheath its sword and kill it on the spot in one fell swoop, then what will happen on the next sky battlefield?

It's a very exciting situation to think about, isn't it? (To be continued......)