What are the differences and characteristics of the first, second, third and fourth generation fighters?

The fourth generation fighter is the most advanced fighter currently under development, its technical and tactical indicators are based on the modern high-tech local war combat experience. Modern war has been transformed from the past confrontation of a single weapon to the sea, land, air force trinity all-round competition, and the most important of which is the fight for the right to control the air. Due to the means of communication and electronic radar, the development of early warning equipment, so that the modern war battlefield unprecedented expansion, in order to adapt to this change, the aircraft's combat radius should also be increased accordingly, for this reason, the fourth generation of fighters put forward the supersonic cruise requirements; and in order to cope with the enemy's powerful electronic radar systems and anti-aircraft missile threat, the aircraft has the ability to stealth is also indispensable; stealth undoubtedly improves the aircraft's Survival rate. Taken together, the following tactical and technical capabilities are often required for fourth-generation fighters:

The criteria for fourth-generation fighters are often referred to as the 4S criteria because all four of them begin with the letter "S", i.e.

Super Maneuverability

Super Sonic Cruise

Stealth

Superior Avionics for Battle Awareness and Effectiveness

Translated into Chinese, these words are "Super Maneuverability" and "Super Sonic Cruise" (some translations are not. "(some translations are supersonic cruise without power, which is actually redundant, because fighters generally don't use power in cruise mode, and power is generally used for tasks such as air-to-air combat sprints), "stealth capability" and "superior Avionics for Battle Awareness and Effectiveness " (direct translation).

On Superior Avionics for Battle Awareness and Effectiveness there are some domestic translations as "high maintainability", "over-the-horizon strike" etc. According to the official document (/data/assets/corporate/press-kit/F-22-Brochure.pdf) of Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F-22, it is preferred to be interpreted as "High Information Superiority", or "network centric warfare". That is to say, let the fighter aircraft become a node of network-centered warfare, and other combat units **** enjoy combat intelligence, so that fighter pilots more fully understand the environment in which they are located. Regarding the translation of "beyond visual range air warfare", some netizens raised the question of why BVR, that can not be translated into beyond visual range air warfare. "BVR", directly translated as Beyond Visual Range (Beyond Visual Range Strike), is some second-generation fighters (such as the F-4E) and third-generation aircraft already have the ability, but because of the radar and other hardware and other supporting software and other technical reasons, can not make the BVR ability to achieve practical. Such as the F15 using long-range air-to-air missiles, outside the line of sight to attack a very short lead time, once the other side of the fighter approaching to avoid the first wave of over-the-horizon strikes, into the range of medium and short-range, and even often still need to air-to-air combat to decide the winner, BVR is just a literal sense of the word are described. In the era of 3 generations of aircraft, BVR can only show more in the air-to-air missile technology to meet the requirements, but for fighter aircraft, far from entering the era of over-the-horizon attack. In contrast to the "advanced" idea of BVR capability of the 2nd generation aircraft, the 3rd generation aircraft returned to emphasize the medium and close air combat capability, and the principle of energy maneuver (i.e., an important symbol to distinguish the standard of the 2nd generation aircraft from the 3rd generation aircraft) was born. Superior Avionics for Battle Awareness and Effectiveness is directly translated as "Advanced Battle Awareness and Effectiveness Aircraft", which, according to Loma's preferred interpretation, can be translated as battlefield awareness capability in the case of network-centric warfare, i.e., "repeatedly and consistently escaping from the enemy aircraft and entering beyond visual range, and repeatedly applying the network-centric warfare awareness capability using the network-centric warfare perception capability. center warfare awareness capability to apply over-the-horizon strikes multiple times."

Superior Avionics for Battle Awareness and Effectiveness can simply be translated as "Utility Over-the-Range Strike Capability". Considering that most of the Gen 3s only have a simple BVR function, which doesn't allow them to actually use Superior Avionics for Battle Awareness and Effectiveness, Superior Avionics for Battle Awareness and Effectiveness can be translated as Superior Avionics for Battle Awareness and Effectiveness.

As for STOL, or Short Takeoff and Landing, this is a special requirement for a certain type of aircraft, such as the F/A-35, not for all 4th gen fighters, so it can't be one of the 4S criteria.　

The fourth-generation advanced multi-role fighter has both combat and surprise defense capabilities, giving it an unprecedented range of offense and the ability to strike targets in the full depth of a war.

The representative models of the fourth generation of advanced fighters are the American ATF and its representative models are the American F-22 "Raptor" and F35 "Lightning". Russia's S-37 "Golden Eagle" (SU47) and MiG I.44 and so on. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the weakening of Russia's national power, the new generation of fighters program is slow and intense. And both the F22 and F35 are in service or will be soon.

Excellent performance must be required to have advanced aircraft design and production technology as a support, but, from the beginning of this century, the birth of the first aircraft development to the current fourth-generation aircraft, the various sectors of aircraft design, whether it is an aircraft engine, fire control systems, or the overall design of the aircraft, as a result of the limitations of the current world's advanced technology, they have already reached the pinnacle of their respective technologies, if you want to If you want to make a technological breakthrough in their respective local areas, so that the performance of the aircraft can be improved, not only is a huge cost, the input benefit ratio is very small, and it is extremely difficult. In view of this situation, the world's masters of aircraft design had to give up the technical breakthroughs for the time being, and turn to seek another kind of innovation - a change in design thinking. As a result, the aircraft design method based on the integration of flight/propulsion/fire control came into being, which is the aircraft

integrated design technology, including the most advanced aerodynamic control technology - thrust vector technology. Representative models and fighter generation According to the western fighter generation division method

1: subsonic fighter (jet revolution) - representative models: the U.S. F86, the Soviet Mig 15, China J-5 (the Soviet Union Mig 15 replica), etc

The first generation of fighters based on the judgment of: jet, Sub-sonic, from the fighter propeller era into the jet era, known as the fighter jet "jet revolution".

2: emphasize the supersonic performance of the fighter (supersonic revolution) - representative models: the U.S. F4, F5, the Soviet Mig 21, Mig 25 (the pinnacle of the 2 generation of aircraft), China's J7 (the Soviet Union's copy of the Mig 21) and so on

The second generation of fighters based on the judgement of the fighter: fighter speed The second generation of fighters was based on the fact that the speed of fighters exceeded the speed of sound for the first time, and the emphasis was placed on speed, believing that the faster the faster the fighter, the stronger the fighter (non-energy maneuvering principle of design), which is called the "Supersonic Revolution" of fighters

3: Multi-purpose supersonic fighters emphasizing medium and close-range aerial combat and air-air combat (Energy Maneuvering Revolution). Representative models: U.S.-made F15, F16, F14, F18, Soviet Mig 29, Su 27, Su 30 (Su 27's improved version) China J10, etc. Among them, the F15, F16, Mig 29, Su 27 are known as the "Four Heavenly Kings" of the fighters that ruled the skies at the end of the Cold War.

Third-generation fighters are judged on the basis of supersonic multi-purpose fighters designed to meet the principle of energy maneuver. On the principle of energy maneuvering, Baidu few people answered accurately what is the third generation of fighters, the third generation of fighters is to use the principle of energy maneuvering design out of the fighter. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Air Force found that its F4 was faster than the MiG 21, but was repeatedly shot down by the MiG 21, and was even difficult to get out of unfavorable situations. Here's why. Some old retired air force pilots and scientists worked together to research, discovered the "energy maneuver principle", the specific meaning of the more complex, do not say more here, the energy maneuver principle, that is, at the same time with the maximum kinetic energy and the maximum potential energy of the fighter in the air combat victory is very likely, these people in the synthesis of all the cases of fighter fighting since World War II These men, after synthesizing all the cases of fighter fighting since World War II, made the startling discovery that rationalized the trade-off between a fighter's being fast and being high. They proposed the energy maneuver principle which is contrary to the theory, pointing out that the speed is not the first requirement for the future design of fighters, and all the performance of the aircraft is compounded with the principle of energy maneuver, the better, and they were also known as the "Fighter Mafia" by those who didn't understand their behavior at that time. However, after the F15 was manufactured, it was an instant success. The F15 was the first fighter that conformed to the principle of energy maneuver, and then the F16 was put into service. The F16 was the first fighter that was manufactured according to the precise calculation of the principle of energy maneuver, and since then, the US Air Force entered into the era of the third-generation aircraft, and the former Soviet Union almost spent more than ten years to figure out the principle of energy maneuver. Then came out the Su-27 and MiG-29.... There is a controversy here, that is, the F14, some people think that the F14 does not conform to the design of the energy maneuver principle, but we still count it as a 3rd generation fighter, because at that time, the "fighter mafia" and the officials were quarreling with each other, in addition, the F14's variable swept back wing provides a chance to correct the principle of energy maneuver, so it is still considered as a 3rd generation fighter. The F14 is still considered a third-generation fighter. Historically known as the fighter's "energy maneuver revolution"

4: Emphasis on stealth performance and other 4S standard multi-role supersonic fighter - representative models: the U.S. F22 "Raptor", F35 "Raptor", "Raptor", "Raptor", "Raptor", "Raptor", "Raptor" and "Raptor". It is called the "stealth revolution" in fighter jets.

On the Soviet/Russian fighter aircraft, the division of the generation method is the variable swept wing MiG-23 and the U.S.-made F-111 is divided into a separate generation called the third generation, the first two generations and the Western division of the same method. The difference between the first, second, third, and fourth generation fighter aircraft profiles There are now three generation delineation methods, the Russian generation delineation method, the American new generation delineation method, and the Westernized generation method. But the world recognized is the western delineation method, so here I only introduced the western delineation method.

The first generation: the American F-100, the Soviet MiG-19 and the French Super Mystery. The main features are the use of large swept back wings, jet engines with fuel chamber and simple optoelectronic, radar sights, gun and rockets as the main weapon, the late hanging of the first generation of air-to-air missiles, the maximum level flight speed of 1.3 ~ 1.5 Mach. This generation as a transition between the first generation of jet fighters and M2 class fighters, service time is not long.

The second generation: the U.S. F-4, F-104, the Soviet Union's Mig-21, Mig-23 and France's Mirage Ⅲ. The main feature is the general use of large thrust new turbojet engine or turbofan engine, monopulse radar or monopulse plus continuous wave radar, to load the cannon and the second generation of air-to-air missiles as the main weapon, the maximum speed of level flight for the M2 level, high thrust-to-weight ratio, medium and high altitude flight performance is good. Among them, MiG-23 and other variable swept-wing fighters were listed as a separate generation by the Soviet Union, while the West considered that they still belonged to the second-generation level.

Third generation: the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18 of the United States, the MiG-29 and Su-27 of the Soviet Union, and the Mirage 2000 of France. The main feature is the use of the turbofan engine thrust-to-weight ratio of 8, all-directional all-height all-weather fire control system, teletype manipulation system and advanced aerodynamic layout, etc., weapons to air-to-air missiles as the main, cannon as a supplement, the maximum flight speed altitude and the second generation similar to the low and medium-altitude subsonic and transonic maneuverability is outstanding, and has the over-the-horizon combat and downward-looking downward-firing capabilities.

The fourth generation: the U.S. F-22, F-35, and Russia's Su-47. The main features are outstanding stealth performance, supersonic cruise capability, unconventional maneuverability and agility, short take-off and landing capability (or all-environmental combat capability), referred to as 4S. 10 thrust-to-weight ratio of turbofan engines, phased-array fire-control radar, stealth technology and thrust vectoring technology, to "launch regardless of" air-to-air missiles as the main weapon. The main weapon.