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F-26A Tempest; Air domination fighter
Topic Started: Jun 1 2015, 05:25 PM (2 Views)
Etoile Arcture
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F-26A Tempest


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(F-26A "Tempest" in Block 40 configuration)

DESCRIPTION
The F-26A "Tempest" is a single-seat, twin engine, all weather, air superiority fighter designed to penetrate, operate in and dominate enemy airspace with the additional capability to perform maritime attack and long range interdiction missions. The F-26 is lethal and survivable with its balance of high manoeuvrability, performance and range via its two 40,000 lb thrust class variable cycle engines; fault-tolerant integrated offensive and defensive avionics for dominant battlespace awareness and precision targeting; multi-spectral warning and countermeasures systems; and low-observable characteristics. Easily replaceable avionics modules and aircraft components, reduced logistics footprints and high sortie generation rates also allow for rapid deployability and greater supportability. Low detectable multifunction aperture radar, passive radio frequency (RF) recievers and advanced optronics allow detection of low signature threats and precision targeting without betraying position or entering into the lethal range of enemy sensors and weapons. These grant a first-look/first-shot/first-kill beyond visual range (BVR) capability, the ability to engage multiple threats simultaenously, and to perform multiple ground attacks in a single pass. Above all, the F-26A is highly agile and retains the capability of closing with, outmaneuvering, and destroying any current or projected threat aircraft in the visual arena.

KEY DATA
ModelF-26A Tempest
Role Air domination, multi-role all-weather land/maritime attack
Flyaway cost US$140M
Prime contractor/system integrator Aerodyne Inc.
ProliferationEtoile Arcture, Zaheran, Parilisa, others
Productionunknown

Construction: The airframe features a shaped nose, semi-trapezoidal wing planform with positive sweep on both leading and trailing edges, two horizontal close coupled stabilisers and two canted vertical stabilizers with large-area trailing-edge rudders, cheek-mounted diverteless box inlets with wire mesh diffusers, and a flat-bottomed fuselage with twin parallel ventral weapons bays. The primary structure, including the fuselage and wing subframes, as well as spars, ribs and stringers for the aircraft wing, intakes, ducts, weapons bays and landing gear bays consist of lightweight scandium aluminium alloys. The engine bays and self-sealing fuel tanks are constructed of laser welded titanium alpha-beta alloy, the latter being fitted with tear-resistant, self-sealing cells lined with reticulated foam. Fibre-reinforced carbon composites are used extensively in the aircraft skinning, in addition to construction of the ailerons, spoilers, leading/trailing edge flaps, stabilizers, trailing edges, landing gear bay doors, radome and antenna fairings.
Accomodation: The clamshell bubble canopy is constructed from transparent polycarbonates fabricated to the Zone 1 optical quality standard so as to provide maximum visbility for the pilot.
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Powerplant: The Tempest is designed around the Sequoia Electrodynamics F155-SE-201VCE augmented turbofan rated at 177.9 kN static thrust, with two-dimensional thrust vectoring/reversing nozzles that pitch ±20° to confer signficant energy advantages in a turning engagement. The F155-SE-201VCE selective bleed turbofan is a two shaft, three compressor, variable cycle gas turbine. At subsonic flight speeds it operates as a medium bypass turbofan producing low noise signature at take-off. At higher flight regimes it becomes a low bypass turbofan, producing high specific thrust at high altitude and capable of supersonic cruise on dry thrust with a high manoeuvre envelope. The major advantage of this engine is that all the components are employed all the time, for all operating modes, thus incurring low weight penalties for an engine of its size and power. This has enabled the F-26 powerplant to remain lighter and smaller, and the aircraft to be faster and more manoueverable than many of its peers whether flying at high or low altitudes and speeds.
Flight characteristics:
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Landing gear: The landing fear consists of a cantilevered nose gear and semi-levered main gear. The landing gear and bay doors are hydraulically operated and electrically controlled and sequenced, with the gear locked in the extended position using drag braces. Lightweight carbon brakes of superior heat resistance, wear and braking efficiency are fitted to all wheels augmented by an adaptive anti-skid system that prevents wheel locking in wet and icy conditions. Emergency brake pressure and nose wheel steering can also be supplied by an emergency accumulator fed by redundant hydraulic lines.
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Avionics: The integrated modular avionics (IMA) suite is based on redundant arrays of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) multi-processor system-on-chip (MPSoC) single-board computers based on 64-bit quad-core PowerPC processors. They form the basis of the quadruplex redundant digital flight computers and optical (fly-by-light) flight control system, the engine control system, and various flight susbsystems including the navigation and mission computers, to perform data and signal processing services for all vehicle subsystems, sensors and flight systems. These include: realtime vehicle heath monitoring and management, mission management and mapping, communications, navigation and indentification (CNI), multi-spectral electronic warfare, stores management, mission mapping and multi-channel sensor and vehicle data fusion to the pilot interface. The computers are capable of adaptive serial and parallel processing and produce reliability through automatic fault location/repair, lock step processing and time and memory partitioning by running the LynuxWorks LynxOS-178 safety critical ARINC-653-2 compliant fault-tolerant real-time operating system. All subsystems communicate point-to-point/point-to-multi-point over a mesh network data bus backbone interconnected by FireWire-based MIL-1394 (SAE AS5643) Fibre Channel links running bi-directionally at 1 gigabits-per-second.
Situational awareness: The Synergy Electrodynamics AN/APG-84(V)2 Advanced Multifunction Integrated Radio Frequency System (AMIRFS) is an all-digital, solid state, coherent pulse Doppler, multimode active electronically scanned array (AESA) fire control radar operating in the 8-12 GHz I/J band (X band) frequency range. It can scan sectors of ±120° in azimuth and ±60° in elevation with electronically steered beams. The 90 cm planar antenna packs 2,200 transmit/receive (T/R) microwave modules with a transmit power of 3-15 watts. The system broadcasts at a peak power of 33 kW, allowing it to detect a 3 m² RCS target at 550 km, a 0.1 m² RCS target target at 240 km and a very low observable 0.001 m² RCS target at 75 km in tracking modes, and at 360 km, 160 km and 50 km respectively in velocity search. In the air-to-air mode it offers velocity search for long-range wide-angle searching, track-while-scan, range-while-scan and moving target indication of up to 250 tracked targets with full look-down/shoot-down capability, and engage 40 air targets or 20 surface targets simultaneously. The radar processor employs massively parallel processing (MPP) techniques for non-cooperative target recognition (NCTR). Air-to-surface modes include Doppler beam sharpened sector and patch mapping, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging with a resolution of 1 metre, fixed and moving ground target track, and sea surface search decluttered to remove waves.
Radar Modes
Air-to-air ModesBeyond Visual RangeRWS (Range While Scan)
TWS (Track While Scan)
VS (Velocity Search)
AMTI/T (Air Moving Target Indication/Track)
Within Visual Range/
Close Air Combat
Boresight Acquisition
Vertical Acquisition
Wide-Angle Acquisition
Slaved Acquisition
HUD Acquisition
STT (Single Target Track)
Gun Director
Air-to-surface ModesBeyond Visual RangeReal Beam Ground Map
Radar Navigation Ground Map
Sea Surface Search
DBS/SAR (Doppler Beam Sharpening/Synthetic Aperature Radar) Sector, Patch
GMTI/T (Ground Moving Target Indication/Track)
GTR (Ground Target Ranging)
PVU (Precision Velocity Update)
TA (Terrain Avoidance)
FTT (Fixed Target Track)

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Instrumentation: Weapons, sensors and flight systems are controlled using the Air Warfighter Interface 2.0 system which drives sensor fusion to aid the observe, orient, decide and act (OODA) sequence for cueing and firing weapons, and performing air combat manoeuvres.
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Pilot aids:
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Life support: These include oxygen generation, anti-g protection and personal cooling. These consist of:
  • An AC powered on-board oxygen generation system (OBOGS) that supplies breathable air to the pilot;
  • An integrated breathing regulator/anti-g valve (BRAG) that electronically controls flow and pressure to the mask and pressure garments;
  • A chemical/biological/cold-water immersion (CB/CWI) protection ensemble;
  • An upper body counterpressure garment and a lower body anti-g garment acting as a partial pressure suit at high altitudes;
  • An air-cooling garment that provides thermal relief for the pilot;
  • Helmet and helmet-mounted systems including chemical biological (C/B) goggles and hood; and breathing mask and hose system.
Equipment
  • Wing Anti-Ice System (WAIS): thermal de-ice and anti-ice system using Thermion resistive-heating fabric inside each wing.
  • In-Flight Refueling (IFR): retractable mid-air refueling probe located on the right forward fuselage behind flush opening doors. Engages with a receiver drogue from a probe-and-drogue aerial refueling tanker for high rate fuel delivery.
  • On-Board Inert Gas Generating System (OBIGGS): generates a nitrogen-enriched inert gas by filtering oxygen out of ambient air. Provides fire and explosion suppression using inert gas to fill empty fuel tank volume.
  • On-Board Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS): provides a continuously available supply of 95% oxygen-rich gas for the pilot to breath. Produced from engine bleed air using molecular sieve technology and passed through heat exchangers for temperature regulation.
  • Environmental Control System (ECS): provides pressure-regulated conditioned air from a ram air scoop for avionics cooling, cockpit pressurisation, windscreen defogging and anti-g suit inflation.
  • Integrated Drive Generator (IDG): twin non-synchronised units are provided that generate 40 kVA of constant frequency AC power for the aircraft electrical system (dual AC buses, dual DC buses via six transformer rectifiers, and batteries) via a split bus redundant distribution system. Each generator consists of a rotor-driven alternator (24,000 rpm constant speed drive) attached to each engine by a variable-speed engine accessory gearbox and producing electrical power (115/200 volt AC, 400 Hz three-phase) from a permanent magnet (PM) motor coupled to the alternator.
  • Auxiliary Power Generation System (APGS): based on a 450 hp gas turbine unit located in a bay between the two engines and drawing off the engine fuel feed. Provides pressurised air for engine starts and the environmental control system while on the ground.
  • Engine Fire Warning and Extinguishing System (EFWES): detection system for engine and APGS bay fires, aft fuselage overheating, fuel system leaks and bleed air leaks. Shuts down fuel feed to the affected engine and activates the fire extinguisher discharge system located in the affected bay.
Self protection: Electronic countermeasures are based around a high gain X-band Radio Frequency Threat Warning and Countermeasure System (RFTCM) fully integrated with expendable countermeasures (EXCM) to provide full spherical coverage and threat detection, deception, disruption and defeat against enemy target acqusition systems. These include radio frequency (RF) source detection and jamming, radar warning, cueing anti-radiation missiles with home-on-jam targeting, mid-wave laser warning recievers and missile approach warners, coded pulsed directional IR and optical UV missile seeker jamming, launched expendeable countermeasures and decoys, and a programmable miniature fibre-optic towed decoy (FOTD) using digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) to capture and retransmit hostile RF signals to fool and spoof enemy sensors and weapon seekers.
          All aspect low observability, being key to signature management and aircraft survability, is achieved through airframe, inlet and exhaust shaping with radar absorbant structure (RAS) used to minimize scattering from hard edges and radar absorbant material (RAM) to reduce scattering from surface breaks. Serpentine inlets hide engine faces from radars and two-dimensional exhausts minimise infra-red signatures. A clean configuration using internal-only stores, comformal antennas and flush sensor bay windows achieves further reduced radar reflections, weight, and drag. Electro-magnetic emissions are also carefully controlled by a signature management subsystem that is part of the avionics suite, and a Topcoat paint system is applied to the exterior to divert RF and IR energy away from the aircraft. The result has been a total measurable radar cross section (RCS) of only 0.0001 square metres or -40 dBsm (decibels per square metre).
Defensive aids:
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Armament: The F-26A Block 40 flies with a clean configuration with no provision for underwing external stores as this would compromise its low observable characteristics. A 20mm/85 M61A2 Vulcan six-barrel aircraft cannon is mounted internally on the ventral centerline between the two intakes and is hidden behind a flush sliding door. Behind the gun bay two internal weapons bays are located ventrally side-by-side for carriage of compact ordnance and missiles with clipped wings. These fit behind 4.2 metre long sawtooth-edged doors. Weapons are deployed using non-pyrotechnic pnuematic ejectors that extend out of the bay into the airflow to throw munitions clear of the airplane at supersonic speeds. Each bay has three weapon stations rated up to a 9+ g load factor, with ordnance interfacing to the Stores Management System (SMS) via a MIL-STD-1760C Aircraft/Store Electrical Interconnection System (AEIS) fibre-optic bus. The inside bay station mounts a single launch rail and the inner door station a duplex launch rail, with a triplex rail or single rail for outsized stores on the centre hardpoint, which is also plumbed for a single 330 US gallon conformal fuel pack for ferry flights.
Ordnance: A wide range of stores, to a total of weight of 2,442 kg (5,383 lb), can be carried on six internal hard points. The F-26A Block 40 has been rated for a wide range of current and projected future precision stand-off weapons compatible with MIL-STD interfaces.
CERTIFIED ORDNANCE
Air-to-air missilesAIM-9X Evolved Sidewinder
AIM-120D AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile)
AIM-132A ASRAAM (Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile)
RB-98 IRIS-T (Infra Red Imaging System Tail/Thrust Vector-Controlled)
RB-107 Meteor BVRAAM (Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile)

RVV-MD / K-74M2 (AA-11 Archer)*
RVV-SD / K-77M (AA-12 Adder)*
RVV-BD / R-37 (AA-13 Arrow)*
Air-to-ground missilesAGM-84D Block 1C Harpoon
AGM-84E Block IF Harpoon/SLAM-ER (Stand-Off Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response)
AGM-154A/D JSOW (Joint Stand Off Weapon) w/ 145 x BLU-97/B submunitions
AGM-154B JSOW w/ 6 x BLU-108/B SFM (Sensor Fused Munition)
AGM-154C/E JSOW Block III w/ BLU-111/B AUP (Advanced Unitary Penetrator) 500 lb warhead
AGM-154D/E JSOW w/ 202 x BLU-114/B "Soft Bomb" canisters
AGM-158B JASSM-ER (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile - Extended Range)

Kh-35UE/ AS-20 Kayak*
Kh-38MKE*
Kh-58UShK / AS-11 Kilter*
Laser-guided bombsGBU-27A/B Paveway II w/ BLU-109/B AUP 1,000 lb warhead
GBU-27B/B Paveway III w/ BLU-116/B AUP 2,000 lb warhead

KAB-250L w/ FAB-250 M62 499 lb general purpose bomb*
KAB-500LG w/ FAB-500 M62 1,100 lb general purpose bomb*
Satellite-guided bombsGBU-30/B JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) w/ BLU-111/B AUP (BROACH) 500 lb blast-fragmentation warhead
GBU-31/B JDAM w/ BLU-109/B AUP 1,000 lb warhead
GBU-32/B JDAM w/ BLU-110/B AUP 2,000 lb warhead
GBU-39/B SDB (Small Diameter Bomb) w/ 250 lb multipurpose penetrating blast-fragmentation warhead

SBU-54 HAMMER (Highly Agile Modular Munition Extended Range) w/ BLU-111/B AUP (BROACH) 500 lb blast-fragmentation warhead

KAB-250S-E w/ FAB-250 M62 499 lb general purpose bomb*
KAB-500S-E w/ FAB-500 M62 1,100 lb general purpose bomb*
Nuclear free-fall bombsB61 Mod 12 LEP TKA thermonuclear bomb w/ W69 warhead (0.3-80 KT)
Note:
* Stores interface requires data converter and coupling adaptor on hardpoint.
WEAPON STORESWEAPON STATIONS                         
6
Left Door
(295 kg)
5
Left Centre
Bay (1,587 kg)
4
Left Inner
Bay (998 kg)
3
Right Inner
Bay (998 kg)
2
Right Centre
Bay (1,587 kg)
1
Right Door
(295 kg)
High Off-Boresight Dogfight Missile e.g. AIM-221A Loki (93 kg)X-XX-X
Short Ranged Air-to-Air Missile e.g. IRIS-T (87 kg), AIM-132 ASRAAM (88 kg), AIM-9X Sidewinder (85 kg)X-XX-X
Medium Ranged Air-to-Air Missile e.g. Meteor (185 kg), AIM-120 AMRAAM (152 kg)-XXXXXXXX-
Long Ranged Air-to-Air Missile e.g. AIM-222A Ambush (231 kg)-XX--XX-
AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (1,021 kg)-Δ--Δ-
AGM-154 Joint Stand Off Weapon (497 kg)-Δ--Δ-
GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition (946 kg)-O--O-
GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II (227 kg)-OOOO-
GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (664 kg)-OO
OO
--OO
OO
-
B61 Mod 12 LEP TKA (320 kg)-OOOO-
AGM-220A Tiamat Attack Missile (1,016 kg)-O--O-
SBU-54 HAMMER (340 kg)-OOOO-
Joint Strike Missile (410 kg)-ΔΔΔΔ-

VARIANTS
F-26 Block 10 EMD: Engineering and Manufacturing Development initial production version; powered by two 35,000 lb thrust class Sequoia Electrodynamics F155-SE-100VCE variable cycle engines; interim avionics equipment with multi-mode radar, holographic panoramic HUD, digital and analogue cockpit displays; internal weapons carriage limited to two 1,000 lb class stores; less than 40 produced.

F-26A Block 15: Refined production version; re-engined with 40,000 lb thrust class uprated F155-SE-200VCE turbofan/turbojet; airframe improvements totalling 550 kg in extra weight including revised wing design and conformal weapons bay enlarged from 3.95 metres to 4.2 metres for accomodating a 2,000 lb class store; enhanced avionics equipment fit for "swing-role" mission versatility; addition of superscalar processor architecture, 15W 2,200 T/R module AESA radar w/ SAR/ISAR/GMTI modes, helmet cueing system and fibre-optic towed decoy for self protection; all Block 10 aircraft were rebuilt and upgraded to Block 15 standard; less than 90 produced.

F-26A Block 20 FSD: Full Scale Development batch of a carrier-based fighter for service testing; airframe changes made including new folding wings, additional aerodynamic surfaces for low speed approach and recovery, strengthened landing gear and retractable arrester hook, fuel dumping for emergency landings, new rugged outer coating designed to withstand a salt air environment, net weight growth by only 290 kg; avionics upgrades including automatic launch and landing system, multi-static shared datalink networking and electronic warfare upgrades.

F-26A Block 20 FSP: Full Scale Production (FSP) version of the swing-role air domination fighter, with a production run of 1,500 produced.

F-26A Block 40: Current and largest production block of aircraft
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F-26B Super Tempest: Proposed multi-role naval variant that would feature enlarged airframe, longer undercarriage, variable geometry wings with external hardpoints for low observable stores. Program cancelled due to unacceptable weight growth, cost overruns and schedule slippages.
SPECIFICATIONS
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
DimensionsOverall length22.30 m
Wingspan16.87 m
Height4.81 m
WeightOperating empty14,787 kg
Internal payload2,442 kg
Normal combat22,763 kg
Maximum take off28,206 kg
Maximum landing18,409 kg
Fuel weightInternal10,886 kg
Fuel capacity13,552 L (3,580 US gal) of JP-5 (MIL-DTL-5624U)
Fuel fraction0.38
Accomodation1 - pilot in Martin-Baker MK 16E "zero-zero" ejection seat
Powerplant                                             2 - F155-SE-201VCE variable-cycle augmented turbofan w/ 2D pitch thrust vectoring/reversing nozzle
Dry thrust111.2 kN (11,340 kg/f) each
Wet thrust (reheat)177.9 kN (18,144 kg/f) each
PERFORMANCE
SpeedMaximum level speed @ sea level802 knots
Maximum speed @ altitudeMach 2.598
Supercruise @ altitudeMach 1.558
Loading factorThrust/weight ratio @ maximum takeoff weight0.81:1 dry
1.28:1 wet
Maximum design G-load+11/-5 g
AltitudeMaximum ceiling18,288 m
Service ceiling15,240 m
RangeCombat radius1,609 km
Ferry range3,218 km
ARMANENT
GunsInternal cannon1 - M61A2 Vulcan 20x102 mm in ventral gun bay
Ammunition220 rds (5 bursts)
StationsWeapon bays2 - parallel side-by-side
Hardpoints1 - wet rated @ 1,587 kg each
1 - dry rated @ 998 kg each
1 - dry rated @ 295 kg each
LoadoutAir-to-air6 - RB-107 Meteor BVRAAM
4 - RB-98 IRIS-T
Air-to-ground2 - RB-107 Meteor BVRAAM
2 - RB-98 IRIS-T

2 - GBU-27A/B Paveway III/BLU-109/B AUP 1,000 lb bomb, or
2 - GBU-31/B JDAM/BLU-109/B AUP 1,000 lb bomb, or
2 - GBU-32/B JDAM/BLU-110/B AUP 2,000 lb bomb, or
8 - GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb 250 lb, or
2 - GBU-48/B Enhanced Paveway II 1,000 lb, or
2 - GBU-49/B Enhanced Paveway II 500 lb
Maritime strike2 - RB-107 Meteor BVRAAM
4 - AGM-84D Harpoon, or
4 - AGM-84E Block 1F/G SLAM-ER, or
4 - Joint Strike Missile
Precision strike2 - RB-107 Meteor BVRAAM for self protection
2 - AGM-154A/D JSOW w/ 145 - BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomb, or
2 - AGM-154B JSOW w/ 6 - BLU-108/B Sensor Fused Munition, or
2 - AGM-154C/E Block III JSOW/BLU-111/B UAP 500 lb bomb, or
2 - AGM-154D/E JSOW w/ 202 - BLU-114/B 'Soft Bomb'
2 - AGM-158B JASSM-ER w/ WDU-42/B 1,000 lb bomb
Nuclear strike4 - B61 Mod 12 w/ W69 variable yeild 0.3, 1.5, 5, 10, 60, 80, or 170kT
Ferry2 - 330 US gal (1,249 L) internal fuel pack
SENSORS
Fire controlCoverageHorizontal500,000 km² (145,777 nm²)
Vertical21.3 km (70,000 ft)
Maximum number of tracksAir and/or surface targets250
Maximum number of
engagement channels
Air targets40
Surface targets20
RadarMaximum detection
range @ radar cross section
Air targets550 km (297 nm) @ 10.0 m² (10 dBsm) e.g. 4th-generation fighter
480 km (259 nm) @ 3.0 m² (4.8 dBsm) e.g. large 4.5 generation fighter
360 km (194 nm) @ 1.0 m² (0 dBsm) e.g. stealthy strategic bomber
240 km (129½ nm) @ 0.1 m² (-10 dBsm) e.g. small 4.5 generation fighter
75 km (40½ nm) @ 0.0001 m² (-40 dBsm) e.g. 5th-generation fighter
Surface targets360 km (194 nm) vs @ RCS 100-1,000 m² (20-30 dBsm) e.g. stealth warship
112 km (60½ nm) @ 6-9 m² (7.78-9.54 dBsM) e.g. main battle tank
Electro-optical/
infra-red
Maximum infra-red
slant detection range
Air targetsafterburning manoeuvring target @ 800-1,500 km (432-810 nm)
non-afterburning manoeuvring target @ 300 km (162 nm)
missile approach warning @ 180 km (97 nm)
non-cooperative target recognition/identification @ 50 km (27 nm)
Surface targetslarge warship e.g. aircraft carrier @ 60-80 km (32-43 nm)
stealth warship @ 40-60 km (21½-32 nm)
main battle tank @ 18.5 km (10¾ nm)
 
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