F-49 'Griffin' Air Superiority Fighter (MT)

[-West]

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Launch Partners: Royal Britannian Air Force | Western Air Force

The Griffin fighter is a single-seat, twin-engine fifth-generation super manoeuvrable fighter aircraft, with emphasis on higher agility, stealth technology and higher range. The unit is also deemed to its capabilities in eliminating enemy aircraft at greater distances. Its primarily goal is to obtain air supremacy. The Griffin was designed by a consortium of two companies: Lance, and Faversham Aviation.

The development phase of the Griffin fighter started in the early stage of the 21st century as part of the Supreme Aerial Fighter (SAF) acquisition programme; which implies creating an advanced air superiority jetfighter designed to eliminate enemies’ aerial forces overseas with the use of advanced technological utilities for the Commonwealth of Britannia and the Republic of The West.
The SAF-programme started with as goal to develop an affordable stealth-aircraft before 2005. Due to constant returns to scale; The expected production of the Griffin Fighter will amend a huge amount of aircraft in both Reformed Britannia and the Western Republic. Simultaneously coping up with the criteria of the Royal Britannian Air Force (RBAF) and the Western Air Force (WAF). The Griffin Fighter by far exceeds the 4th generation fighters, and classifies itself as an 5th generation fighter.

Presently the appliance is designed in pursuit of replacing the retired Western and Britannian air superiority fighters. The Griffin fighter has the capabilities of coping up with sophisticated aircraft. Latest developments amongst The Griffin fighter increases sophistication and threat of hostile air forces and integrated air defence systems. With its balance of increased speed and range, enhanced offensive and defensive avionics and low observability or stealth, and its shorter takeoff and landing distances. The Griffin fighter has three additional variants: the R2, the EWC, and the carrier based NF.1 variant, slightly modified to their own specifications.

[Reformed Britannia]

Design

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At the time of its inception, the Griffin was a fairly unconventional-looking aircraft. The Griffin was designed with a high-performance delta wing configuration and substantial area-ruling, both of which culminated to create an aircraft that had very low drag at supersonic speeds. To take advantage of this, a thrust vectoring system was also incorporated into the design, giving the Griffin a level of manoeuvrability unlike any Britannian fighter that had ever been made. Similar to the RA-33, steps were taken to try and limit the fighter's IR signature, although this undertaking was done much more effectively with the Griffin. The exhaust from the jet's engines flows through troughs lined with heat ablating tiles, which shields the exhaust from infrared missile detection.

The delta wings on the aircraft were an immediate choice due to their superior offerings of increased speed as well as a higher angle of attack. A cranked-arrow delta wing was chosen due to the fact that it would provide more control over lift than other delta wings,
The Griffin uses several other fifth generation fighter technologies to reduce its radar cross-section. Distinguishing features of the Griffin are the conformal weapons bays that replace the usual conformal fuel tanks to hold weapons internally, and the twin vertical tails slanted outward 15 degrees to reduce radar cross section. Weapons storage takes the place of most of each CWB fuel capacity. The Griffin also makes use of radar absorbent materials, most notably fiber-mat. Its surfaces are shaped to best defeat radars operating in the X and upper S band, which are typically found in fighters, surface-to-air missiles and their tracking radars.

A notable feature that was present on the Tempest and yet absent from the Griffin are canards of any kind. The canards were dropped from the design early in the development phase, as it was feared that they would compromise the stealth qualities of the aircraft-something which would have made carrying out strike missions in heavily defended airspace a dangerous and difficult task. It seemed as if a tradeoff between stealth and manoeuvrability would have to be made-however, the later incorporation of thrust vectoring into the engine's design allowed for the jet to retain manoeuvrability equal or surpassing that of canard-equipped fighters at high speeds. The final design featured many other upgrades to its avionics and electronic systems, including digital fly-by-wire and a rear-looking radar for firing semi-active radar homing missiles. Other Britannian branch programs led to the development of three additional variants: the R2, the EWC, and the NF.1 variant.

The R2 was developed as a low-observability, high-speed version of existing AWACS airraft. The intent behind the R2's development program was to create an aerial reconnaissance plane which could keep up with without slowing them down or compromising their stealth with an overly visible RCS. To this end, the R2 variant was constructed with numerous radar-absorbent materials-which, while increasing the cost of the aircraft substantially, at least minimised its visibility on active search radars substantially. The R2 was also built with a larger nose cone than the other variants, allowing it to carry a larger and more powerful version of the standard Griffin radar.
The EWC variant, due to the addition of a substantial EW/ECM system to the aircraft, lacked some of the sophisticated avionics systems that had been committed to F1, R2, amd NF1 variants. Thus, the aircraft was designed to fly in tandem with other Griffin and Shadowhawks so that it could carry out its SEAD missions successfully. Designed to be a fast and low flying variant of the Griffin F1, the EWC's primary role would be the active suppression and destruction of enemy air defences. To this end, the EWC variants were almost exclusively outfitted with anti-radiation missiles which would allow them to fulfill this task with as much efficiency as possible-they would have to rely on other Griffin variants or LY910s for anti-air support during their missions.

The carrier-based NF.1 variant features larger wings with foldable wingtip sections, larger wing and tail control surfaces for improved low-speed control, stronger landing gear for the stresses of carrier landings, and a stronger tailhook for use with carrier arrestor cables. The larger wing area allows for decreased landing speed while increasing both range and payload. This has led to the carrier-based variant being used primarily for naval strikes against enemy ship concentrations, as it is capable of carrying Questarian-designed P-900 AShMs in its internal weapons bays.

Radar Systems and Decoys

The Griffin carries the Britannian-designed RBA-28 towed decoy system. This system is a fully integrated decoy that is used primarily against radar-guided missiles and to throw off long-range detection. It is designed have a much larger RCS than the craft itself, therefore acting as a preferential target that lures enemy missiles away from the jet.
The primary form of radar in use aboard the Griffin is the 'AEGIS-E' system. AEGIS-E, a multi-mode AESA radar/fire control system, can detect and track up to 30 airborne targets at one time at ranges near 400 kilometers, and attack up to 8. In air-to-surface mode the AEGIS system provides mapping allowing the Griffin to attack up to four surface targets with precision-guided weapons-while continually scanning the horizon and searching for airborne threats that can be engaged using active radar homing missiles.

The Griffin also incorporates a low probability of intercept radar system. Steps taken to reduce the profile of the onboard radar included using a wider-frequency bandwidth, using a frequency-modulated continuous-wave signal, and using only the minimum amount of power required for the task. Pulse compression was also used to reduce the probability of detection, since the peak transmitted power of pulse compressed radar is lower while the range and resolution is the same as conventional AESA radars.

The Griffin's tactical electronic warfare system (TEWS) integrates a large number countermeasures on the craft: radar warning receivers, a radar jammer, radar, and chaff/flare dispensers are all tied to the TEWS to provide comprehensive defense against detection and tracking. This system can optionally include an externally mounted ALQ-131 ECM pod which is carried on the centerline pylon when required, for further disruption of enemy fighters or ground defences.

Another advantage of the AEGIS-E radar system is that it allows air crews to detect ground targets from longer ranges,making it ideal for ground attack. One feature of this system is that after a sweep of a target area, the system freezes the air-to-ground map then goes back into air-to-air mode to clear for air threats. During the air-to-surface weapon delivery, the pilot is capable of detecting, targeting and engaging air-to-air targets while the AEGIS-E system independently designates the ground target. The target data is transferred to the LANTIRN system for use by the tracking FLIR, which enables aiming of air-to-ground weapons from up to ten miles. Target tracking data is handed automatically to precision-guided weapons such as low-level laser-guided bombs, which can be guided to the target after release.

Powerplant

Finally, the Griffin-as a dedicated air superiority fighter, and therefore intended to outfight enemy air forces in their own airspace-was given a substantial focus on powerplant efficiency. The Griffin's two Walsingham GE35 thrust vectoring turbofans function as two-shaft engines featuring three-stage, low pressure fans (low pressure) and a six-stage high pressure compressor. The hot section features an annular combustor with a single-stage turbine unit and a two-stage low pressure turbine. The afterburner features a variable converging-diverging nozzle, as is commonplace with thrust vectoring aircraft.

The engines have a maximum thrust (with afterburners) of approximately 190 kN and a dry thrust of approximately 125 kN.
Improving engine reliability and ease of maintenance was a major objective of the design process for the turbofans. The engines have fewer parts than similar engines which not only helps improve reliability, but also facilitates replacing any damaged portions. All line-replaceable components in the engine can be removed and replaced with a set of six common hand tools. Additionally, the engine's health management system is designed to provide real time data to maintainers and aircrews on the ground, allowing them to troubleshoot problems and prepare replacement parts before the aircraft returns to base. This data stream can help to drastically reduce troubleshooting and replacement time.

[-West]

Price

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F-49 Griffin - $179,000,000
F-49 Griffin R2 - $181,000,000
F-49 Griffin EWC - $183,000,000
F-49 Griffin NF.1 - $185,000,000

[The Republic Of Ardenhelm]

The Republic Of Ardenhelm has carefully reviewed your information and decided to purchase a few of your jets

30 F-49 Griffin R2 - 180m NSD= 5,400m NSD
30 F-49 Griffin EWC - 183m NSD= 5,490m NSD
50 F-49 Griffin NF.1 - 189m NSD= 9,450m NSD

452 Beowulf Drive, Aketayunaak Ardenhelm
Office Of The Department Of The Army
Head General Brangr Thorvlson

[The Scandinvans]

The Glorious Empire of the Scandinvans would hereby like to purchase domestic production rights for the F-49 Griffin Air Superiority Fighter for the grand total of ten billion dollars.

Signed,
Imperial Steward,
Lord Erida