In current military parlance, a strike fighter is a multirole combat aircraft designed to operate both as an attack aircraft and as an air superiority fighter. As a category, it is distinct from fighter-bombers. It is closely related to the concept of interdictor aircraft, but it puts more emphasis on aerial combat capabilities as a multirole combat aircraft. Examples of contemporary American strike fighters are the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
History edit
Beginning in the 1940s, the term "strike fighter" was occasionally used in navies to refer to fighter aircraft capable of performing air-to-surface strikes, such as the Westland Wyvern,[1] Blackburn Firebrand[2] and Blackburn Firecrest.
The term "light weight tactical strike fighter (LWTSF)" was used to describe the aircraft to meet the December 1953 NATO specification NBMR-1.[3] Amongst the designs submitted to the competition were the Aerfer Sagittario 2, Breguet Br.1001 Taon, Dassault Étendard VI, Fiat G.91 and Sud-Est Baroudeur.
The term entered normal use in the United States Navy[4] by the end of the 1970s, becoming the official[5] description of the new McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. In 1983, the U.S. Navy even renamed each existing Fighter Attack Squadron to Strike Fighter Squadron to emphasize[6] the air-to-surface mission (as the "Fighter Attack" designation was confused with the "Fighter" designation, which flew pure air-to-air missions).
This name quickly spread to non-maritime use. When the F-15E Strike Eagle came into service, it was originally called a "dual role fighter",[7] but it instead quickly became known as a "strike fighter".
Joint Strike Fighter edit
In 1995, the U.S. military's Joint Advanced Strike Technology program changed its name to the Joint Strike Fighter program.[8] The project consequently resulted in the development of the F-35 Lightning II family of fifth generation multirole fighters to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability.
Modern strike fighters edit
See also edit
References edit
Citations edit
- ^ "Aerospace Engineering, Volume 6." Institute of the Aerospace Sciences, 1947.
- ^ The Aeroplane: Volume 75, 1948.
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo; Matricardi, Paolo (1980). Combat Aircraft 1945–1960. Maidenhead: Sampson Low Guides. p. 273. ISBN 0-562-00136-0.
- ^ "Inside story of the troubled F/A-18." Popular Science, Volume 223, Issue 4, October 1983. ISSN 0161-7370. Retrieved: 23 December 2011. Quote: ... can fly either as a fighter or an attack plane [...] In Navy parlance, it is a strike fighter.
- ^ "The FY 1981 military programs." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Volume 36, Issue 6, June 1980, p. 38. ISSN 0096-3402. Retrieved: 23 December 2011.
- ^ Polmar 1997, p. 343.
- ^ Defence Update (International), Issues 79–84, p. 43.
- ^ "Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)." globalsecurity.org. Retrieved: 2 February 2011.
Bibliography edit
- Polmar, Norman. The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1997. ISBN 978-1-59114-685-8.