F-22 can be hit by MiG-31 without even understanding anything

Even though it is a 4th generation fighter, the MiG-31 is still capable of attacking the F-22 when the US stealth aircraft has not yet understood what happened to it.

This comment was quoted by Russian media as saying that the Director of the Tikhomirov Institute of Research and Development of Instrumentation, Mr. Yuri Bely, said that to carry out this long-range attack, Russia is continuing to upgrade the MiG-31 to a new version with extremely modern equipment.

"The capabilities of the MiG-31 fighter have not been fully exploited, it remains unrivaled in some aspects. If we talk about the future of the MiG-31, the MiG manufacturer and my research institute have prepared proposals for a new product, but the final decision has not been made yet," Yuri Bely said.

MiG-31 fighter.

However, according to RIA Novosti in mid-2016, the MiG-31 will be upgraded to the MiG-31BM standard with the extremely powerful Zaslon-M radar system. According to this source, the Zaslon-M radar operates with a single frequency signal source, then the energy is transmitted to different emitting elements on the front of the antenna.

The Zaslon-M radar system works by connecting an antenna to a very powerful radio transmitter that sends out a short pulse of signal. These antennas are connected to a highly sensitive receiver that amplifies the signal reflected back from the target.

The Zaslon-M's main advantage is that it can monitor a much larger area than a traditional mechanically scanned radar. Its microprocessor continuously generates sub-beams, allowing it to track while scanning. It can also focus a small beam on a specific target to guide missiles using semi-active radar to attack.

Another advantage of the Zaslon-M radar is its relatively long search range and the number of targets detected at the same time is relatively large. In addition, the Zaslon-M radar is quite simple to manufacture and use. The strength of this radar is its surveillance range of up to 400km, tracking 24 targets and destroying 6 of them at the same time.

With Zaslon-M's capabilities, the MiG-31BM fighter has twice the surveillance range of the radar on the 5th generation stealth fighter F-22 and can launch an attack before the US fighter can understand what is happening.

Not only does the MiG-31BM have an impressive surveillance range, its weapons system is equally impressive. The MiG-31BM's main air-to-air weapon is the R-37 long-range missile, which is more powerful than the R-33. The R-37 has a range of 150 - 398km, a combined inertial and active radar guidance system, and a 60kg fragmentation warhead. The MiG-31BM carries more advanced short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles such as the R-73 and R-77.

The MiG-31BM can perform the mission of suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) with Kh-31P and Kh-58 anti-radar missiles. In air-to-ground missions, the MiG-31BM attacks and destroys targets with Kh-29 air-to-ground missiles or Kh-59 long-range air-to-ground cruise missiles.

Although the MiG-31 will be transformed after the upgrade, Russia will face some difficulties in implementing this upgrade package because currently, the MiG-31 production line has stopped operating since 1995, so modernizing this supersonic interceptor fighter is always a challenge for any repair factory.

In particular, most of the MiG-31s ​​in service with the Russian Air Force have been in operation for more than 30 years, and some that have been decommissioned for a long time are now being reused. However, RIA Novosti quoted a source from the manufacturer as saying that this is not a big problem for Russia at present.

According to Baodatviet