Light fighter facts for kids

The General Dynamics YF-16 and Northrop YF-17 were competing designs in the US Lightweight Fighter program.

A light fighter or lightweight fighter is a fighter aircraft towards the low end of the practical range of weight, cost, and complexity over which fighters are fielded. The light or lightweight fighter retains carefully selected competitive features, in order to provide cost-effective design and performance.

A well-designed lightweight fighter is able to match or better a heavier type plane-for-plane in many missions, and for lower cost. The lightweight class can therefore be strategically valuable.

In attempts to scale this efficiency to still lower cost, some manufacturers have in recent years adopted the term “light fighter” to also refer to light primarily air-to-ground attack aircraft, some of which are modified trainer designs. These lower cost lightweight attack aircraft have become known as light combat aircraft (LCA's), and are sometimes considered to include some multirole light fighters.

From 1926 the light fighter concept has been a regular thread in the development of fighter aircraft, with some notable designs entering large-scale use.

Design aims

A key design goal of light/lightweight fighter design is to satisfy standard air-to-air fighter effectiveness requirements at minimum cost. These criteria, in order of importance, are the ability to benefit from the element of surprise, to have numerical superiority in the air, to have superior maneuverability, and to possess adequate weapon systems effectiveness. Light fighters typically achieve a surprise advantage over larger aircraft due to smaller visual and radar signatures, which is important since in the majority of air-to-air kills, the element of surprise is dominant. Their comparative lower cost and higher reliability also allows for greater numbers per budget. Finally, while a single engine light fighter would typically only carry about half the weapons load of a heavy twin engine fighter, its surprise and maneuverability advantages often allow it to gain positional advantage to make better use of those weapons.

A requirement for low cost and therefore small fighters first arose in the period between World War I and World War II. Examples include several RAF interceptor designs from the interwar era and French "Jockey" aircraft of the immediate pre-World War II. None of these very light fighters enjoyed success into World War II, as they were too hampered in performance. Similar to the meaning of lightweight fighter today, during World War II the term “small fighter” was used to describe a single engine aircraft of competitive performance, range, and armament load, but with no unnecessary weight and cost.

Current trends

The issue of where a fighter is best positioned on the weight, cost, and complexity curve is still a contentious issue. Stealth technology (airframe and engine design that strongly reduce radar and heat signatures) seeks to emphasize the most important feature of fighter effectiveness, the element of surprise. So far it has been featured only on heavier and more expensive fighters, specifically the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. These fighters are not only stealthy, but also have information or combat awareness advantages due to active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, and data linking for external cuing of enemy position and friendly force status. Their combination of near invisibility, superior combat awareness, networking, and reliable Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles, enables them to get deep inside the enemy's OODA loop and destroy enemy fighters before their pilots are even aware of the threat.

Fighter drones (see Unmanned combat aerial vehicle) are under development, driven by the same tactical and cost effectiveness principles of light fighters. Their perceived advantages include not only cost and numbers, but the fact that their software based "pilot" does not require years of training, is always at the same peak effectiveness for each aircraft (unlike the human pilot case where the top 5% of pilots have historically scored about 50% of all kills), is not physiologically limited, and does not have a life to lose if the aircraft is lost in combat. Though there is cultural resistance to replacement of human fighter pilots and also concerns about entrusting life and death decisions to robot software, such fighter drones are expected to eventually be implemented.

Images for kids

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  Caudron C.714

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  The German Bf 109 was the second smallest major fighter of WWII, and produced in greater numbers than any fighter in history.

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  The Japanese A6M2 Zero was the lightest major fighter of WWII. Extremely maneuverable and long range, it was highly successful early in the war, though surpassed in the later stages.

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  The British Spitfire was only slightly larger than the Bf 109, and an effective match for it during the Battle of Britain.

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  The first jet light fighter in service was the German Heinkel He 162 of 1945.

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  A Luftwaffe Fiat G.91

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  Official roll-out of the United States Air Force's first Northrop F-5E Tiger II.

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  The lightweight, supersonic MiG-21 proved a dangerous opponent to heavier American fighters in the Vietnam War.

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  F-8 pilots insignia

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  The General Dynamics/Lockheed F-16 is the archetype of the modern, advanced light jet fighter, and is in service with many nations.

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  The Northrop F-20 Tigershark was an update of the F-5 intended for the export market, but lost out to the F-16 and never entered production.

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  HAL Tejas is the lightest fighter among current production light fighters

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  KAI FA-50

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  CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder

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  The versatile Gripen is the second lightest jet fighter currently in production, and features advanced canard-delta aerodynamics.

See also

In Spanish: Caza ligero para niños