BLACKJACK SHARES ASPECTS OF U.S. B-1B AND XB-70

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R000300970001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 15, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN

SOVIET STM'10.CPP 2
s--
There are two tail cones on the aircraft that
appear to be tail warning devices.
As in the B-1B, each crew station has
individual ejection seats. The four
hatches can be seen from the outside.
The seats were not as comfortable as
those found in U. S. military aircraft,
but Fornell said that human engineer-
as evident in the rest of the cock-
i
ng w
pit. Sliding windows on either side of
the cockpit provided cool air during the
more than 15 min. Carlucci and Fornell
occupied it. Visibility from the cockpit
is reasonably good, according to For-
nell.
The Blackjack has a centrally mount-
ed control stick, as does the B-1B, rath-
er than a transport- or bomber-type
yoke. "The Soviets must rov have found
provide their
that it was better to
Blackjack pilots with fighter-type con-
trols, rather than bomber controls,"
Fornell said.
The stick, which has a slightly differ-
ent grip from that! of the B-IB, sits on
a pedestal slightly higher than the
ber' Each pilot has four
s
b
om
U. S.
. throttltAo?buj&~ home eft of his -??
PAM
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that rinse during takeoff and landing to prevent foreign
d
oors
takes feature
Mitt 29 engine air in object ingestion. Engine air is taken in through louvers in upper surface of wing root leading edge.
29 at Kubinka'alr close infrared base.
o AA-8 AA-10 Alamo long-range air-to-air missile (i
#h. -in. nf a nboard pylon) ftlf G and tw
7"iW R%7ft0.6d ;F2CHNOLOGYJAugust 15, 1988 t i
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Icickjack Shares Aspect
Of U. S. B-lB and XB-70
Soviet Blackjack bomber, with MiG-29 in fore The variable-sweep wing bomber, which fea-
ground, Is shown at Kubinka air base, USSR. tures a straight, highly tapered nose similar to
T he Soviet Blackjack bomber closely
resembles the U. S. Air Force B-1B
in its configuration as a strategic pene-
trator, but features the contours and
manufacturing smoothness of the ex-
perimental XB-70 built by North Amer-
ican Rockwell in the early 1960s,
according to a Defense Dept. official.
The Blackjack is similar in design and
layout to the Rockwell International B-
IB, but is closer in size to a Boeing B-52,
U. S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Gordon E.
Foruell told AVIATION WEEK & SPACE
TECHNOLOGY. The exterior skin of the
aircraft is far more aerodynamically clean
than most other Soviet aircraft, Foruell
said. Foruell, a graduate of the Air Force
test pilot training school at Edwards
AFB, Calif., was an observer of the XB-
70 program and has flown the B-lB.
U. S. Secretary of Defense Frank C.
Carlucci and Fornell, his senior military
aide, inspected one of the Soviet bomb-
ers during a visit to Kubinka air base, 40
mi. west of Moscow on Aug. 2 (Aw&ST
Aug. 8, p. 14).
Approved For--Release 2
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The Blackjack inspected by Fornell
and Carlucci was painted white with a
red star on the tail and had the number
12 stenciled on the crew hatch door on
the underside of the fuselage. It ap-
peared to be an early production version,
Fornell said. At least 11 bombers have
been produced and a number are opera-
tional in the Soviet air force.
the Anglo-French Concorde's, is 177 ft. long
and has a fully extended wingspan of 182 ft.
each rotary launcher is capable of hold-
ing eight SRAMs each. The Blackjack
observed during the visit did not appear
to have an external weapons capability,
Fornell said.
Access to the cockpit is through a
large hatch on the underside of the fu-
selage forward of the bomb bays using
a separate support equipment platform,
Fornell said. The access to the aircraft
INTERNAL WEAPONS BAYS is unlike that on the B-1B, which has
The Blackjack has two large internal its own electrically driven, self-con-
weapons bays, each of which can ac- tained ladder (Aw&sT Sept. 14, 1987,
commodate six AS-15 air-launched p.54).
cruise missiles (AL,CMs) or 12 short- There is a long corridor toward the
range attack missiles (SRAMs) on a ro- nose that passes through the avionics
Cary launcher. The launcher in the bays on both sides for 10-15 ft. before
aircraft inspected by Carlucci and For- reaching the defense and offensive elec-
nell was equipped with six ALCMs in tronic system operator positions. As in
the forward bomb bay, which took up the B-1B, the crewmember positions are
two-thirds of its length. Fornell said J on opposite sides of the aircraft. Fornell
the launcher is very similar to the B- was not allowed to linger in this area to
IB s. observe the electronic equipment.
The U. S. Air Force Strategic Air The interior layout of the Blackjack
Command's newest bomber, however, is similar to that of -The B-113, but is
has three i to and grey, Fornell said.
0/08/ :
08
 SOVIET S~WTM(f c 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000300970001-2
The throttles have a round lollipop
grasp, rather than the molded grasp
found on the B-1B, Fornell said.
A manual selectable wing-sweep
mechanism, on the right side of both
the pilot and copilot, allows for settings
of 20-65 deg. The forward wing sweep
position on the B-1B is 15 deg., and it
has a similar, 65-deg. aft position.
As the wing is swept forward, Fornell
said, a triangular piece of the middle
portion of the wing raises. The resulting
3 X 3-ft. vertical tab or fence resembles
a winglet on the Gulfstream 3.
Flight instrumentation, displayed di-
rectly in front of the pilot and copilot,
is similar to that of the Collins FD- 109
system found. in many corporate air-
.r?~"U
11-78 Midas aerial refueling tanker, photographed a Kubinka air base, became operational last year.
LThe tanker, a version of the 11-76 transport, will replace the M-4 Bison.
Close-up view shows drogue-type refueling pods on port side of rear fuselage of 11-78 aerial
refueling tanker. The aircraft Is equipped with three refueling pods.
MI-26 Halo heavy-lift helicopter, with eight-blade main rotor, can carry 85 combat-equipped troops
or a maximuApopeWd j Pi(I1g&&n2@00J0M86? ?$A DPIWG0't9R00
18 AV!ATI(8J WFFK & SIPACL ILCI NOL(,GY/August 15. 1988
craft. The aircraft symbol was dis-
played on the attitude indicator/flight
director, but there were no other visual
cues shown, Fornell said. There is a
large center console featuring!, engine in-
strumentation displayed in la vertical
tape format, similar to that favored by
the U. S. Air Force. There are very lim-
ited instrumentation and controls in the
cockpit overhead, and aircraft system
controls are located on the 14rge center
console between the seats, Fornell said.
INSTRUMENT CONSOLE
A CRT display, mounted hiigh on the
center instrument console, appeared to
be the caution and warning light panel,
Fornell said. There was no head-up dis-
play. A Soviet pilot who briefed Fornell
on the aircraft said there was no artifi-
cial presentation of the environment
outside the cockpit, but that the aircraft
did have a terrain-following capability.
Underneath the Blackjack's fuselage,
aft of the radome, is a chin-mounted
unit similar to that on McDonnell
Douglas RF-4s housing some kind of
electro-optical or infrared sensor, most
likely transmitted to the electronic war-
fare officers, Fornell said.
The engine inlet compartments on
the four-engine bomber feature splitters
on the divider between each intake,
with variable ramps on either side. For-
nell said they resembled those used on
the XP-70.
The Blackjack uses a fully movable
vertical tail for yaw control, rather than
the conventional rudder arrangement
found in most aircraft, especially those
with supersonic capabilities. The hori-
zontal stabilizers are mounted' at the in-
tersection of the aircraft's dorsal and
main fins, slightly higher than the B-
1B's stabilizers. Fornell said he saw evi-
dence that the Soviets have been
changing the design and position of the
fully movable horizontal stabilizer. For-
nell could not determine whether the
Blackjack had conventional flight con-
trols or a more advanced fly-by-wire sys-
tem found on some advanced U. S.
aircraft.
INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENTS .
Soviet air force officials confirmed earli-
er U. S. intelligence assessments of the
aircraft's design and performance speci-
fications, including a gross weight of
590,000 lb. and an unrefueled combat
radius of 7,300 kin. (3,930 naut. mi.).
The Soviet pilot who briefed Carlucci
and Foretell said that the aircraft did
not have an aerial refueling capability,
though U. S. intelligence has seen evi-
dence of a drogue-and-probe system,
with the probe located forward of the
bomber's cockpit. Fornell said it ap-
peared the Soviets were still sorting out
)3O9Jft044 rocess for the aircraft. C1