Questers
23-01-2008, 15:14
BLACKBURN BLACKADDER MSE.2
Type: Maritime Strike
Overview: The Blackburn Blackadder Maritime/Strike/Electronic Warfare 2 is the RAF and RN's primary strike aircraft, designed for a variety of missions. Capable of mach 2.1, she can penetrate enemy air and sea defences to deliver a wide variety of munitions, from freefall bombs to anti ship missiles. With her powerful electronic warfare systems, high speed, and good complement of weapons, a squadron of Blackadder aircraft is powerfully defended against surface to air attack. While its name indicates otherwise, the Blackadder really is a multirole bombing aircraft. It is capable of the following roles.
Tactical Bombing
Strategic/Nuclear Bombing
Refuelling (with correct module MSE.2R)
Electronic Attack and Defence
Suppression of Enemy Air Defences
Armed Reconaissance (photo, with correct module (MSE.2PH)
Training
Anti-Shipping Operations
Anti-Submarine Operations (with correct variant, MSE.2SW )
History: The Blackadder's history stems from the fact that Coastal Command never really had a fast, low level attack aircraft to directly attack aircraft with. True, they had the Brigand and the Cossack, but none of these were large enough to carry significant amounts of missiles nor were really capable of long range operations, at least not on the scale that a tanker-assisted Blackadder can. Larger aircraft were available in large numbers to Coastal Command, but for anti-surface operations RAF-CC had quickly realised that turboprop aircraft such as the Battleaxe were not suitable to attack battlegroups with strong air and surface to air defences.
Therefore, the Blackadder was born, to replace the Brigand in naval service as the medium bomber (as it was more suited to ground roles), but also to provide a secondary low level strike option that was more capable in the strategic role. A better tactical land based bomber would be the Blackburn Brigand, as the Blackadder excels in naval roles. Only deployable from large airbases with at least two kilometres of runway, she is a large aircraft destined to deafen those in the houses she thunders over on a nuclear training approach. Nevertheless the Blackadder is symbolic of Coastal Command and Bomber Command and their respective legacies.
Blackadders were produced in large quantities, to fill anti-shipping, nuclear strike, and some photo-reconaissance missions, with smaller numbers of tankers and armed reconaissance variants. Sometime into production, the Praetonian Royal Aircraft Company, looking for investment, and in cooperation with the Praetonian Government offered Blackburn a deal: they would procure 5,000 Blackadder MSE.2s for a 50% share in the aircraft. Normally this would be refused, but Praetonian-Questarian relations allow some more than conventional deals to be allowed, and H.M Governments easily came to an amicable conclusion, and as of now, the RAC owns a 50% share in the further development and export of the Blackburn Blackadder, including a number of factories in Praetonia which have proven to be more efficient at turning out aircraft than their Questarian counterparts.
Design: The Blackadder was chosen to be swing wing because it was believed a variable geometry aircraft would be perfect for the roles envisioned for the Blackadder: that it needed to travel at fast and low speeds, and a swing wing setup would be most effective for this. Furthermore, at the speeds travelled by the Blackadder it was considered that a turbofan engine would be the most effective. Fortunately, Blackburn had the most experience with large turbofan engines in the aviation industry, having designed the Brigand and drawn up many plans for large swing wing strategic bombers and even tactical bombers.
Weaponswise, primarily the Blackadder is primarily an anti shipping platform. She has two wing pylons, one starboard and one port, each capable of carrying 6,500kg worth of munitions or fuel. Each pylon can mount either a light missile - such as Harpoon or Kh-35 - on each side of the pylon or a heavy missile underneath each pylon. This leaves the internal bomb bay, with 12,000kg worth of munitions. Generally the bomb bay carries a rotary missile launcher that stacks up to six missiles and launches them via a revolver system. These missiles can be any that fit the dimensions of the bomb bay: 8.5 metres long, 2.95 metres wide, and 2.95 metres tall. This means that the internal rotary launcher (designation REL.55) can mount, amongst others, the following missiles:
Kh-35 (AS-35)
Kh-55 (AS-15)
AGM-86
BGM-109
AGM-84
Exocet
RBS-15
C-802
BrahMos (only four, due to weight)
On the surface it would appear that given the bomb bay dimensions, larger missiles could be included, such as the ubiquitous Kh-22 or KSR-5. However, missiles this large and heavy pose some significant problems. Firstly, they are too heavy for the rotary system to carry in any large quantity (such as the Brahmos, which is too large to carry the full rotary complement), and secondly they are too large to be rotated by the system. That said, given that the three missile (AS.145) setup is often used by Coastal Command, it is therefore possible: one missile is mounted onthe bottom of the rotary system and is launched conventionally (which means that it is no longer really a rotary launcher...), therefore allowing a much larger missile to be mounted, albeit in smaller numbers, inside the aircraft. Alternatively a heavy can be fitted on a single centreline mount on the bottom of the bomb-bay; this is the case with the AS.145.
In addition to this, instead of a rotary launcher, a single I Band 'BALL SACK' AESA radar can be mounted for naval surveillance operations, capable of 450 kilometres detection range and able to track and mantain and transfer data of up to 108 small targets and 32 large targets. Other weapons can also be mounted on the pylons but typically Coastal Command will provide their reconaissance aircraft with defensive ECM to increase their protection from surface to air weapons and enemy aircraft. It takes six hours to replace the rotary system with the RADAR, and alot of care should be taken as the large electronic device is certainly quite dangerous to the ground crew around it.
The inbuilt electronics (without the AEP) upgrade are some what lacking in resolution and accuracy, but are powerful and fairly easy to maintain (although problems have been expressed with the ECM equipment's reliability in the field, as it is prone to breaking down after heavy use.) The none-AEP SOCK HOLE detection RADAR is capable of a 200km tracking range, but given the missile types are often inertial, and as the MSE.2 will often be flying low, this is more than adequate for its role. The defensive ECM systems directly attack the tracking/RADAR nose of an incoming missile and, so far, are successful in their role of defending an aircraft from missile attack. EW and ECM systems are also mounted on the aircraft to assist it in 'burning through' enemy jamming and also mouting barrage jamming attacks itself.
Variants: Three variants are available as opposed to the standard MSE.2 variant.
MSE.2R: This variant is a refuelling aircraft, that can carry 40,000kg of aircraft in external and internal tanks, capable of refuelling any aircraft with a refuelling probe. All weapons and most systems are removed, except defensive electronics. Two thousand kilometres longer range allows the MSE.2R to 'hop ahead' to provide on-station refuelling. One of the most critical changes to the MSE.2R is to the landing gear, which mounts the aircraft higher in the air to avoid having its large fuel tanks damaged.
MSE.2PH: This reconaissance variant swaps out anti-shipping systems with detection systems, and the main bomb bays with a whole host of photo reconaissance equipment. Not designed for fighting, but can carry out limited photo armed-reconaissance missions with its two hardpoints carrying anti-radiation missiles.
MSE.2SW: This anti submarine variant allows the Blackadder to carry out limited anti-submarine operations, with SONAR bouys and anti-submarine weapons and systems.
Enhanced Avionics Suite: After the Royal Aircraft Company bought a 50% share in the development of the Blackadder, the Questarian and Praetonian militaries offered Blackburn and the RAC a deal, which also would have increased export possibilities. Both the RFC, RAF, and Praetonian/Questarian Coastal Command were somewhat displeased with the original electronics attached to the Blackadder. Although they were not exactly underpowered, both the Questarian and Praetonian military's believed that better electronics could be forged for what they intended to be their frontline naval bomber, and both services with their long traditions and egos would not settle for being second best on the international stage. Therefore it was necessary that superior avionics be developed to keep the Blackadder on top.
As such, RAC worked with Blackburn in an 'Enhanced Avionics Program (EAP)' - it was found that new avionics were not needed, but the original designs were careless and crude. The enhanced versions of the new avionics were capable of between 5 and 75% more efficiency, at a great financial cost to RAC and at great embarrasment to Blackburn. The EAP can be purchased at the listed price for a more effective avionics platform. The enhanced defensive ECM system was found to be 15% more effective, the naval detection radar capable of tracking many more targets (from 8 to 42) at ranges of up to 335km (a 135km improvement). The EAP detection RADAR, while sharing the same name (apart from a Mk.2 designation), is in fact a vastly expanded AESA radar, capable of large scale EW attack, primarily for effective jamming on fleet AEW. Communications and GPS systems were updated to be more secure and faster and terrain following radar was more precise.
Image: [Link] (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd172/Hoodtan/5b5ea2ea.png)
Length: 49.7m
Wingspan: (Variable Geometry)
Spread: 38.5m
Swept: 28m
Height: 9.8m
Fuselage Height: 3.1m
Weight: 141,180kg maximum
Empty Weight: 65,000kg
Normal Weight: 125,515kg
Maximum Take-Off Weight: 141,180kg
Payload: 25,000kg
10 x AS.160 anti-shipping missiles (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13393004&postcount=3) OR
3 x AS.145 anti-shipping missiles (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13393003&postcount=2) OR
6 x AS.160 + 2 x AS.145 anti-shipping missiles OR
1 x AG/S I Band Search RADAR 'BALL SACK'
Various numbers of freefall and laser-guided munitions
4 x tactical or strategic nuclear freefall bombs
Various anti-radiation missiles
Various other weapons
Propulsion: 2 x FAT-FORTY BKB-40 Afterburning Turbofans, 280kN each
Range: 3.5-10,000km
Ferry Range: 10,000km
Combat Range: 5,000km
Combat Radius: 3,500km
Maximum Altitude: 19,000m
Operational Altitude: 12,000m
Maximum Speed: 2,625km/h
Rate of Climb: 17m/s
Carrier Capable: No
CATOBAR Capable: No
NBC Protected: Yes
Construction:
Steel
Aluminium Alloys
Crew (List): 4
Pilot
Co-Pilot
Defensive Systems Operator
Bombardier
Avionics:
AG/S SOCK HOLE Naval Detection RADAR
NA/S ROUND TABLE Navigation and Guidance System
NA/S HOT TRAP Terrain following RADAR
EP/AS DELICIOUS CAKE ECM System
EW/AS CHRIS HANSEN EW System
SIN/C CHARLIE PAPA GPS + Inertial Systems
Price (MSE.2/Normal): $100,000,000
Price (MSE.2R): $75,000,000
Price (MSE.2PH): $110,000,000
Price (MSE.2SW): $135,000,000
Price (Enhanced Avionics Suite): +$100,000,000
In Service MSE.2:
In Service MSE.2AEP:
Questers: 6,500 (Bomber Command, 11,850 (Coastal Command), 350 (Royal Training Corps)
Praetonia: 5,000
South Africa: 5,000 (South African Air Force)
Akimonad: 1,000
The People'sFreedom: 4,000
Brydog: 250 (Brydog Federal Air Force)
The People'sFreedom: 250
Chevrokia: 1,020
Tyrandis: 200 (Coast Guard)
In Service MSE.2R:
Questers: 500 (Bomber Command), 1,000 Coastal Command)
Akimonad: 50
In Service MSE.2PH:
Questers: 850 (Bomber command), 25 Royal Training Corps)
Akimonad: 2
The People'sFreedom: 250
In Service MSE.2SW:
Questers: 350( Coastal Command)
The People'sFreedom: 250
Chevrokia: 120
Also AVAILABLE AT ADEN STOREFRONT! (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=541629)
N.B: When ordering, please post what variants you are buying (if any) and if you want your aircraft with the AEP upgrade (extra 100,000,000) or not. Thanks.
Type: Maritime Strike
Overview: The Blackburn Blackadder Maritime/Strike/Electronic Warfare 2 is the RAF and RN's primary strike aircraft, designed for a variety of missions. Capable of mach 2.1, she can penetrate enemy air and sea defences to deliver a wide variety of munitions, from freefall bombs to anti ship missiles. With her powerful electronic warfare systems, high speed, and good complement of weapons, a squadron of Blackadder aircraft is powerfully defended against surface to air attack. While its name indicates otherwise, the Blackadder really is a multirole bombing aircraft. It is capable of the following roles.
Tactical Bombing
Strategic/Nuclear Bombing
Refuelling (with correct module MSE.2R)
Electronic Attack and Defence
Suppression of Enemy Air Defences
Armed Reconaissance (photo, with correct module (MSE.2PH)
Training
Anti-Shipping Operations
Anti-Submarine Operations (with correct variant, MSE.2SW )
History: The Blackadder's history stems from the fact that Coastal Command never really had a fast, low level attack aircraft to directly attack aircraft with. True, they had the Brigand and the Cossack, but none of these were large enough to carry significant amounts of missiles nor were really capable of long range operations, at least not on the scale that a tanker-assisted Blackadder can. Larger aircraft were available in large numbers to Coastal Command, but for anti-surface operations RAF-CC had quickly realised that turboprop aircraft such as the Battleaxe were not suitable to attack battlegroups with strong air and surface to air defences.
Therefore, the Blackadder was born, to replace the Brigand in naval service as the medium bomber (as it was more suited to ground roles), but also to provide a secondary low level strike option that was more capable in the strategic role. A better tactical land based bomber would be the Blackburn Brigand, as the Blackadder excels in naval roles. Only deployable from large airbases with at least two kilometres of runway, she is a large aircraft destined to deafen those in the houses she thunders over on a nuclear training approach. Nevertheless the Blackadder is symbolic of Coastal Command and Bomber Command and their respective legacies.
Blackadders were produced in large quantities, to fill anti-shipping, nuclear strike, and some photo-reconaissance missions, with smaller numbers of tankers and armed reconaissance variants. Sometime into production, the Praetonian Royal Aircraft Company, looking for investment, and in cooperation with the Praetonian Government offered Blackburn a deal: they would procure 5,000 Blackadder MSE.2s for a 50% share in the aircraft. Normally this would be refused, but Praetonian-Questarian relations allow some more than conventional deals to be allowed, and H.M Governments easily came to an amicable conclusion, and as of now, the RAC owns a 50% share in the further development and export of the Blackburn Blackadder, including a number of factories in Praetonia which have proven to be more efficient at turning out aircraft than their Questarian counterparts.
Design: The Blackadder was chosen to be swing wing because it was believed a variable geometry aircraft would be perfect for the roles envisioned for the Blackadder: that it needed to travel at fast and low speeds, and a swing wing setup would be most effective for this. Furthermore, at the speeds travelled by the Blackadder it was considered that a turbofan engine would be the most effective. Fortunately, Blackburn had the most experience with large turbofan engines in the aviation industry, having designed the Brigand and drawn up many plans for large swing wing strategic bombers and even tactical bombers.
Weaponswise, primarily the Blackadder is primarily an anti shipping platform. She has two wing pylons, one starboard and one port, each capable of carrying 6,500kg worth of munitions or fuel. Each pylon can mount either a light missile - such as Harpoon or Kh-35 - on each side of the pylon or a heavy missile underneath each pylon. This leaves the internal bomb bay, with 12,000kg worth of munitions. Generally the bomb bay carries a rotary missile launcher that stacks up to six missiles and launches them via a revolver system. These missiles can be any that fit the dimensions of the bomb bay: 8.5 metres long, 2.95 metres wide, and 2.95 metres tall. This means that the internal rotary launcher (designation REL.55) can mount, amongst others, the following missiles:
Kh-35 (AS-35)
Kh-55 (AS-15)
AGM-86
BGM-109
AGM-84
Exocet
RBS-15
C-802
BrahMos (only four, due to weight)
On the surface it would appear that given the bomb bay dimensions, larger missiles could be included, such as the ubiquitous Kh-22 or KSR-5. However, missiles this large and heavy pose some significant problems. Firstly, they are too heavy for the rotary system to carry in any large quantity (such as the Brahmos, which is too large to carry the full rotary complement), and secondly they are too large to be rotated by the system. That said, given that the three missile (AS.145) setup is often used by Coastal Command, it is therefore possible: one missile is mounted onthe bottom of the rotary system and is launched conventionally (which means that it is no longer really a rotary launcher...), therefore allowing a much larger missile to be mounted, albeit in smaller numbers, inside the aircraft. Alternatively a heavy can be fitted on a single centreline mount on the bottom of the bomb-bay; this is the case with the AS.145.
In addition to this, instead of a rotary launcher, a single I Band 'BALL SACK' AESA radar can be mounted for naval surveillance operations, capable of 450 kilometres detection range and able to track and mantain and transfer data of up to 108 small targets and 32 large targets. Other weapons can also be mounted on the pylons but typically Coastal Command will provide their reconaissance aircraft with defensive ECM to increase their protection from surface to air weapons and enemy aircraft. It takes six hours to replace the rotary system with the RADAR, and alot of care should be taken as the large electronic device is certainly quite dangerous to the ground crew around it.
The inbuilt electronics (without the AEP) upgrade are some what lacking in resolution and accuracy, but are powerful and fairly easy to maintain (although problems have been expressed with the ECM equipment's reliability in the field, as it is prone to breaking down after heavy use.) The none-AEP SOCK HOLE detection RADAR is capable of a 200km tracking range, but given the missile types are often inertial, and as the MSE.2 will often be flying low, this is more than adequate for its role. The defensive ECM systems directly attack the tracking/RADAR nose of an incoming missile and, so far, are successful in their role of defending an aircraft from missile attack. EW and ECM systems are also mounted on the aircraft to assist it in 'burning through' enemy jamming and also mouting barrage jamming attacks itself.
Variants: Three variants are available as opposed to the standard MSE.2 variant.
MSE.2R: This variant is a refuelling aircraft, that can carry 40,000kg of aircraft in external and internal tanks, capable of refuelling any aircraft with a refuelling probe. All weapons and most systems are removed, except defensive electronics. Two thousand kilometres longer range allows the MSE.2R to 'hop ahead' to provide on-station refuelling. One of the most critical changes to the MSE.2R is to the landing gear, which mounts the aircraft higher in the air to avoid having its large fuel tanks damaged.
MSE.2PH: This reconaissance variant swaps out anti-shipping systems with detection systems, and the main bomb bays with a whole host of photo reconaissance equipment. Not designed for fighting, but can carry out limited photo armed-reconaissance missions with its two hardpoints carrying anti-radiation missiles.
MSE.2SW: This anti submarine variant allows the Blackadder to carry out limited anti-submarine operations, with SONAR bouys and anti-submarine weapons and systems.
Enhanced Avionics Suite: After the Royal Aircraft Company bought a 50% share in the development of the Blackadder, the Questarian and Praetonian militaries offered Blackburn and the RAC a deal, which also would have increased export possibilities. Both the RFC, RAF, and Praetonian/Questarian Coastal Command were somewhat displeased with the original electronics attached to the Blackadder. Although they were not exactly underpowered, both the Questarian and Praetonian military's believed that better electronics could be forged for what they intended to be their frontline naval bomber, and both services with their long traditions and egos would not settle for being second best on the international stage. Therefore it was necessary that superior avionics be developed to keep the Blackadder on top.
As such, RAC worked with Blackburn in an 'Enhanced Avionics Program (EAP)' - it was found that new avionics were not needed, but the original designs were careless and crude. The enhanced versions of the new avionics were capable of between 5 and 75% more efficiency, at a great financial cost to RAC and at great embarrasment to Blackburn. The EAP can be purchased at the listed price for a more effective avionics platform. The enhanced defensive ECM system was found to be 15% more effective, the naval detection radar capable of tracking many more targets (from 8 to 42) at ranges of up to 335km (a 135km improvement). The EAP detection RADAR, while sharing the same name (apart from a Mk.2 designation), is in fact a vastly expanded AESA radar, capable of large scale EW attack, primarily for effective jamming on fleet AEW. Communications and GPS systems were updated to be more secure and faster and terrain following radar was more precise.
Image: [Link] (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd172/Hoodtan/5b5ea2ea.png)
Length: 49.7m
Wingspan: (Variable Geometry)
Spread: 38.5m
Swept: 28m
Height: 9.8m
Fuselage Height: 3.1m
Weight: 141,180kg maximum
Empty Weight: 65,000kg
Normal Weight: 125,515kg
Maximum Take-Off Weight: 141,180kg
Payload: 25,000kg
10 x AS.160 anti-shipping missiles (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13393004&postcount=3) OR
3 x AS.145 anti-shipping missiles (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13393003&postcount=2) OR
6 x AS.160 + 2 x AS.145 anti-shipping missiles OR
1 x AG/S I Band Search RADAR 'BALL SACK'
Various numbers of freefall and laser-guided munitions
4 x tactical or strategic nuclear freefall bombs
Various anti-radiation missiles
Various other weapons
Propulsion: 2 x FAT-FORTY BKB-40 Afterburning Turbofans, 280kN each
Range: 3.5-10,000km
Ferry Range: 10,000km
Combat Range: 5,000km
Combat Radius: 3,500km
Maximum Altitude: 19,000m
Operational Altitude: 12,000m
Maximum Speed: 2,625km/h
Rate of Climb: 17m/s
Carrier Capable: No
CATOBAR Capable: No
NBC Protected: Yes
Construction:
Steel
Aluminium Alloys
Crew (List): 4
Pilot
Co-Pilot
Defensive Systems Operator
Bombardier
Avionics:
AG/S SOCK HOLE Naval Detection RADAR
NA/S ROUND TABLE Navigation and Guidance System
NA/S HOT TRAP Terrain following RADAR
EP/AS DELICIOUS CAKE ECM System
EW/AS CHRIS HANSEN EW System
SIN/C CHARLIE PAPA GPS + Inertial Systems
Price (MSE.2/Normal): $100,000,000
Price (MSE.2R): $75,000,000
Price (MSE.2PH): $110,000,000
Price (MSE.2SW): $135,000,000
Price (Enhanced Avionics Suite): +$100,000,000
In Service MSE.2:
In Service MSE.2AEP:
Questers: 6,500 (Bomber Command, 11,850 (Coastal Command), 350 (Royal Training Corps)
Praetonia: 5,000
South Africa: 5,000 (South African Air Force)
Akimonad: 1,000
The People'sFreedom: 4,000
Brydog: 250 (Brydog Federal Air Force)
The People'sFreedom: 250
Chevrokia: 1,020
Tyrandis: 200 (Coast Guard)
In Service MSE.2R:
Questers: 500 (Bomber Command), 1,000 Coastal Command)
Akimonad: 50
In Service MSE.2PH:
Questers: 850 (Bomber command), 25 Royal Training Corps)
Akimonad: 2
The People'sFreedom: 250
In Service MSE.2SW:
Questers: 350( Coastal Command)
The People'sFreedom: 250
Chevrokia: 120
Also AVAILABLE AT ADEN STOREFRONT! (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=541629)
N.B: When ordering, please post what variants you are buying (if any) and if you want your aircraft with the AEP upgrade (extra 100,000,000) or not. Thanks.