Fighter jets have always played the role of guardian angels for ground troops during combat. In most Hollywood movies, ground support can be seen calling for close air support (CAS) when they are ambushed. Within minutes, a fighter aircraft descends from the heavens taking out most, if not all of the enemies. In most combat missions, the role of a fighter jet is to maintain their availability of CAS for ground forces all while maintaining air superiority in the skies above.
During close air support missions, a fighter jet can descend on a battlefield in the blink of an eye and vanish after doing the job. But flying in an active combat zone is not exactly a walk in the park considering the deployment of enemy anti-aircraft guns or Surface-to-Air missiles. Similarly, if a fighter jet is engaged in a dogfight with another aircraft, there is always a risk of being hit by one or multiple projectiles. This brings us to an important question, are fighter jets armored?
Fighter jets are not armored simply because the added weight of armor would counteract with their primary intent of flying. armor, as we see in tanks or other ground combat vehicles has several sheets of heavy alloy metals that restrict bullets, shrapnel and other such projectiles from piercing through. However, since one of the primary design constraints of any aircraft, including fighter jets, is weight; adding armor is not a viable option.
In this article we will answer some important questions about the possible damages to a fighter jet during combat missions as well as the safety mechanisms and survivability of a fighter jet in case it gets hit. We will also have an overview of damage tolerance of a common fighter jet and try to learn about the defensive countermeasures used during combat.
Table of Contents
What are the possible damages to a fighter jet in combat?
An old saying goes “all is fair in love and war” which holds true to this day. Combat situations are unpredictable and therefore, fighter jet manufacturers continuously learn from battle experiences to improve safety and survivability of fighter jets and pilots.
The combat role of a fighter jet such as CAS, air superiority, reconnaissance, etcetera, determine the risks that need to be mitigated. However, since fighter jets are not armored, any projectile (bullet or missile) has the capability to rip through the aircraft skin and inflict critical damage.
Let us have a look at safety and protection measures available in fighter jets.
Are fighter jet cockpits armored?
Cockpit frame of most modern fighter jets is built from reinforced alloys and can protect the pilot from any engine damage behind the cockpit, but it is not armored.
The A-10 “Warthog” and Sukhoi SU-34 are probably the only in-service fighter jets known to have some form of armor in the cockpit. The primary role of A-10 is to provide CAS, and it is therefore, susceptible to enemy fire from the ground. To protect the pilot, its cockpit has a titanium shell commonly known as “titanium bathtub”.
Is the glass canopy of a fighter jet bulletproof?
The canopy of a fighter jet is not bullet-proof. However, the canopy of fighter jets is built to be strong enough to handle high structural stresses at super-sonic speeds. The canopy is also shatter-proof to protect fighter pilots from flying objects, such as birds.
Fuel tanks safety in fighter jets
Imagine a bullet or shrapnel being able to pierce through the metallic fuel tanks of a combat aircraft, the result would be catastrophic. So, one may think that fuel tanks of a fighter jet should be armored, but that is not the case. Instead, they are self-sealing fuel tanks which can repair a reasonably-sized puncture instantly. This self-sealing technology has saved the lives of many a pilot since World War-II era!
Are fighter jet engines protected from projectiles?
Engines of a fighter jet are not armored either. The engine casing, however, is built from reinforced alloys that are strong enough to keep an engine explosion contained within. Therefore, the chances of an engine getting critically damaged from a small projectile are very slim.
Still, most modern-day fighter aircraft can sustain quite a bit of damage during combat, there always is a question of how much damage can be sustained.
How much damage can a fighter jet sustain?
The damage tolerance of each aircraft is crucially dependent upon its design. If the aircraft has multiple redundant control surfaces like the F-22 Raptor (canted rudder with elevators), it can sustain damage to one or multiple surfaces and still complete its mission.
However, for a fighter aircraft without redundancy of the horizontal elevator, completing a mission can become a challenge if the elevator gets damaged.
Also, let’s consider the A-10 ‘Warthog’ which has two externally high-mounted engines so that it can complete its mission even if one engine gets damaged in combat.
A fighter aircraft can sustain multiple types of damage such as physical damage to control surfaces, damage to the internal hydraulic system, pneumatic systems, or critical avionics systems.
Can fighter jets survive missile strikes?
With the advancement in metallurgical sciences, the skin and control surfaces of a fighter jet do not get ruptured or blown-off when hit with a reasonably-sized projectile. A fighter jet control surface continues to function without disintegrating unless it suffers significant material loss.
In some cases, aviation miracles have also been reported; for example, in 1983, an F-15 Eagle managed to land safely with only one wing. Although it seems impossible, it tells us a lot about damage sustenance of modern fighter jets.
What About damages on control surfaces (rudder, wings, & elevator)?
Internal systems of an aircraft are built to be redundant. For example, most fighter jet aircraft have two independent hydraulic systems.
All critical control surfaces such as ailerons, rudder and elevators of a fighter jet can still be controlled by the pilot even if one hydraulic system fails. Similarly, a certain degree of redundancy in pneumatic and electrical systems ensures that the fighter jet stays battle-worthy despite being damaged.
Redundancy of Critical Avionics and instruments
Avionics systems of modern fighter jets are made up of complex, interlinked LRUs which can take over the function of other LRUs in case some get damaged.
LRU simply stands for “line-replaceable component”, and is a modular component of an aircraft that is designed to be replaced quickly at the operating location. This way an airplane can continue to function, even if some systems fail.
During combat, a fighter pilot does not have to worry about switching systems manually, as they can take over each other’s jobs seamlessly.
Despite all the measures to ensure pilot safety and aircraft survivability, flying a fighter jet with damages is no easy task.
How does a pilot do it then, you ask? Well, here is how.
What does a fighter pilot do after being hit?
So, the first thing a fighter pilot does after being hit is to look in his rear-view mirrors and assess the damage taken by aircraft. Often, a pilot can tell right-away which control surface has been hit by the aircraft attitude or manual trim that he is forced to apply immediately, to stabilize the aircraft.
As most modern fighter jets have glass cockpits, the Flight Displays immediately require pilot attention. If a critical system has been damaged, a master caution light along with a chime tells the pilot to attend the malfunction first. Based on the available information via flight display and flying characteristics of the fighter jet, the pilot decides on continuing the mission, aborting it or pulling the eject cord for a bailout.
There is a common saying in military aviation that a fighter jet should not get detected but if it gets detected, it should not get hit. This is where the defensive countermeasures and stealth capabilities of fighter jets come into play.
Stealth Capabilities and defensive countermeasures
To avoid being detected, a fighter jet must have a low radar cross-sectional area commonly referred to as ‘Stealth’. A fighter jet can penetrate deep into enemy territory if it is undetectable, inflict damage and safely return.
But what if a fighter jet enters an active combat zone while flying within the visual attack range of the enemy? This is where avoidance maneuvers and defensive systems become important. Fighter jets can fire-off flares to avoid heat-seeking missiles and metallic chaff to confuse the radar lock of a missile.
Fourth-generation fighter jets utilize Electronic Countermeasure (ECM) suits which provide active radar jamming in a battlefield. These suits also help a fighter pilot to completely jam enemy radar and engaged enemy fighter jets, leaving them with no situational awareness of the combat.
Conclusion and Summary
Fighter jets are designed to be light, agile, maneuverable, and lethal flying fighting machines that cannot afford the added weight of armor. Since most multi-role fighter jets are not required to stay engaged with ground troops for longer periods of time, the addition of armor would only hamper their maneuverability.
In this day and age, owing to the defensive countermeasures available in fighter jets, it’s not an easy task to target one and even if it does get hit, there’s a high probability that it stays airborne.
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