Lodamun

[imperialpearl]

Hemlock-Rogway and Burrell consortium unveils LFX-100 render
Nexus AeroWorks, the Hemlock-Rogway and Burrell Systems-led consortium, has released its render of the LFX-100 Future Fighter Concept, alongside broader details surrounding the aircraft's potential capabilities.

ⓘ: Nexus AeroWorks' render of the LFX-100 Stealth Fighter

Nexus AeroWorks, the consortium formed by Hemlock-Rogway and Burrell Systems to work collaboratively with the Armed Forces Projects Agency (AFPA), has released digital renders of the proposed design of the supposedly stealth LFX-100 advanced fighter. In its recent defence review, the Department of Defence noted the importance of stealth in ensuring Lodamun was capable of maintaining a critical edge among potential adversaries both regionally and internationally. The LFX-100 program had been born out of an understanding among the nation’s leading defence firms that although Lodamun’s current and capable fleet of LF-16s, LF-35s and LF-15s would ultimately form the backbone of the nation’s air dominance platform, there was ultimately a need for a “future-proof” aircraft, capable of meeting the demands and rigours of the future aerospace landscape. In selecting the LFX-100, the Department of Defence (through the Defence Procurement Administration), took a particular risk as it represents the first time that the agency had approved the acquisition of a piece of equipment prior to its completion. Nexus AeroWork’s render depicts the aircraft with a sleek and angular profile. In stark contrast to existing designs such as the LF-15 and the LF-16, which primarily possess rounded designs, the LFX-100, as depicted by the consortium, features sharp, faceted edges, which the companies reason would be designed and engineered to deflect radar waves, thus minimising the aircraft’s radar cross-section. Recalling prior comments from the consortium’s CEO, Ronald Moore, the company's engineers were primarily aiming to have the aircraft’s radar cross-section exist between the size of a bumblebee or a hand-held blender. “We want to ensure that the aircraft we are building for the Lodamese Air Force is difficult to detect. Although it is impossible for us to achieve truth stealth, we can push a design that ensures that the aircraft’s cross-section mirrors that of a bumblebee, a hand-held blender, or something in between.” Moore remarked.

Beyond the aircraft’s sharp edges, the render also points to the potential of the aircraft possessing an internal weapons bay. Such a design has become characteristic of most stealth aircraft, with the LFX-100 borrowing numerous concepts and design ideas from the X-43 Program. Just as with the Lodamese Air Force’s X-43s (LF-35s), the rationale behind an internal weapons bay as opposed to external hardpoints can be found in the need to improve the aircraft’s stealth profile. Defence reporter, Tom Avery, noted that when external hardpoints such as weapons pylons and external fuel tanks are attached to an aircraft, they introduce new reflective surfaces which essentially break the aircraft’s low-observable shape. “External hardpoints act as reflectors which scatter radar energy in all directions, including back to the radar emitter, which in turn increases the aircraft’s detectability as its cross-section becomes largely,” Avery explained. He added that this was the primary science behind why, in many instances, it is easier for radar to detect aircraft such as the LF-16 and LF-15 with their external hardpoints and why it is so difficult for the same radar to detect the XF-43 (LF-35), which has internal weapons bays. The render also depicted the LFX-100 as having serpentine ducts and thrust vectoring engine nozzles. It was reported recently that the consortium was apparently working with Hudson & Pike, one of Lodamun’s foremost engine manufacturers, on the development of a newer, more efficient engine for the LFX-100. The serpentine ducts, according to the consortium’s website, reduce an aircraft’s radar reflection by shielding its engines from radar emission. Similarly, engine nozzles aid in reducing an aircraft’s infrared signature by spreading hot air from the engine such that it is capable of mixing with cooler, ambient air at a much faster rate. It is likely that Hudson & Pike will borrow significant lessons from the X-43 program, in designing the LFX-100’s new engines, especially given overtures by the Lodamese Air Force of its wanting to possess the capability for its aircraft to “supercruise, that being the ability to fly at supersonic speeds without the use of afterburners.

In unveiling the render, the consortium stated that work on the development of a test model/mock-up had already begun. The Armed Forces Projects Agency, which remains deeply connected to the project, had reportedly pumped an additional 35 million LOD into research and development for subsystems to be integrated into the aircraft. At a seminar at the Williamson Institute in Kensington, Secretary of the Air Force Ralph Glover reiterated that the LFX-100 platform was conceptually different from the XF-43 in that it had been conceptualised as a pure air-superiority fighter and interceptor, with there being no plans to have the aircraft in a strike capacity similar to the XF-43. “I’d like to take this opportunity to debunk significant chatter surrounding the LFX-100. When we set out to implement the specifications for this aircraft, we did so recognising that we [Lodamun] needed to possess an aircraft that was capable of dominating in that future air superiority space. Although it may potentially possess advanced capabilities in electronic warfare and signals intelligence, it is by its very nature a pure air superiority fighter. We have no intentions of altering our specifications to have these aircraft in a strike role, as such a move might negate the benefits we’ve accrued from possessing an ever-growing number of XF-43s,” Secretary Glover explained.