Daesŭngri DS-5
| Daesŭngri DS-5 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Fighter aircraft (G var.) Attack aircraft (N var.) Multirole aircraft (D var.) |
| National origin | DPRM |
| Manufacturer | Daesŭngri Aircraft Design Bureau |
| First flight | 1974 |
| Introduction | 1977 |
| Primary user | Menghean Army |
| Produced | 1977-1999 |
| Number built | 865 |
The Daesŭngri DS-5 (Formal designation: 대승리 5호 전투기 / 大勝利五號戰鬪機, Daesŭngri O-ho Jŏntugi, "Daesŭngri No.5 Fighter;" Short designation 대승-5 Daesŭng-o "Daesŭng-5") is a single-seat, third-generation jet fighter developed in the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe by the Daesŭngri Aircraft Design Bureau. It was the first Menghean jet aircraft of entirely domestic design. Key features included variable-sweep wings and a radar capable of guiding radar-guided air-to-air missiles.
Over the course of its 22-year production span, the DS-5 was built in twelve major variants, including an air superiority fighter (DS-5G), a dedicated ground-attack aircraft (DS-5N), a reconnaissance platform (DS-5JCh), a carrier-based fighter (DS-5HM), two multiroles (DS-5D and DS-5R), and twin-seat trainer variants for most of these. Nearly 1,700 were produced in total between 1977 and 1999. The DS-5R remains in active service with several mid-readiness squadrons in the Menghean Army.
Development
Origins
The DPRM's first two jet fighters, the DS-1 and DS-2, were highly agile and easy to produce, but suffered from a number of shortcomings related to the age of their designs. Both lacked the ability to use radar-guided AAMs, and while the DS-2N did incorporate a ranging radar in the nose, this was only good out to 12 kilometers and could not distinguish between aerial targets and ground clutter. Later DS-2 variants could carry heat-seeking AAMs like the YGG-1 and YGG-2, but their lack of long-range missiles severely limited their usefulness against rival Dayashinese and Tyrannian aircraft, especially in BVR engagements.
At the end of the 1960s, the Menghean Ministry of Defense reached out to Letnia to inquire about a production license for the MiG-23, which was just beginning to enter service. Letnian representatives initially considered the state-of-the-art MiG-23 too advanced to license freely, but made the counter-offer to export knocked-down MiG-23 assembly kits starting in 1974. The MPA considered this deadline far too distant, and also worried that shipment by sea would leave the planes vulnerable to interception by foreign naval powers, who controlled the key straits and coastlines between Menghe and Letnia.
As negotiations remained at an impasse, some officials in the Menghean People's Communist Party proposed that the DPRM's aircraft industry was sufficiently advanced to attempt a fully domestic design project, adapted to suit the Army's own needs and requirements. This view found support among the Party's "Productionist" faction, led by Sim Jin-hwan, who was officially sworn in as General-Secretary in January 1971. The development and production contract was handed to the Daesŭngri design bureau, which had experience producing the DS-1 and DS-2 lightweight fighters and at the time had the largest accumulation of design expertise; Songrim's SR-3G was a direct copy of the Letnian Or-7, and Yŏng'an only had experience producing heavy bombers.
Design and testing
Faced with their new state requirement, the Daesŭngri design team began work on a new fighter aircraft in late 1971. Early on, the designers opted for a variable-sweep wing, much like the Letnian MiG-23 and Sieuxerrian Menace-C. In return for its added complexity, a swing-wing design would allow the new fighter to reach high speeds at altitude while also meeting the short takeoff and landing distance requirements imposed by the DPRM's sparse airfields. A large conical nose with side intakes was also chosen in place of earlier central nose intakes, in order to leave more space for an air-search radar.
Some initial debate existed over whether to use a twin-engine or single-engine configuration. Han Do-hun, the chief designer at Daesŭngri, initially favored a single-engine layout out of the belief that it would minimize weight and thus improve maneuverability. But past experience with the single-engine DS-1, DS-2, and SR-3 had revealed relatively frequent problems with burnouts and other failures, even on regular training flights, due to the inconsistent quality of Menghean engine production. A twin-engine design offered the advantage of letting the new jet return to base under half power if one engine failed, avoiding the total loss of an expensive plane. The DPRM also lacked a single engine with the required thrust, and many designers were skeptical that an entirely new engine could be developed in the available time, given the DPRM's lack of new engine design experience. Supporters of the single-engine layout eventually relented, and the twin-engine proposal went forward. As a further move to improve reliability, the designers chose the Gokchŏn Gi-12 turbojet, itself a development of the Gi-7 (licensed Tumansky R-11 produced in the thousands for the Daesŭngri DS-2.
Work on the radar incurred more serious delays. The Ministry of Defense initially insisted that the development of the radar should be entirely domestic, with no foreign parts, a requirement that proved difficult to meet given the immaturity of Menghe's domestic electronics sector. Prototype JG-01, which flew on July 12th, 1974, had a concrete weight in the radome to maintain balance. Under pressure to push the plane into service, Daesŭngri secretly obtained an RP-22SMA radar from a Polvokian MiG-21MF and reverse-engineered it to produce the JT-77 Bŏngae ("Lightning") radar. Official announcements claimed that the radar was fully indigenous, but its physical appearance and actual origin were kept a closely guarded secret until the 1990s.
Test flights took place from 1974 through 1977, before the new radar had even been installed. The second prototype, JG-02, crashed due to pilot-induced oscillation, resulting in the death of the pilot; another suffered damage on a high-speed dive, forcing the test pilot to eject. Investigation revealed problems with the airspeed indicator dial and other instruments, particularly a low response rate. Despite claims that these were fixed, periodic instrument problems persisted into the first few batches of aircraft.
Production
In spite of lingering concerns over instrument response and the very recent integration of the JT-77 radar, Daesŭngri's final JG-15 prototype was ordered into production in 1977 as the DS-5G fighter. To speed up production, the DS-2 assembly line was shut down in 1979 and refurbished to support manufacture of the DS-5. Production records state that 129 airframes were produced in 1980 alone, and average annual production had risen to about 150 airframes by 1985, spread across all variants.
Design
Armament
The DS-5G was produced with five external hardpoints for ordnance: one under the fixed section of each wing, one on each corner of the lower fuselage, and one along the centerline. Swiveling hardpoints under the swinging wings were considered during development, but the design team chose to omit them in order to save weight, reduce complexity, and avoid damage from hardpoints becoming stuck at a given angle. The centerline hardpoint could only be used to carry an external fuel tank, and the under-wing hardpoints were also adaptable for this purpose, though as this configuration halved the number of air-to-air missiles, it was only used in long-distance ferry flights.
Ironically, even though beyond-visual-range combat had been a major selling point of the project, the JT-77 radar used on early-production DS-5Gs lacked the ability to support radar-guided missiles. It also struggled to distinguish aerial targets from ground clutter, and thus lacked look-down/shoot-down capability. To deceive foreign intelligence agencies, the DPRM obtained a license to produce the R-23 missile as the YGG-3, and even mounted this weapon on DS-5s during parade flights. In actual service, however, the DS-5G was entirely limited to the heat-seeking YGG-2, the same missile used by late-production DS-2 variants.
Gun armament consisted of two NR-23 autocannons, one in each bottom corner of the nose. Each carried 120 rounds of ammunition. This was the same gun armament used on the DS-2, and it reflected both the Menghean People's Army Air Force's doctrine of pursuing close-range dogfights, and an effort to balance the failure of the JT-77 radar.
Powerplant
Thrust was provided by a pair of Gi-12 turbojets, improvements of the Gi-7 (license-built Tumansky R11 used on the DS-2. The early-production versions of these engines, used on the DS-5G through DS-5D, developed 42 kN of thrust dry and 64.6 kN with afterburner.
The first four prototypes of the DS-5 had variable-angle splitter plates to control airflow to the engines at different speeds and altitudes. This feature was omitted on the production model of the DS-5G, with the splitter plates kept fixed at an angle optimal for low-altitude flight. This decision was apparently intended to save weight and reduce maintenance costs, but it also hampered the plane's performance at higher altitudes. Some sources speculate that the omission of variable splitter plates was the result of political lobbying by the Songrim bureau, which was then working on the SR-7 high-level interceptor and didn't want the DS-5 to emerge as a rival aircraft. The DS-5N restored the variable-angle intake plates, and all subsequent variants carried them.
Two large airbrakes were mounted on the upper fuselage above the engine, as on the MiG-23. On the lower fuselage, the rear landing gear cover plates doubled as airbrakes, and could be deployed midair to help slow the aircraft. They also helped reduce speed while landing. For further reduction in landing distance, a parachute could be deployed from a tube at the base of the upper fin. Despite an innovative folding arrangement, the rear wheels were still only 2.8 meters apart at their center points, and landing the DS-5 on rough ground was not easy.
The central new feature of the DS-5 lay in its folding wings. These could be set to angles of 25, 45, and 68.4 degrees, depending on altitude and speed. Wing angle adjustments were controlled manually on the DS-5G, but on the DS-5R they were automatically coupled to airspeed unless a manual override was activated.
Variants
DPRM variants: 1974-1988
- JG-01:
- First prototype produced by Daesŭngri in 1974.
- JG-15:
- Final prototype on which the production-model DS-5G was based.
- DS-5G:
- The initial production variant of the DS-5, introduced in 1978. It suffered from a number of shortcomings, including an outdated JT-77 radar based on a reverse-engineered RP-22SMA. This was incapable of targeting radar-guided missiles, so the DS-5G only carried the YGG-1 and -2 heat-seeking missiles in service. A total of 126 were produced.
- DS-5GSs:
- A two-seat training version of the DS-5G. To make room for the rear extension of the cockpit, one of the forward fuel tanks was removed, shortening range. It suffered from the same problems as the DS-5G, and its rear (instructor) cockpit had poor visibility forward.
- DS-5N:
- Introduced in 1980, the DS-5N was a major upgrade that corrected a number of serious problems with the DS-5G. It was fitted with a license-produced version of the targeting suite from the Letnian MiG-23MF, the main MiG-23 export variant. This included a Sapfir-23D radar, a TP-23 IRST sensor under the nose, and an improved head-up display. The variable-angle splitter plates were also restored, improving high-altitude performance, and more reliable avionics and airspeed sensors were installed.
- The new radar had a claimed 45km range against a fighter-sized target, and it could support guidance for the R-23 missile, providing BVR capability for the first time. It had some look-down/shoot-down capability, but this relied on envelope limitation rather than the Doppler effect, so ground reflections could still interfere in targeting at low altitudes. The DS-5N was the most numerous air-superiority variant of the DS-5, with close to 600 airframes produced in total.
- DS-5NSs:
- Tandem-seat trainer variant of the DS-5N. The layout of the rear cockpit was somewhat modified in comparison to the DS-5GSs, improving the instructor's visibility and reducing the obstruction to fuel tank space; a new fuel tank was also added in the fuselage rear, restoring range to something close to the DS-5N's envelope.
- DS-5D:
- A specialized ground-attack variant introduced in 1981. It had a rebuilt, downward-sloping nose modeled on that of the Letnian MiG-27, and it carried the same Kayra-23 laser and television targeting suite for guided munitions. To broaden the range of armament options, a swiveling hardpoint was added to the underside of each swinging wing section, though overall payload remained limited to 2,500 kg. The DS-5D lacked any kind of radar, including a terrain-following radar, though it could still use heat-seeking missiles for self-defense. Given the focus on low-level flying, the fixed splitter plates of the DS-5G were restored. Armored plating was added around the cockpit.
- The DS-5D was produced simultaneously with Songrim's SR-3D, which had essentially the same capabilities. Of the two, the DS-5D was faster and more maneuverable, but also had a lighter payload. Political maneuvering kept both in production at the same time, as neither Songrim nor Daesŭngri was willing to give up its foothold in strike aircraft production.
- DS-5DSs:
- This was a twin-seat lead-in trainer version of the DS-5D. In addition to duplicated flight controls, the rear cockpit also had a wider range of ground-attack instruments, including the ability to operate TV-guided munitions. Owing to these increased capabilities, it was produced in a 1:2 ratio to the baseline DS-5D, and after 1988 it accounted for all DS-5 production.
- DS-5JCh:
- A dedicated reconnaissance variant introduced in 1983. It featured an elongated fuselage with a twin-seat cockpit and an additional fuel tank to extend range. The nose guns were deleted to make room for two side-facing reconnaissance cameras, and the IRST sensor was removed as well. The Sapfir-23D radar was retained, giving the plane some air-to-air capability, though these aircraft typically carried three fuel tanks and two YGG-2 AAMs and their added weight limited their dogfighting ability.
- DS-5R:
- A minor improved version of the DS-5N. The swiveling hardpoints of the DS-5D were added to the outer wings, allowing the carriage of two additional missiles or fuel tanks. The radar was also modified with improved ECCM capabilities, which gave modest improvement to jamming - and, more importantly, resolved a problem where multiple DS-5Ns illuminating the same target could interfere in each other's target lock. In all other respects, it was identical to the DS-5N. No separate twin-seat variant was produced, as the DS-5NSs was similar enough for lead-in training.
- DS-5YG:
- A single DS-5R airframe modified to carry the YDG-4 long-range active-radar missile on its inboard hardpoints, apparently as a testbed for a future interceptor variant. Conducted flight tests in 1985 and 1986, but was judged inferior to the SR-7. The sole DS-5YG is on display at the Daesŭngri Aviation Museum, Daedong.
SRM variants: 1988-1997
- DS-5JCh2:
- Most DS-5JCh variants were retrofitted to this standard in the mid-1990s, though no new airframes were built. An ECM suite modeled after the type used on the DS-5M was added, and the Sapfir-23D radar was replaced by a dedicated ground-search radar with a secondary jamming capability. The inboard wing hardpoints could be used to launch anti-radiation missiles, giving the DS-5JCh2 a secondary SEAD capability at the cost of reducing space for external fuel. The centerline hardpoint could also be fitted with a reconnaissance pod carrying improved camera equipment or a heavier jamming or SIGINT pod.
Carrier-based variants
- DS-5HM:
- This was a special variant of the DS-5N altered for CATOBAR operations. Here, HM stands for Hanggong Muham, or "aircraft carrier;" it is unrelated to the DS-5M later introduced for land operations. The forward landing gear strut was lengthened and fitted with a fixture for catapult launches, and a tailhook was added under the engines to catch the arrestor wires on the carrier deck. Some internal components were also strengthened to cope with the force of carrier-based takeoffs and landings. These planes were used by the carrier Haebang after its commissioning in 1982.
- DS-5HMSs:
- A twin-seat version of the DS-5HM for carrier conversion training. The instructor's seat was elevated well above the trainee's, even higher than on the DS-5NSs, in order to give a good view of the flight deck during the low-speed final approach. Due to its reduced range, it was not carried aboard carriers once lead-in training was complete, and remained on the Navy's coastal bases for use as a dedicated trainer.
- DS-5HMG:
- First seen in 1984, this was a separate twin-seater version of the DS-5HM. Western sources initially mistook it for a trainer, but it was in fact a dedicated surface-attack variant developed after the SR-6 was deemed too heavy for carrier conversion. It had a widened nose cone with a surface-search radar, and could carry anti-ship missiles or homing torpedoes on its inboard hardpoints. It also came with the DS-4R's rotating outer hardpoints, which were generally mounted with heat-seeking missiles for self-defense; the surface-search radar was apparently incapable of guiding the YGG-3 missile.
- DS-5HMM:
- A single DS-5M adapted for the carrier role, with the same airframe changes as the DS-5HM but retaining the upgraded radar suite. First tested in 1997. It performed well on trials, and was considered a major improvement over the DS-5HM and HMG. Nevertheless, the Navy ultimately opted to wait until a carrier-based variant of the Daesŭngri DS-10 was available, and the project was terminated.
