page_title: Supercruise
section_title: Military use
hierarchical_section_title: Supercruise / Military use
caption_attribution_description: English: A Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor fighter streaks by the ramp at the 2008 Joint Services Open House (JSOH) airshow at Andrews AFB. Despite many great performances most of those at the show wanted to see the latest USAF fighter. The F-22 did not disappoint! You can just see the vapor trails forming on the wings of this F-22. I also find that the pulsed look of the F-22's engines to be a really interesting visual effect. I've got to imagine that this would be a very bad view for an opposing fighter pilot to see. Photo taken with my Canon 30D and through a rented Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Français&#160;: Un Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, photographié en 2008 durant un show aérien dans la base de l'Air Force d'Andrews, dans le Maryland (États-Unis).
context_page_description: Supercruise is sustained supersonic flight of a supersonic aircraft with a useful cargo, passenger, or weapons load performed efficiently, which typically precludes the use of highly inefficient afterburners or "reheat". Many well known supersonic military aircraft not capable of supercruise can only maintain Mach 1+ flight in short bursts, typically with afterburners. Aircraft such as the SR-71 Blackbird are designed to cruise at supersonic speed with afterburners enabled.
  One of the best known examples of an aircraft capable of supercruise was Concorde. Due to its long service as a commercial airliner, Concorde holds the record for the most time spent in supercruise; more than all other aircraft combined.
context_section_description: The term "supercruise" was originally used to describe a fighter performance requirement set forth by USAF Col. John Boyd, Pierre Sprey, and Col. Everest Riccioni, proponents of the F-16 Falcon. Following the entry into production of the F-16, they began work on an improved fighter design with the ability to cruise supersonically over enemy territory for a minimum of twenty minutes. As air combat is often the result of surprise, and the speed of combat is determined by the speed of the surprising aircraft, this would have given a supercruise-capable design a worthwhile performance advantage in many situations. The postulated fighter would have had a top speed of just over Mach 1, and a fuel fraction in excess of 40%, the minimum required to meet the twenty-minute requirement. The fuel fraction requirement necessitated a very austere design with few advanced electronics. The United States Air Force showed no interest in the proposal at that time, but years later revived the term and redefined it to apply to the requirements for the Advanced Tactical Fighter, which resulted in the F-22 Raptor.
  The F-22 Raptor's supercruise capabilities are touted as a major performance advantage over other fighters, with supercruise being demonstrated up to at least Mach 1.8. Virtually all current and past jet fighters, prior to the F-22, cruise at approximately Mach 0.8–0.9 with militarily significant weapons loads. However, supercruising uses more fuel to travel the same distance than at subsonic speeds, with the Air Force Association estimating that use of supercruise for a 100-nautical-mile (120 mi; 190 km) dash as part of a mission would cut the F-22's combat radius from about 600 nautical miles (690 mi; 1,100 km) to about 450 nautical miles (520 mi; 830 km). This reduction is unconfirmed because the altitude and flight profile are classified, as are most of the F-22's capabilities, but it is still far less of a reduction than would result from the use of afterburner.
  There are a few engines in production that are designed to facilitate tactically significant supercruise:
  The two Pratt & Whitney F119 that power the F-22 Raptor make it the most capable supercruiser fighter aircraft in service. The F-22 Raptor can supercruise up to Mach 1.8 without external stores. (Note: General Electric YF120 supercruise capable engines also powered an F-22 prototype during this fly off, but were not selected for production.)
  The EJ200 engine built by EuroJet Turbo GmbH mounted in the Eurofighter Typhoon. It is capable of supercruising at Mach 1.5 with an air superiority missile load. Typhoon pilots have stated that Mach 1.3 is attainable in combat configuration with external stores.
  The General Electric F414G in JAS 39 Gripen NG is designed for supercruise and has been shown to achieve Mach 1.2.
  The  Snecma M88 that power the Dassault Rafale. The twin engines enable the Rafale to supercruise with four missiles and a belly drop tank.
  The two AL-41F-1S engines of the Sukhoi Su-35 can achieve supersonic speed without engaging afterburners.
  Independently, Russia is working on Izdelje 30 (after AL31F and AL41F derivatives modifications, like 117S turbofan) and RD33MKRU Morskaja Osa; an all new AL-41 engine with a complete redesign underway to add supercruise ability to the Sukhoi Su-57. This has yet to bear fruit, but the stop-gap 117S engine, produced by this program, seems to achieve the supercruise goal already. It was recently announced that during testing of a Su-35BM fighter equipped with these engines it was travelling at just past supersonic speed it continued to accelerate without the use of the afterburner, thus suggesting that it had supercruise capability, though it has yet to be seen whether this will be possible with a combat load.
  All known supercruise aircraft can only do so at considerable altitude (where the air is thinner and so offers less resistance), which restricts the use of terrain mask for eluding detection.
caption: The F-22 Raptor is capable of supercruise at Mach 1.8 (but is seen here running afterburner).
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