Multirole combat aircraft

Not to be confused with the recent Indian Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) Competition.

The Panavia Tornado is an example of a multirole combat aircraft, and was historically the first bearer of such designation.

A multirole combat aircraft is an aircraft designed to act in at least two different roles in combat. The primary role is usually a fighter—hence, it is as often called a multirole fighter—while the secondary role is usually air-to-surface attack. More roles are added, such as air reconnaissance, forward air control, and electronic warfare. As of the subtypes of attack missions, besides the most often air interdiction, there may be suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD), or even close air support (CAS).

Strike fighter, which similarly refers to a fighter capable of attack role, for historical reasons implies putting more emphasis on the interdiction aspect.

The main motivation for developing multirole aircraft is cost reduction. A fleet of multirole aircraft, when comparing to separate fleets of dedicated aircraft, costs less to develop, to manufacture, to maintain, and to supply. Some aircraft are called swing-role, to emphasize the ability of a quick role change, either at short notice, or even within the same mission.

History of the term

Multi-Role^{[n 1]} Combat Aircraft was the title of a multinational European project in 1968 that became the Panavia Tornado aircraft. During its development, the project had also been briefly called Multi-Role Aircraft (MRA). The same aircraft is now referred to as the Tornado IDS, or InterDictor/Strike, to differentiate it from a later aircraft based on essentially the same airframe, known as Panavia Tornado ADV or air-defence variant, with two types having diverged from an initial design presumably intended to perform both missions.

Examples

F-15E Strike Eagle

F-16C Fighting Falcon

F/A-18F Super Hornet

F-35 Lightning II

Dassault Rafale

JAS 39 Gripen

Eurofighter Typhoon

Sukhoi Su-30MKI

JF-17 Thunder

Listed below are examples of multirole combat aircraft and the country where they have been developed:

Region	Country of origin	Aircraft	Notes
Europe	United Kingdom  West Germany  Italy	Panavia Tornado	The original aircraft to have the word "Multi-Role" in its official description.
	United Kingdom  Germany  Italy  Spain	Eurofighter Typhoon	Described as a "highly agile Air Superiority and Air-to-Surface, multi-role/swing-role fighter" by the manufacturers and users.[1][2]
	France	Dassault Mirage 2000
		Dassault Rafale	Described as a fully "omnirole" fighter by Dassault[3]
	Sweden	Saab JAS 39 Gripen	JAS comes from Jakt ("fighter"), Attack, Spaning ("reconnaissance")
	Russia	Mikoyan MiG-29M	Multirole development of MiG-29
		Sukhoi Su-30M	Multirole development of Su-27PU/Su-30
		Sukhoi Su-35S	4++ generation development of Su-27M/Su-35
		Mikoyan MiG-35	4++ generation development of MiG-29M and MiG-29K
		Sukhoi PAK FA	Sukhoi T-50 prototype first flew in 2010
North America	United States	McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II	American 3rd generation fighter/interceptor.
		McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle	The F-15E is a multirole fighter derived from the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter. It is used by the United States Air Force other U.S. allies like Israel, South Korea, Singapore & Saudi Arabia.
		General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon	The F-16 is a multirole fighter used by many members of NATO and other U.S. allies
		McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet	The 'A' in "F/A" explicitly denotes the joint Attack role of the F/A-18 ('F' = Fighter)
NATO (extended)	United States  United Kingdom  Italy  Netherlands  Canada  Australia  Norway  Denmark  Turkey	F-35 Lightning II
Asia	Japan	Mitsubishi F-2	Developed from F-16 Block 40
	Republic of China (Taiwan)	AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo
	People's Republic of China	Chengdu J-7	Reverse engineered from MiG-21F-13
		Shenyang J-8
		Xian JH-7A
		Shenyang J-11	Reverse engineered from Sukhoi Su-27SK
		Chengdu J-10
		Chengdu J-20	Prototype first flown in 2011
	People's Republic of China  Pakistan	JF-17 Thunder	Previously known as Super Seven
	People's Republic of China  Russia	Sukhoi Su-30MKK	Used by the PLA Air Force ('K' = Kitayski, China)
	India	HAL Tejas	Previously known as LCA.
		AMCA	Indian fifth generation multirole fighter.
	India  Russia	Sukhoi Su-30MKI	Used by the Indian Air Force. ('I' = INDIA)
	India  Russia	Sukhoi/HAL FGFA	Derivative of PAK FA (T-50).

See also

• Attack aircraft
• Interceptor aircraft
• Tactical bomber
• Interdictor

Notes

1. ^ Cambridge Dictionary only lists "multirole", and not "multi-role".

References

1. ^ Eurofighter Typhoon is a highly agile Air Superiority and Air-to-Surface, multi-role/swing-role weapon system
2. ^ RAF: F2 standard will be deployed primarily as air-superiority fighters
3. ^ Dassault Aviation > En > Defense > Rafale > Optimized airframe

External links