Soko J-22 Orao

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soko_J-22_Orao

The Soko J-22 Orao (Serbian: ????, lit. 'eagle') is a Yugoslav twin-engined,
subsonic ground-attack and reconnaissance aircraft. It was designed as a
single-seat main attack version or as a combat capable two-seat version for
advanced flying and weapon training. It was developed as a joint
Yugoslav-Romanian project in the 1970s for the air forces of both nations. It
was built by SOKO in Yugoslavia and by Avioane Craiova as the IAR-93 Vultur in
Romania.

On 20 May 1971, the governments of Romania and Yugoslavia signed an agreement
for the formation of YuRom, a joint R&D venture. The program was headed by Dipl.
Dr. Engineer Teodor Zanfirescu of Romania and Colonel Vidoje Knezevic of
Yugoslavia. The aircraft was intended as a replacement for the lightly armed
Soko J-21 Jastreb and the Republic F-84 Thunderjet, then in the JNA arsenal.

The requirements called for a light aircraft to be built on a simple structure,
using locally produced equipment and avionics, tough (able to operate on grass
or damaged runways), easy to maintain and reliable. The aircraft was of
conventional twin-engine, high mounted wing monoplane configuration with all
flying surfaces swept. The designers originally planned a single-engined
supersonic aircraft, but Britain would not authorize the license for the engine
the designers wanted (due to Romania being in the Warsaw Pact), so the
less-powerful Rolls-Royce Viper was chosen as the powerplant, as Soko had
experience with license-building this engine. It was originally intended that an
afterburner would be developed for the Viper engines, but there were prolonged
difficulties with this project, meaning that none of the pre-production aircraft
featured it, and neither did early production examples. During the 1980s, both
countries developed slightly different versions to take advantage of the
afterburning engines that had since become available.

On 22 November 1984, Orao 25101 piloted by test pilot Marjan Jelen broke the
sound barrier in a shallow dive over Batajnica Air Base, becoming the first
Yugoslav-designed aircraft to exceed Mach 1. The aircraft is incapable of
breaking the sound barrier in level flight, so it is classified as subsonic.

The J-22 is a twin-engined combat jet aircraft for close air support, ground
attack and tactical reconnaissance warplane with limited air-defense capability.

Standard communication and navigation equipment, plus (fire control and weapons
management) Thompson-CSF VE-120T HUD replacing the original Ferranti ISIS D-282
gyro sight (defensive sensors and systems) Iskra SO-1 RWR and provision for up
to three chaff/flare dispensers and P10-65-13 passive jammer pod, and
(navigation) Honeywell SGP500 twin-gyro platform; there is also provision for an
optical/IR reconnaissance pod or an optical reconnaissance/jammer pod.

Role
Attack aircraft
Reconnaissance aircraft

Manufacturer
SOKO

Designer
VTI - Yugoslavia
INCAS - Romania

First flight
November 1974

Introduction
1978

Status
Active

Primary users
Yugoslav Air Force
Serbian Air Force
Bosnian Air Force

Variants
Avioane Craiova IAR-93 Vultur

At the beginning of the Yugoslav wars, in Slovenia, J-22s flew over in a show of
force, but did not drop any bombs. The first offensive action by the J-22 was in
1991 when the Yugoslav National Army used them to strike targets in
Croatia.During the first year of war three J-22s were shot down, NJ-22 flown by
Lieutenant Colonel Muse Begic who ejected safely and a J-22 flown by Major
Z.Tomic (KIA) from the 238th. After the withdrawal of the JNA from Slovenia, the
82nd Aviation Brigade was relocated from Cerklje to Banja Luka Mahovljani air
base. In 1992 when the Bosnian war started, the JNA left a single squadron of
eight J-22s to the Republika Srpska Air Force. One J-22 was lost during the war.

In 1999, Yugoslav J-22s saw limited combat against the KLA flying 20 combat
missions. One J-22, piloted by Lt. Colonel Života Ðuric was lost on 25 March
1999 in unclear circumstances, either through malfunction, pilot error or KLA
ground fire. In addition, 11 aircraft were destroyed on the ground, most at
Ponikve airbase when a NATO air strike hit one hangar with six J-22 and two
MiG-21 aircraft.

Specifications (J-22)

General characteristics
Crew: one or two pilots
Length: 13.02 m (42 ft 8½ in)
Wingspan: 9.30 m (30 ft 6¼ in)
Height: 4.52 m (14 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 26.00 m² (279.9 ft²)
Empty weight: 5,550 kg (12,125 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 11,080 kg (24,427 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Orao/Turbomecanica-built Rolls-Royce Viper Mk 633-41 turbojet
Dry thrust: 17.79 kN (4,000 lbf) each
Thrust with afterburner: 22.24 kN (5,000 lbf) each


Performance
Maximum speed: 1,130 km/h (610 knots, 702 mph) at sea level
Stall speed: 185 km/h (100 knots, 115 mph)
Combat radius: 522 km (282 nmi, 324 mi) (four BL755 cluster bombs and one 1,500
L drop tank)
Ferry range: 1,320 km, 820 mi, 713 nmi ()
Service ceiling: 15,000 m (49,210 ft)
Rate of climb: 89 m/s (17,520 ft/min)

Armament

Guns: 2 × 23 mm GSh-23L cannons
Hardpoints: Five (four underwing and one centreline) with a capacity of 500 kg
(1,100 lb) (wing pylons), 800 kg (1,770 lb) (centreline pylons) - total capacity
2,800 kg (6,200 lb)
Missiles: AGM-65 Maverick TV guided AGM or Grom-1 Radio-guided AGM (based on
Soviet Kh-23).
Bombs: MK series bombs, BL755 cluster bombs, Matra Durandal anti-runway
bombs,and laser guided bombs.




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