Sukhoi T-50 takes flight

General General Discussion
1

Doesn’t sound like it’s a serious threat right now, but give them a few years…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_stealth_fighter

Russia’s first stealth fighter makes maiden flight
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 29, 1:59 pm ET

MOSCOW – Russia’s first stealth fighter intended to match the latest U.S. design made its maiden flight Friday, boosting the country’s efforts to modernize its rusting Soviet-built arsenals and retain its lucrative export market.

The Sukhoi T-50’s flight comes nearly two decades after the first prototype of the U.S. F-22 Raptor took to the air, and Russian officials said it will take another five years for the new jet to enter service. Still, the flight marked a major step in Russia’s efforts to burnish the faded glory of its aviation industries and strengthen a beleaguered military.

The sleek twin-engined jet closely resembling the Raptor flew for 47-minutes from an airfield at Sukhoi’s production plant in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday. Development of the so-called fifth-generation fighter has been veiled in secrecy and no images of it had been released before the flight.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hailed the flight as a “big step forward,” but admitted that “a lot remains to be done in terms of engines and armament.”

Craig Caffrey, an analyst for Jane’s Defense Procurement-Military Aircraft, said the new fighter is “hugely important,” both for modernizing the aging Russian air force fleet and retaining export markets.

“The T-50 should offer the Russian Air Force a significant boost in its capabilities and ensure that it remains one of the best equipped air forces in the world,” he told The Associated Press by e-mail.

Caffrey said the new fighter will attract many foreign customers. “For those countries that don’t traditionally purchase military equipment from the U.S. it will be the only fifth generation aircraft available,” he said.

The NPO Saturn company said in a statement that the jet has new engines, but military analysts suggested that they were a slightly modernized version of the Soviet-era engine powering the Su-27 family of fighters.

“It’s a humbug,” said independent military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. “It’s just a prototype lacking new engines and a new radar. It takes new materials to build a fifth-generation fighter, and Russia lacks them.”

Putin said Friday the first batch of new fighters is set to enter an Air Force evaluation unit in 2013 and serial production is set to begin in 2015.

Caffrey said the task looks “very challenging, given the amount of new technology that is being incorporated into the new aircraft.”

Russian military analysts were also skeptical, pointing at a history of delays in the program and other Russian weapons projects.

“The schedule will likely be pushed back as usual,” said Alexander Konovalov, the head of the Moscow-based Institute of Strategic Assessment, an independent think tank.

Russia’s prospective Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile has failed in at least eight of its 12 test launches, dealing a blow to Russia’s hopes of making it a cornerstone of its nuclear arsenal. Officials have blamed the failures on manufacturing flaws resulting from post-Soviet industrial degradation.

Felgenhauer and other observers said the fighter program, which depends on hundreds of subcontractors, has been dogged by similar problems.

Russian officials have said the new fighter, like the Raptor, will have supersonic cruising speed and stealth capabilities. Its pilot, Sergei Bogdan, said in televised remarks that it was easy and pleasant to fly.

While officials saw the new fighter as essential, some analysts said the country has more pressing needs.

“There is no mission and no adversary for such plane,” Konovalov said, adding that the Russian military lacks a modern communications system and satellite navigation. “It would be more expedient to fit modern avionics to older generation jets.”

The U.S. administration decided to quit buying the F-22 Raptor, the world’s most expensive fighter jet at more than $140 million apiece, effectively capping its production at the 186 already ordered.

Associated Press Writer David Nowak contributed to this story.

2

Can someone inform me why Russia needs a stealth jet?

3

so when the rooskies are developing someting like this, Barry wants to cut F22 production :rolleyes:

4

Same reason we need one…blowing sh-t up! Probably sh-t associated wth American interests and infrastructure. Not to mention selling them to their friends.

5

It will be interesting to see if the Russians can afford to purchase many of these. The JSF seems to be progressing slowly and is exceeding budget. The F22 is expensive @ 140 mil each, but new models of legacy aircraft(F15,F16 and F18) aren’t cheap either. Meanwhile our Strategists can’t seem to decide if we need to be prepared for low intensity conflicts or conventional conflicts. The Air Force was so sure of getting its way with the F22 that it doesn’t seem to have any real backup plan. The Navy went with the F18 Super Hornet knowing it needed to consolidate and simply its logistics in order to have an affordable yet marginally more advanced multi role fighter. The Air Forces F15 and F16 aircraft are getting near the end of their service lives. The Air Force is in need of not only advanced fighters, but also needs numbers.

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Russian officials have said the new fighter, like the Raptor, will have supersonic cruising speed and stealth capabilities. Its pilot, Sergei Bogdan, said in televised remarks that it was easy and pleasant to fly.

Me thinks an easy and pleasant plane to fly doesn’t make a good fighter?

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And that is exactly where my thinking was headed. Of course if their new fighter jet program is online as fast as their I.C.B.M. capabilities, we should have a decade or two to counter their “super-jet”.:rolleyes:

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Actually, when 4th Gen fighters moved to digital flight controls and pilots became voting members in how control surfaces interacted to change flight path, the test pilot’s comment simply means there was enough control authority, quick enough feedback loop in the DFCS, and the basic control laws were sorted out enough for the basic flying qualities perceived by the pilot to be easy.

I don’t want to fight the airplane to get it to do what I need it to do at a critical point in the flight.

If your 911 Porsche or ZR-1 tracks straight with your hands off the wheel at 60 MPH and its ride is sorted out for the road surface, it could be considered easy and pleasant too. Doesn’t make it a bad sports car.

Russians don’t want to lose market share when the US is the only vendor out there with the really cool toys for future replacement fighter programs. Continue to evolve or loose the capacity to compete.

Cheers,
Pk

9

Take out a map of Europe and locate current NATO bases. Then there are the unresolved conflicts in Georgia, Azerbaijan and The Ukraine. Then refer to Obama’s plan of using SM-3 missiles aboard ships in the Baltic Sea. That would be a good start. Reading Brzezinski would be another.

10

Right now there is a lull in major conflicts. No two big countries ready to go at it. This is unusual in history and I don’t feel it will last. Sadly most people seem to think this means that the big wars are over and war has changed forever… I think this is short sighted. And if we shift all R&D and production away from full scale weapons then we are going to be in a world of hurt some day soon.

11

Looks like they want to jump start the cold war. Drawing the lines in the sand again. Job security.

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I don’t get that at all. I think they have sought to re-invigorate an aerospace programs that has produced some of the most successful and cutting edge fighter aircraft during the 20th century. I cannot fault another country for seeking to develop it’s military assets. Peace through superior firepower and all that.

The really interesting part here is that this thing was developed with in parallel with the Indians. Now I personally believe that the Indian economy is so incredibly tied in with the US’s that they could never go to war with us, however this could be the start of a very powerful strategic relationship.

13

closely resembles the Raptor… can somebody say there is a spy in our ranks? Same way they got the Atom bomb, they stole it from us…

14

Its dramatically different from F22 - not a copy.

15

:rolleyes:

Might want to loosen the tin foil hat, I think it’s restricting the blood flow a little bit there buddy.

16

You ready for tin-foil?

Look into where we got it from…

17

Same place the Russians got it from.

ETA: An excellent documentary on this subject is “Trinity and Beyond”.

As far as the T-50 goes, to me it looks very much descended from the modern Sukhoi fighter aircraft. Aside from having 2 wings, 2 engines, and 2 vertical stabilizers I don’t see any resemblance to an F-22.

18

Who needs spies?

With “globalism” we are more than willing to sell our ass like a trunk stop whore on meth.

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It resembles an F-22 the same way an Su-27 resembles an F-15. It is a 5th Generation air superiority aircraft designed for the same role and with the same general configuration as its american counterpart.

20

I respectfully disagree. Sort of. I am NOT USAF, but I have heard nothing to suggest that the Air Force is unhappy with the shut down of the F-22 program. IIRC they plan to roll the airframes into composite formations consisting of recent-mod F-15C’s and F-22’s, with some select squadrons of F-22 only. The jet the Air Force is really banking on is the F-35. That’s where they want to spend their money, IMO.