Russian air force goes stealth

[Skybird]

Their planned rival for the F-22 has flown for the first time. It looks like a Raptor in that video.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8486812.stm

The "fifth generation" jet is designed to be invisible to radar. Russia's air force hopes to acquire it in 2015.
The new jet has been developed in partnership with India. It is seen as a significant milestone in Russia's efforts to modernise its Soviet-era military hardware.
Sukhoi's director Mikhail Pogosyan said he was convinced that the project would "excel its Western rivals in cost-effectiveness and will not only allow strengthening of the defence power of the Russian and Indian air forces, but also gain a significant share of the world market".
The company says the jet's stealth features considerably enhance its combat effectiveness in all weathers.
Its features include: all-weather capability, ability to use a take-off strip of just 300-400 metres, capacity for sustained supersonic flight including repeated in-flight refuelling, advanced avionics, simultaneous attacks on air and ground targets.

Do not underestimate this thing just because it is "build in Russia". the Russians have a history of seeing a new American airframe, then starting to think how to counter it, then presenting a design meant to neutralise the American fighter - and having a plane then that at least is en par with the threat it should counter, if not surpasses it (think of the Su-27/33 and the F-15). Also, avionic-wise the gap between West and East is no longer as big as it once has been. And armament-wise the Russian fighters are simply superior to American fighters - since long.

If they manage to build this thing at considerably lower price levels than the F-22 costs, then the round goes to them. So much for overcoming them by a new arms-race. It probably would cost us more than them - with us in general and america in special failing to squeeze the wanted military superiority out of our much bigger financial investements. And an air-combat environment where the already low-in numbers F-22 gets challenged by the T-50 being stationed in several customer nations of the Russians, would put the bang-for-the-money calculation for the hilarious costs of the F-22 program into serious question. For this, the Russians would not even need to reach equal level in military quality with the Americans. All they would need is to shift the loss-ratio so much in their favour that the costs of war with a russian-equipped force becomes unbearable for the US state and unacceptable for the American public. It's much like what NATO calculated in case of a hot war with the USSR: probably not being able to beat the Russians, but to make advancing into Western Europe so costly for them that they think twice before trying it.

[Oberon]

Ah, the PAK FA finally takes flight, good to see the final design after ages of speculation, very much influenced by the Raptor I'd say but like you say Skybird, that's nothing new and they have a habit of advancing along those technological lines whilst aiming to counteract western tech. Kontakt-5 comes to mind.
Furthermore, as Skybird also says, if this aircraft can perform anywhere near like the F-22 at a fraction of the cost then the F-22 will be facing dozens of these things across the Russian export zone. Which includes Iran IIRC.

[Raptor1]

Ah, been wondering how the PAK FA will end up looking like for a while, though I can't decide if that thing is ugly, beautiful or both at the same time.

[XabbaRus]

Looks good.

No canards. Wonder how weapons will be carried.

It was a Russian mathematician who worked out the formulas for stealth shaping.

[Skybird]

Found this comparison, but cannot say to what degree the painting is representative for the real thing.



From:
http://www.aereo.jor.br/2008/09/09/p...50-concepcoes/

with reference to:
www.paralay.com

Don't understand both languages...

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Um...in general, would you WANT the nations the U.S. is likely to fight to be able to hurt the U.S. that much more? Because it sounds like you do, Skybird. Would you support Iran over the U.S.? Did you know they stone women to death, there, and hang others for very trivial reasons (e.g., being gay)? And how about North Korea? God, they're even worse!!!