Supposedly, Five PAK-FA's will be delivered to the Russian Aerospace Forces Next Year

a reply to: Zaphod58

Does WiB hate *ALL* stealth aircraft?

warisboring.com...

I'm not saying they are wrong in this case, but...I have to wonder. I don't think I've seen a 5th gen aircraft they actually like, save, perhaps the J-20.

a reply to: anzha

WiB would be perfectly happy if we went back to flying P-51s and B-17s.

a reply to: Zaphod58


I'd be really happy if we had those beautiful birds in mass production again.


Are any of us really surprised by the Russian's struggles with this aircraft? WiB can have some pretty ridiculous articles and claims from time to time and they do make it impossible to criticize them on their own site. They are spot on with the T-50 though. It's engines are garbage. All the Russian birds have garbage engines. They make power but they do it without reliability in mind.


The T-50 just doesn't pass the eye test either. Lots of exposed surfaces. I have no way of seeing how they're hiding the fan blades with their inlet design. There is huge portions of exposed metal over the engines body that must be radiating a huge heat signature to enemy guidance systems. There are exposed grates and gaps in the body lines everywhere. It looks like a very crudely built product of a mating of an F-22 with an Su-27.


At least the Chinese don't let the pictures that come out be so clear that you can obviously see all the flaws immediately. Although the J-20 looks like an overweight unholy experiment of crossbreeding a Eurofighter with the T-50 that also somehow invited an F-35 to the party after it bought roofies off a Mig-25 at the gas station. That thing looks like it would struggle with 7gs.

The T-50 has officially been designated the Su-57.

Just read this..

One of the reasons the Russians are less than enthused at buying the initial version of the Su-57 is because the stealth fighter is currently powered by interim Saturn AL-41F1 afterburning turbofans producing 32,500lbs thrust each. That is the same engine as the existing Su-35S Flanker-E, which uses many of the same systems that the Su-57 will.

PAK FA gets the designation Su-57.

www.rbth.com...

Haha, the T-50 is closer to the Super Hornet than the Raptor. This is still no contest.

a reply to: Wayfarer

Nop it's a generation ahead.

a reply to: Zaphod58

How important is stealth for a fighter? A bomber sure. That makes sense. No question

Does stealth actually help in evading a missile if everyone already knows where you are though?

Cant a missile get a lock once there is an enemy aircraft that sees you? Heat, visual, electronic detection.

Is stealth really important to a fighter if the enemy can get to you, out maneuver you and shoot you farther than you can shoot him?

I am just wondering if stealth can actually hide our planes from newer Russian missiles. I read somewhere that they are a real issue since even their older planes can be made to fire them.

Is the aircraft really hidden from them or is it just hidden from far off radar detection?

a reply to: allsee4eye

They claim its a generation ahead, but Russian stuff doesn't have parity to US warplanes by generation. If you think the US has trouble integrating cutting edge avionics and weaponry, the truth is the Russians are even worse at it than we are.

a reply to: tadaman

Stealth reduces the detection range of your equipment. In this case, the F-22 (being stealthier) detects the T-50 before it detects the F-22, and launches its missiles from beyond visual range, likely killing the T-50.

a reply to: Wayfarer

Cool. Was confused about that.

Thanks.

a reply to: allsee4eye

Not really, no. It has advantages over an F-18, but the T-50 (Su-57) is closer to a 4.5+ than a 5th gen.

a reply to: Wayfarer

The biggest problem with Russian gear is producing it. They're damn close to us, and closing the gap in a number of areas, including EW. They're better at missiles than we are, but we have more expertise at high tech and getting it to work with other systems, and working with RAM.

a reply to: tadaman

As pointed out, stealth reduces the range you can be seen at. The missile still needs to see something to target. The publicly available range that most airborne radar can see an F-22 is in the 50 mile area. The closer you have to get, the higher the Pk for the F-22, as well.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thats good to hear. Honestly I have been uneasy since I started reading on Russian missile developments.

I guess I was wrong about stealth. I like the fact that we have it. I was just confused about how a scenario would play out if theyre shooting little F22s at us. LoL

Be safe up their buddy.