“The naval Flanker had 12 hardpoints instead of ten; still the ordnance was limited to 6500 kg because of the fighters higher MTOW.”

I would love to see a photo of the Su-33 taking off from the Kuznetsov with 6500 kg of ordnance – but i don’t think such a photo exists…:rolleyes:

As far as I know Su-33 doesn’t even carry R-77.

I’m no fan of the F-35 but this single-engine bird strike stuff is just nonsense.

In fact, I am something of a fan of the F-35, but I also think this single-engine bird strike stuff is just nonsense as well…

Is it true that F-22 wasn’t fitted with vectoring thrust to improve its maneuverability anyway?
So maybe a lot of this discussion is just a red herring anyway?

Поэтому многие обозреватели с осторожностью отмечают, что фактически строевые части ВВС России вряд ли начнут получать истребители пятого поколения ранее 2020 года.

PAK FA may not be ready for actual front line service till the year 2020.

http://www.odnako.org/magazine/material/show_22213/

That number is absolutely impossible to achieve.. HAL have paid $11mil for eleven F404 engines for LCA testing, and that was back in 1987.
Current unit price of the series F414-GE-400 variant is $4.5 million.

Indeed your’re right – I didn’t find the ‘$700,000’ figure very credible either:

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/326M-to-GE-for-80-F414-Engines-Equipment-and-Spares-06239/

I wonder what it is that the Chinese could learn from the Su-35’s engines that they couldn’t learn from the CFM LEAP-X which they are going to fit to their COMAC 919?
Or perhaps the GEnx motors fitted to B787 and sold to Chinese companies?
The Su-35 has got vectored thrust, but are the Chinese interested in that?

Thank you. Great to hear. Sounds as if the schedule is running to plan. To have weapons release already 3 years into schedule and airframe testing finnishing soon also says things are moving along quickly. F-35 has just started weapons release, how many years into the programme, at least 6 years.

The Su-35S has still to perform any weapons release testing yet, or has it? It’s already done over 4 years of testing and 650 flights (as of August).