When had the F-22 (YF-22) and F-35 (YF-35) their first flights and saw or will see service entry?!

The YF-22 and X-35 (no such thing as a YF-35) were purely concept demonstration aircraft designed, built and flown for competition purposes to decide who would win the contract (vs the YF-23 and X-32)- they’re not very relevant to development of the full aircraft per se. The “true” F-22 first flew in 1997. The “true” F-35 has yet to fly, though it will sometime this year.

The T-50 is by all accounts in wind tunnel tests.

A mere 40 new helicopters by 2015? That’s still rather pathetic. By 2015 the average Russian helicopter will be more than 30 years old! 40 new helos when you have a couple of thousnad of machines that need replacing is a mere drop of water in an ocean!

Yeah, it’s very frustrating. I don’t know why they bother to announce such things, it really sucks.

I’m also curious as to what the progress is of the Ka-60 and Mi-38. I would’ve thought they’d be making progress to replacing the Mi-8M with a mix of the Ka-60 and Mi-38 but nothing’s been happening- instead they’re getting Mi-8MTV-5s, which are like super-upgraded new Mi-8Ms.

What were the 30 new aircraft acquired in 2005? Helicopters or planes? I read something about Russia acquiring some Mi-8MTV-5s (Mi-17MDs) a week or so ago.

Also, yes, by law, the Russians don’t spend any money on the military whatsoever outside of Russian firms. No foreign anything, all 100% Russian. The only possible exception is relations with former critical industries in Ukraine- I think they recently signed an agreement of cooperation to help extend the life of the SS-18.

Here’s the article about Mi-8MTV-5s:

Five Mi-24PN Helicopters to Reach Russia’s Army Aviation Units This Year

Five Mi-24PN helicopters will be accepted into the inventory this year by army aviation units, and before 2015, a total of 40 of the new helicopters will reach the troops, including the Mi-28, Mi-24PN and Mi-8TV-5, the Russian Federation air force chief of army aviation, Viktor Ivanov, announced while at the 344th Combat Application and Cross-Training of Army Aviation Flight Crew Center in Torzhok. The new Mi-24PN will be sent to the North Caucuses military district, the general reported.

According to him, afterwards helicopters of this type will reach other military districts, too, all the way to the Far Eastern. They upgraded Mi-24PN (cannon, night) ((PUSHECHNYY, NOCHNOY)) combat assault helicopters are equipped with the “Raduga-III” observation and targeting system, which is combined with the “Zarevo” thermal imager.

Included in the targeting system are a television channel and laser range finder, an optical-mechanical direction finder package, and also a stabilization system. This equipment provides detection and identification of targets at night time and firing both with guided missiles and with unguided types of weapon.

Source: 18.04.06, ARMS-TASS

I assume those MiG-29s are Belarussian upgraded MiG-29BMs.

Actually I’ve heard the A-50 and A-50U are superior to the E-3 Sentry in some respects- in any event, it is certainly not grossly inferior to the E-3.

One point of complaint was that the amenities for the crew on the A-50 aren’t nearly as good as they were on the previous (and by all accounts, uselss) AEW&C for the Soviet Union, the MOSS. Not as comfortable, because the MOSS was converted from an airliner and the A-50 is from a cargo plane.

I heard the Tu-204 might be a replacement for the A-50, when they feel the need. Which will be a while from now I think.

If POGO saw a guy out there with a bottle of Windex cleaning the canopy they’d launch into their anti-F-22 rhetoric about how it must be inferior if you need something like Windex to keep it operational :rolleyes: They’re about the biggest bunch of dumba$$es I’ve ever seen. They claim they’re just looking out for government waste but what they don’t tell you is that in their eyes if it’s a weapon it’s a waste. :rolleyes:

In a word: ********. It’s clearly a humorous website entry and it’s a fact that the F-22A was a grossly mismanaged and wasteful program. Just because they got a working aircraft out of it sometime this century doesn’t somehow make it all better. Can you say Commanche?

I was under impression that work on KS-172 was cancelled?

No, we just never heard anything about it for a long time. Then it appears out of nowhere on the Su-35BM model 🙂