Hmmm Interesting, but flexible skins? Flexible nose? Looks like the KUB is the most advanced flanker variant to date. I wonder whether there are any plans to use the mission adaptive wing technology on any other Flankers-Su35BM for instance? How much of an advantage does this wing give?

Thanks Martinez and Ken. 🙂

SOC, When I was saying about the most capable carrier in asia I was including India and the former Gorshkov as well. 😉

The IRIAF dosnt operate Su-25’s but the Revolutionary guards corp does. If you wanted to use the Su-24 against an AEGIS destroyer your best bet would be to try and intergrate one of the big long range Russian anti-ship missiles like Yakhont or Moskit, but I still wouldnt hold out much hope.

Just something related to the MRCA contract, I have been looking into Phazotron’s AESA developments, and I stumbled upon this thread in the archive,

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=39719

The article that Pit posted in the first post suggests that the Zhuk-A could be much further along than we have been assuming. I think that the light fighter being mentioned in the article as under development by mig could be the Mig-35. If this is the case it could make the Mig-35 look far more attractive to the IAF, as Phazotron could disply its own Mig-29 AESA radar in the next couple of years, without Indian funding. Based on previous phazotron history, they usually only display mock-ups (such as the Zhuk-A mock-up shown at Maks 05, but of which no picture appears to be in the public domain) when the actual radar is not that far of.

Thoughts?

Apparently the Al-31FM1 will have have an improved life between overhauls of 750hrs as opposed to 500hrs for the regular AL-31F, and a thrust of 13.5 tonnes as opposed to 12.5 for the AL-31F. The Al-31FM2 which should begin bench testing this month should have a thrust of 14 tonnes. The aim for life between overhauls is 1000hrs.
I dont have any figures for the FM3 but it should start bench testing at the end of the year.
Combined with the Klimov 3-D TVC nozzles there is no doubt that the FM series engines would be a better choice than the AL-31FP.

http://www.salut.ru/eng/eng_news.html

Ken, Im sure I have said this before but your website is fantastic!!!
Does anybody have more details about the ‘mission adaptive wing’ which ken mentioned? how different is it to the ‘standard’ flanker wing and what exactly is its purpose?

This just adds further to the confusion surrounding this plane. What is it for? if they wanted a 2 seater Su-33 why not just do what they did with the Su-27 (put the second pilot behind the first). It seems to lack the dedicated strike equipment carried by the Su-34 (ie radar), making the idea of it being a dedicated striker seem unlikely.
And what about the AL-31FP engines-if they were needed to aid carrier take-off why not install the AL-31FM1 which has more thrust, and besides these appear to be laid out in the same way as on the MKI suggesting they are to improve agility.
Aparently at one point this aircraft flew with the Phazotron Zhuk-MSFE (Sokol) radar, what the significance is and whether the radar is still installed I dont know.
Many of these questions may have simple explanations which make me look stupid but they intrigue me.

So the FGM-29 is the Zhuk MF PESA.
So where did the Zhuk-A designation come from? What sort of AESA is phazotron planning on showing in 2006- will it just be s few experimental T/R modules linked together like Tikhimov (sorry for the spelling) did, or will it be a full on Mig-35 AESA radar?