Guys plz do not club the M2 with the SMT.

M2 is an entirely new airframe and new alloys which definitely could hold more fuel than the Super bugs.

And whoever said that the M2 has smokey engines hasn’t gone through the ACIG report where those budding enthusiasts who flew upon the M2 couldn’t find any smoke from the engines even in a ‘snowy white’ background.

Atleast self-professed ‘ghosts’ should not be so blatantly biased.

wasn’t the MiG LFI sold lock, stock, and barrel to Iran for some project called ‘shafaqh’ and probably has exactly 1 number of prototypes built on that basis.

Russian 5th generation fighter to fly in 2007, says air force chief
03-Dec-2004 17:31 GMT Source: Financial Times Limited

Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax-AVN web site

Moscow, 3 December: The 5th generation combat aircraft under development for the Russian air force at the Sukhoi company will fly no later than 2007, Army General Vladimir Mikhaylov, air force commander-in-chief, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday [ 3 December].

“I earlier reported to the supreme commander-in-chief (President Vladimir Putin – Interfax-AVN) exactly the same, and I have no doubts that it is real,” he said.

He added that he had visited Sukhoi on Thursday, and spent in excess of three hours discussing the problems arising in the course of the new combat tactical aircraft development. He also said that “a great work has been done” in this sphere. “I am satisfied with the results. The electronic model of the 5th generation fighter is ready, its aerodynamics and other parameters calculated,” he said.

According to him, over 100 Defence Ministry specialists, and both military and civilian research and development institutions are analysing the work done. “We instructed them to find as many shortcomings as possible so that the developers could eliminate them at early stages of the process and could move further at higher tempo,” he said.

“There are some unsolved problems, for instance, with the weapons suite and avionics. We should think over the possibility of introducing foreign elements, or maybe refuse this possibility at all. However, these are all on-stream problems, and we have made a good step forward, even in light of the limited funding in 2003-2004 and 2005,” he added.

“The aircraft will fly in 2007. I told Mikhail Pogosyan (the Sukhoi director general – Interfax-AVN) yesterday that the aircraft should fly in 2007, let it be 31 December, but 2007. I am sure that the task will be fulfilled,” he said.

Addressing the question whether the new aircraft will be a real 5th generation or a further derivative of the existing Su family, Mikhaylov said: “Of course, it will be a totally new aircraft. As for the modifications, we are working at them too. Last year, we made the Su-27SM Flanker. It was a good one. Even those who offered other modernization parameters recognize this fact. The Su-27SM is close to the 5th generation aircraft in terms of performance, but will never reach it, as the backlogs on the 5th generation tactical fighter will turn even better with the years.”

I would like to speculate on the existence of two designs for the PAK-FA project. One a single-engined design probably with a remote resemblance to the Su-30 air frame which would correspond more to the likes of the single-engined version of the JSF and which includes Vertical/Standard Take-off and landing.

Secondly a twin-engined fighter that resembles more to the F-22, and which is an entirely new airframe unlike the first one. Evaluation of different designs has possibly narrowed down to these two.

I N T E L L I G E N C E O N L I N E

India, Russia to build gen-next fighter

13 December 2004: India and Russia have agreed for joint development and production of a fifth-generation fighter aircraft to match the capabilities of the US F-22, and while this will be built on an Su-30 airframe, the engine, wings, avionics, fuel tank, and cockpit characteristics will be changed.

Decided during Russian president Vladmir Putin’s visit to India, the technical committees of the two sides will meet in March next year, and a joint-venture company to manufacture the aircraft will be floated, with a target to induct it into the Indian and Russian air forces by year 2015.

Sources said that Putin had agreed for India to scout for Western technologies to radically upgrade the fighter, which will be assembled in India, with improved sensor capability, integrated avionics, and finer situational awareness.

The competing Lockheed/ Boeing F-22 is being tested since April this year, incorporating stealth technology, a supercruise engine, and with a “first look/ first shot/ first kill” feature in all environments.

The Russians themselves began work on a fifth-generation Su-47 in 2002 with characteristic forward-swept wings, and although the aircraft’s performance was impressive, further testing has been dogged by funding problems, and the project has reverted to more conventional wings.

It is not clear how the new decision fits with the Su-47 research so far, but sources said the Russian side is keen to get started.

Good point
Think PN P-3Cs will be operating far out to sea, but probably within range of IAF jets with air refueling, hopefully our Orions will be escorted

That is the basic problem, because the a/c can take only one direction into the land in case of your country when it is coming back from sea, especially as you said if it goes far out. When you have remote Island countries surrounded by the oceans, they can profitably use the range of the P-3Cs and change their directions.

LCA at par with Gripen. This must be the joke of the century.

The LCA and Gripen atleast use GE-404 engines

They also do share many common American sourced subcomponents.

The 404 bound to be used in the production version of the LCA is stated to be more powerful than it’s counterpart in the Gripen. IN-20 version churns out 2k lb more thrust than the Gripen version.

The MMR and the PS/05 seem to have similar specs. Both are multi-mode pulse doppler radars and have a modular architecture. They both have datalinking capabilities to support 4-5 others. Both track around 10 targets at a time. Both manufacturers seem to be developing AESA radars.

Apart from that they have similar operational ceiling, max thrust loading, internal fuel, maximum thrust, Gross takeoff weight, similar height and length, wingspan, similar number of hardpoints for external stores, similar airframe designs as both have composite delta wings though swedish engineering has not led to the most efficient use of volume nor composites.

The similarities seem to be far too many to wish away.