USSR vs Russia
The area of 22 402 200 square kilometres / 17 075 400 sq km
Population 293 047 571 people / 144 526 278 peopleThe territory of Russia is 76.2 % of the USSR, the population is 49.3%.
76.% * 49.3 % = 37.5 % – we get the “potential” of Russia relative to the USSR.
By that logic, if we add another factor we would reduce even further the calculated potential. In this case an average of the factors would be a more correct calculation method. Going that way, GDP should be a factor too, but if there is no capable shipyard then the potential to build carriers is automatically zero. Since Russia has most of the scientific institutions of USSR, biggest GPD by far and best military industry it is just a matter of time until the capacities are developed in the level they are needed, be it for vessels of 40 kT or 60 kT, that is not the core of the issue IMO.
[USER=”40269″]FBW[/USER]
I could agree in most of what you said, with minor comments. SSBN fleet and construction is reasonably well, at least Boreis are being produced at decent paces. But large surface combatants are of course a big challenge. I see signs of improvement in several areas and a clear determination on the leadership that the navy and associated industry are a must, so they are developing them according to long term plans. Apparently 22350s can be produced now on reasonable paces and if all goes to plan, 6 will be in service by 2025, Poliment / Redut as the base of AD for all new classes is operational and domestic gas turbines start to be available again. So a good number of roadblocks have been removed, the work must continue until shipyards and supply chain are efficient and capable of handling bigger vessels. Recent orders and announcements about bigger surface ships just point out the progress made and increasing confidence of the navy to move forward. Will take time and effort in huge amounts, but there is no other real option for a country like Russia.
The potential of Russia 37.5% (population + territory), the Soviet Union built seven aircraft carriers:
1123 2 * 19200 t
1143 3 * 43220 t
1143.4 * 44500 t
1143.5 * 55,000
The total displacement of 267560 tons.Russia can afford: 267560 t * 0.375 = 100335 t. Promising aircraft carrier: two units of 50,000 tons each, or one larger ship.
Ok I see, but I don’t think this rule can be applied without further refinements. Russia has much more than the 0.375 of the former surface and resources of the Soviet Union, especially the high level technical ones. Also the shipyard capable for these vessels was lost. So it is not a linear function of population loss.
Why not ? VKS does not have funded LMFS so other than the VTOL there is no other type we know off under work.
Just wanted to check whether I had mist any relevant development here…
Unless VKS plans to completely replace the Mig-29 and Su-25 with a UCAV then this VTOL/STOL will have prospects to replacement for VKS and Navy in Medium weight category in Mig-29 MTOW category
Let’s go step by step:
– MiG-29: does Russia need a new medium fighter in the long term? Short term it can be replaced with MiG-35. Some official said this and Su-57 are the future of the air force. VKS needs to buy and establish operational conditions for the plane before foreign countries can buy with peace of mind
– Su-25 is the plane with least need of replacement IMO. And if it is, an UCAV would be the best option in order to perform CAS with acceptable tolerance to attrition.
– Is there a real need to produce a light fighter for the VKS? I don’t see it quite clear to be honest! The gap until 6G can be covered with current units + Su-57. Then a A2A oriented UCAV would make more sense, to boost the Su-57 with numbers and expandability. Okhotnik would take care of A2G roles. A light fighter could be a good export product in any case.
– A newer plane using available engines would need to be either big (2x Izd. 30/Izd. 117) or light size (1 engine). Otherwise, either a new R-79 or RD-33 would need to be developed. This may be decided out of industrial base considerations, but economically doesn’t seem to make sense.
It does but it is a heavy aircraft as heavy as you can get and they would need a medium fighter in Mig-29K class in size weight
Why? New hull designs allow bigger air wing. A plane like Su-57 on board would be the most powerful naval fighter for some years to come and allow Russia to partially compensate for far lower numbers both in vessels and naval aircraft.
For me the problem of the Russian naval aviation for the future has two main aspects:
> CV, which needs protection against high end threats
> LHDs, where some AD and strike capability from fighters is welcome and which IMHO would not operate alone in high threat areas.
The Tu-204SM was a significant program for them as it was the first narrow body where they replaced 3 Crew in cockpit with 2 and introduced better engine i.e PS-90A2 and they simply went over to MS-21 program …..I think Tu-204SM has good potential if they replace the PS-90A2 with PD-14 engine may be PD-14M and considering its 100 % Russian components they can sell it to Cuba or Iran which is once again under sanctions to even buy civil types
True, such countries would be prime customers too
If I understand the situation correctly, Russia can build up to four aircraft-carrying cruisers with a displacement of 40,000 tons. Each of them will require at least 24 short take-off and vertical landing fighters.
Would be great to know where this understanding comes from, I am following the issue and have not found evidence to think this is the clear path forward, even being clearly possible. RuN has said they want 70 kT vessels. New Krylov developments would allow for such a capability with lower displacement but even then 40 kT seems right at the very lowest end of what allows to increase capabilities compared to Kuznetsov.
STOVL or STOL: as said it does not seem totally clear it is STOVL and not STOL. In any case, I would see the development of a STOVL fighter if only it would make some economical sense. It will cost a lot of money and many years, for a very small number of planes. In order to make it feasible:
– Co-develop with China and maybe other countries (now even Turkey may join) that have expressed intentions to use STOVL planes for their LHDs. That would spread the development costs at least.
– Create a plane that can reasonably be used also in CTOL version by VKS and foreign countries. This is not trivial, see JSF for an example of negative effects.
Probably it will be single-engine multi-purpose aircraft. Options two:
– Light Multi-Functional Fighter (LMFS) with one engine “izd 30” 17500 kgf / 11000 kgf
– Medium Multi Functional Fighter (SMFI) with one engine 25000 kgf / 16000 kgf
I am sceptic about such thrust values for izd. 30, two tones more thrust than F119 looks exaggerated to me given they have the same size. The plane with this engine should be quite light (below 10 tones empty) and hence limited for the role of defending the fleet against high end threats.
The medium plane would need a new engine, which means even more money for an already doubtful project. For carriers you want top performance, for LHDs you need small footprint. A medium fighter fulfils none of the two requirements as far as I can see.
Why not Su-57 as naval fighter? It seems the obvious, short term, cheap solution that provides the best performance and helps in getting bigger production for Su-57. I fail to see what is the big problem honestly!
IMHO the ideal solution would be two-pronged:
1. Su-57 as main naval fighter for new RuN carriers, 2-3 squadrons per ship.
2. A new light plane that could have the following versions:
> STOVL UCAV: removing the cockpit would provide the space for a lifting fan and keep the main engine placed as far back as in conventional planes. This is the best propulsive solution IMO and would avoid aerodynamic and layout side effects with weapons bays and fuel tanks. It would be used in lower threat scenarios from LHDs helping with strike and AD roles with remote command and be turned later in fully autonomous, when this can be realistically done.
> CTOL/STOL UCAV for VKS as complement for Su-57
> CTOL, manned version for export and eventual RuAF needs.
To play around with the manned / unmanned factor would allow to get an airframe that is capable both of CTOL and STOVL operation without the downsides we see in JSF.
[USER=”58228″]mig-31bm[/USER]
I would not like to digress too much in the Su-57 thread. There will always be “buts” and “ifs” to any tactic or technology. My point was originally that WB in the plane had been criticised for the best part of a decade when in fact are an unmatched strength of the design.
To close the “to stealth or not to stealth” issue from my side: my point remains that it is always useful, but with top tier rivals many of the media claimed capacities are simply not realistic. Biggest use will be against weak ADs where stealth allows some kind of impunity that other means do not. So it is very interesting for offensive postures and not so much for defensive ones.
To the “airframe vs. avionics” issue: none of both can be neglected. As soon as US gets newer platforms that stand out because of range, speed, payload etc. we will see most people that now dismiss those characteristics as “old fashioned” jumping in the bandwagon when the media starts hyping them again, mark my words.
Anything goes if it is about disarming Russia I see, now the reason is a cursed carrier. That is just funny.
BTW newly patented hull by Krylov allegedly allows 25-30% reduction of resistance and tremendous increase of internal weapons load. Together with updates of naval aviation, order of new hulls / expanded vessel classes and availability of domestic gas turbines as exposed by others here shows a clear commitment towards the development of a blue water navy. Russia today is not hostage to ideology and rather a pragmatic power, they will fight for their right to have a say in the world’s issues by developing their navy just as anybody else.
They are looking at VTOL/STOL types for AC and perhaps even as replacement for the Mig – 29 and Su-25.
Do you mean MiG-29 and Su-25 in VKS? Where have you seen that?
Regarding the STOL /STOVL discussion, let us keep in mind Su-57 is extremely capable as STOL, confirmed by designer and by Sukhoi implemented technology projects addressing high AoA landing modes. So it is not 100% clear to me they refer to STOVL exclusively.
They need to relook into the option of re-engine Tu-204SM with PD-14 …. this will give the SM atleast 10-12 % fuel saving over PS-90A2 and then re-introduce it for Russian airlines.
There is tremendous scope for Tu-204SM with PD-14 and MS-21 to co-exist
I have read about this indeed. They can use the new engines with their older airframes, both Tu-204 and Il-96 where fine planes that can very well cover the domestic needs if properly re-engined.
To be precise, that is not a requirement from US military, but instead came from a document by Canadian government.
On top of that, the accurate wording is: “In an UNCLASSIFIED ILLUSTRATION of a stealth analysis, the F-35 had an approximately 95% percent improvement over first to fourth generations fighters-meaning a much smaller signature”
Thanks for the clarification.
[USER=”43812″]moon_light[/USER]
I can’t really discuss such issues and I am therefore not inclined to do so, to be honest. We have tried before here like a million times and it always comes to conflicting versions of the same phenomena, without us regular forum users being capable of going further in the assessment. All I can say is that Russian sources are very consistent in pointing out the average RCS of Western VLO designs to be in the order of magnitude I referred above. Due to the context of some of them I infer this relates to centimeter wavelengths BTW. Additional support comes from the fact that US military required the RCS reduction of the F-35 to be a 95% percent compared to 1st to 4th gen fighters (factor of 20, consistent with Russian estimations). Whether this is true or not, or tactical relevant or not or even compatible with Western practice of reporting min RCS values I don’t know, so please don’t kill the messenger!
F-22, F-35 RCS is smaller than 0.1 m2 by several order of magnitude,
F-117 without radar absorbing material can obtain approximately 0.01 m2 at 0.5Ghz.
Sure, tell the inventors of PTD they don’t know a thing about radar scattering. I don’t have other chance than taking claims from both sides together with hard facts and actual events and try to make sense out of them to form my own opinion. Do you know better?
Anyway I don’t want to open this discussion again please, it is pointless and tiresome. I was just providing some data that are not normally discussed.
Are you under the assumption that there is no cost overrun or underestimate of price when a project is run by state owned company ?
No, in fact corruption and embezzlement are a chronic issue in Russian MIC. But the system works differently and there is not a systemic incentive to rip-off the MoD. In the case of Su-57, the price estimation was given as said previously just before the signing of the first contract so government must have had pretty realistic values by then.
I am not saying supercruise doesn’t give certain benefit, but if US care about it enough, they would have gave F-35 ability to super cruise
It was clearly a design compromise given the main roles, presence of F-22 and aero design motivated by payload and STOVL requirements mostly IMHO. It does not count as an advantage of the design that it has less than stellar supersonic performance. But we will see how things evolve. Also as said, USN is now in need of a plane capable to defend the fleet competently, we will see what the requirements are.
. In addition, i don’t think it is a must have to penetrate IADS, B-2, B-21, Okhotnik-B, Avenger all lack that capability eventhough they are designed to penetrate IADS.
B-2 changed from high altitude to low level flight, showing the amount of faith they had on their ability to fly into Russian IADS unnoticed. Don’t have info enough on B-21, Okhotnik not necessarily meant to penetrate IADS, Russians are keen on stand-off weapons. Russian UHF radars claim 200 km detection range for 0.1 sqm target, with enough precision to guide SAMs. They also refer RCS for Western designs that are in that order of magnitude (0.1 to 1 sqm). They claim they have solved the detection problem of quadcopters and other extremely small radar returns. I personally remain very sceptical of the ability of a VLO or Ultra VLO or whatever to penetrate IADS without going low level as it has been done always.
You can detect silent SAM with SAR, IR system, GMTI or you can bait them with decoys like MALD-X, once they engage the launcher location could be found.
To a certain extent. These will operate normally guided by long range radars, so no need to switch on even in the event of a MALD. IR/radar camouflage/decoys exist, beyond the natural one provided by orography, forests and other hideouts over millions of sqm. EW systems can disrupt SAR at long distances. Most probably the short and medium range SAMs will simply be hidden, waiting for command and targeting info and you will see nothing until some missiles rise up from the treetops. The newer systems don’t even use radar for detection and guidance. To make a long story short, these offensive tactics and approaches work very well against low level enemies but can be seriously degraded by advanced ones that have worked very hard and consistently through decades to make their AD solid and as free of weak spots as possible, Russia being the prime example here.
With current long range SAM, i don’t think you can stay outside the reach of adversary even with the help of supercruise.
S-400 is 400 km range. If your CM has 500 km range, how can’t you stay away?
Current ramjet air to air missiles also have very long range that they can easily out range the distance a subsonic stealth fighter can be detected with IRST.
The bottom line, current and future weapons can out range the detection distance very easily.
There are other means of detection apart from the ones carried by the plane or SAM site itself. Voronezh and Container can control the airspace of the whole Eurasia.
You started with: ” Bigger plane will be more expensive but if is 30% bigger and still has the same avionics, it wont be 30% more expensive. And if it can carry twice the ordnance twice as fast, then it is 4 times more effective, so far less units are needed”
My argument is that a bigger 5G plane than F-35 does not carry double the load out of F-35 in many situation.
Fair enough, lets wait for the development of events. We know so little about Su-57 that this is not a fair discussion, since we have info on F-35 roadmap while Russians don’t say anything. But I think my point stands due to the different WB volume available in both planes.
Let say we only consider current situation, F-35 with 8 SDB internally is for certain not half of what F-22, J-20 or Su-57 currently carry.
SDB is a small, short range weapon with small warhead and frail construction. It is not the equivalent to a Kh-59MK2, even if it allows a plane to engage many targets. It is like saying a 30 mm round is like a 120 mm one since both hurt.
In addition, when i talk about future weapons such as MSDN, SACM, HSSW, or DEW, I am talking about weapons which are being studied, developed , researched. AFRL, DoD , LM are talking about them, they are by no mean the same as drawing made by forum members.
Very true, but they are also not a given.
For example: cost, range and so on
If you think LM, and GE claims about F-35 is over optimistic, then the same skepticism should be put on what Sukhoi and UAC said.
I referred to claims about adaptive engine which looked quite sales oriented and misleading. The Western RCS values are also misleading IMO, even if true. If Russian officials praise the Su-57 it means essentially nothing to me. But when data are provided I expect them to be true, from both sides. Try to find how many hard data have been provided about Su-57, you will find quite little in fact.
I heard about R-77M but as far as i know we stopped hearing anything about it and now they are introduce RVV-SD with normal rocket motor
I don’t doubt Russian ability to make a ramjet air to air missiles.
I doubt if they will put ramjet air to air missiles in full scale production due to cost, requirements and so on
True, they have their stocks of older missiles. They are in no rush to scrap all of them and produce the next Wunderwaffe by the thousands,as far as it is not considered critical for defending the country.
OTH-B radars work at 3-30 Mhz
UHF radars work at 300 Mhz-3Ghz
In terms of bands, UHF is 300 Mhz-1 GHz if I am not wrong, 1-2 GHz is L band. But I get your point.
UHF radars are already inaccurate but OTH radars are far worse.
UHF is claimed both by US and Russia as targeting capable. No doubt the resolution of OTH is lower.
In addition, OTH-B radar are enormous and stationary targets, i say they can be get rid off by sub-launched cruise missiles easily.
They are literally thousands of km inside of the territory… they are not easy to reach to start with and attacks in that depth would mean existential threat and hence maximum retaliation.
What distance do you think R-37 seeker can track a stealth fighter?
That is a good question and I doubt anybody knows, considering jamming, decoys, geometry of the attack etc etc. Hard to say, but I doubt a F-35 pilot would stay on course with one (or several) of those things coming in its direction at Mach 6. The seeker is quite big and capable against interference and a 60 kg warhead does not need a direct hit to tear a fighter apart. Those missiles BTW fly high where drag is lower and attack from the upper aspect, where RCS reduction measures are not so effective, so I doubt pilots would like to try their luck against them.
[USER=”58228″]mig-31bm[/USER]
If you don’t mind I am going to focus a bit more on Su-57 issues ok?
That what they said, but you know the cost will always creep up, i have yet to see a modern fighter program where the cost is less than expected.
and since Su-57 isn’t in full scale production, any cost figure at this point in time is a guesstimate
This is no private contractor bargaining with DoD. UAC belongs to Rostec so it is quite different situation regarding fees, cost creep and conditions for serial production. It simply does not work like in the West.
A Russian official does not operate on “guesstimates”. They have the best information from program management, and you can be sure they are not going to sign a blank check for the production of the plane. These statements came from summer 2018 IIRC, just previously to signing of the contract for the first two serial units so with pretty concrete knowledge of the production costs. In any case the important thing is to know the rough price of the plane in rubles. Even considering a very high 4billion ruble per plane (double of the Su-35 price), producing 100 units over 10 years would mean 400 billion or roughly 1.5% of MoD budget over that period. That is not going to make Russia insolvent.
The issue with this discussion: we don’t know the exact number for anything: the detection distance of the SAM?, the velocity of the SAM? , the range you can find the SAM? the range the SAM site can detect your aircraft ? it is very hard to make a conclusion
for example: if the range which you can detect the SAM site is less than the max range of your weapons then supercruise doesn’t really help (which is the case for JSM, JSOW-ER, LRASM, MALD-V, AGM-X, KH-59MK2)
You can also easily make up numbers to make the case for supercruising, but the bottom line is we know too little, if it was so simple and clear cut, SR-71 and Avo Arrow will be far more popular.
Supercruising was identified both by US and USSR as a key capability of the 5G fighters, both for survivability against SAMs and to dominate aerial engagements. It does not mean it is easy to achieve from a practical point of view, low BPR engines needed are going to drag the operational costs and range of the planes using them, so air forces are going to prefer higher BPR engines and a set of characteristics that are cheaper and more practical for everything but high-end combat. So it is better and everybody knows it, it does not mean everyone can allow to enjoy it. If VCEs start appearing, we will see supercruising being implemented in earnest and without the downsides low BPR engines come with.
That depends on your altitude and velocity. Higher altitude, the air is cooler and you stand out more from the background.
In my opinion, IR sensor can’t detect fighter from 300 km in most case, however, it won’t have to, because you should also consider the distance that your stealth aircraft can detect a silent SAM site.
How will the plane detect a silent SAM? Today they are mobile and can be hidden in the terrain or forests, you have no chance of finding them AFAIK.
IR detection, head on, is like 50 km from what we know. In all certainty it is easier to detect a fast flying target than a subsonic one, but the advantage of the former is to attack while remaining outside of the reach of the adversary. That is how lopsided exchange ratios can be achieved, otherwise the result of a battle it is much more balanced.
1- Sukhoi has not talk about this configuration let alone testing it, up till now
2- R-77 with folding wing is not exist yet or if they currently have the plan to make one
In short, that configuration is purely the product of forum member drawing missiles inside the cutaway drawing of Su-57 without taking into account various important factors such as weapon separation when launched or tunes inside the bays. You can’t use that to support the statement ” Su-57 will carry double the load out of F-35″
OF COURSE
I started from current situation with A2G ordnance, you replied with future weapons and possibilities and air to air missiles. I just said there is a potential to improve volume use in such big WBs. I submit if this was a critical issue, RuAF would engage in the effort of getting substantially higher MRAAM loads in them. But given how opaque the Su-57 development roadmap is, we could maybe not know of these layouts even if they were operative. Not trying to prove anything beyond the obvious existence of space that would be used. Regarding the clearances, I sent also samples of real world weapons packed really tight, not unlike my drawing.
1. You could say it is over optimistic claims but on the otherhand, why limit it to F-35? how can you know Sukhoi claims about Su-57 isn’t overly optimistic as well?
What claims?
2. F-35 can be equipped with ramjet air to air missiles, Russian don’t have ramjet air to air missiles in production or in development at the moment, it could be possible that in 25-30 years, Russian can have scramjet air to air missiles but not now or in the near future, you can’t just ignore that. They have not talk about scramjet air to air missiles yet. So to included scramjet or ramjet missiles along with 8 MRAAMs configuration in Su-57 to compare with current or 2025 F-35 is not accurate or reasonable.
R-77PD was to be ramjet. We stopped hearing anything about it, or at least I find nothing. With Russian programs this means nothing, it could be already in testing, or having been cancelled altogether. In any case they are aware of this development and have had ramjets for decades, so it is not reasonable to think it is beyond their capabilities to develop an equivalent to Meteor.
In any case I think a scramjet LRAAM would be a thing. Say 9 M, R-37 equivalent with similar or even increased range, or a super long range missile to threaten AWACS even before they can lead other fighters against you. The advantage is for Russia in this particular aspect, don’t know if they will develop it or not but the technical capacity seems to be there.
Secondly, in a fight between stealth aircraft: If your radar is far less effective due to stealth, and your IR sensor only managed to detect your opponents from 35-45 km, and the NEZ of your ramjet missiles is 100-150 km then supercruise or not probably doesn’t matter
.
True, air combat normally happens at such distances rather than hundreds of km. It depends a lot on the particular situation.
3. I think power generator also depends on the exact configuration of the airplane, F-35B can use its engine drive shaft to power the generator for the laser system. Doing a similar thing on Su-57 could be impossible
It would loose a lot of space for fuel and still have issues to cool the electronics, but the existence of the model with shaft and a space where it can be placed is interesting indeed. A little too soon to say Su-57 cannot be modified though. And also to say this is a given in F-35, still far away in the future.
I don’t think skywave OTH radar can provide targeting solution.
UHF was also claimed too imprecise but E-2D is apparently capable of providing targeting data for AAM launch. We don’t know what is really the limit now. And besides R-37 and many other missiles have ARH so they don’t need to be guided during end game.
So does okhotnik turn the su-57 into an AWACs(twice the percent for detection range) and because of this capability I am assuming AWACS will not fly with the SU-57. Okhotnik and the SU-57 can both have stealth profiles. while one of them can carry a 400km missile internally to knock out a high RCS AWACs flying with other stealth aircraft. Are there any projects from the US or Chinese performing the same roles with their drones for their stealth aircraft? I heard this spring flight tests will be done for the okhotnik.
They seem to refer a video processing system called Okhotnik, not to the cooperation of Su-57 and the new UCAV to increase the former’s radar detection range.
E-2 is always UHF.
True stealthflanker, don’t know where I read L band. Funny how it is marketed as an anti-stealth solution without any issue due to lack of precision of lower band etc.
No deff not four missiles, but how about three?
Guess its a matter of the missile size
It is definitely tight and it is just a very crude estimation to show the space is roughly there. What are exactly the minimum clearances that need to be respected? I guess you understand we talk about a matter of few centimeters, I cannot know if 7 cm is ok and 5 not. This depends on many factors.
It has been clear for some time that each side of the weapons bay on the Su-57 will carry one R-77 class missile for a total of four. This was confirmed if I’m not mistaken by some of the information that came out (unfortunately so much information was lost with the deletion of previous Pak-Fa threads). No offense to paralay, but his drawings are just that, drawings. Even those make clear there is zero chance of some four missiles per bay. Weapon separation and space for launchers is “real world”, drawing schematics based on guesstimates of bay dimensions, and internal layout while packing missiles in like sausages is not.
Happy to be able to ask someone who apparently has exact info on what are minimum clearances for weapon release, in this case considering the missile would be guided outside of the bay by the ejecting pylon. How much is it ok and how much is not? What is the exact measure of the internal space in the Su-57 bays?
Below some “real world” clearances for you, showing what can be done when ordnance needs to fit really tight. Tell me how many centimeters those SDBs are apart from each other.
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Of course it is easier when clearances are half a meter each side, but that is not a luxury stealth planes have. As the technology improves and experience is built up, the only way is to optimize the spaces, exactly as US is doing. Kh-59MK2 in the Su-57 bays have no big clearances either.
Barring any any actual news or technical details, this thread has turned into the equivalent of “alternate history” topics on military forums. “Wouldn’t it be cool if”, is a poor substitute for hard intel. Same goes for VCE technology on the iizd. 30, when you have to selectively interpret an interview, you are departing from available information in search of confirmation bias based on what you want to be true.
No, it remains the same place it has always been, where people which actually try to talk about the plane (whatever small bits and pieces of info are released) are continually disrupted by US naysayers with no interest of debating anything but in keeping the program permanently under a negative light. It is decidedly tiresome.
You know the information available about the Su-57 is extremely restricted. So it takes a lot of effort and frankly even imagination to figure out what stands behind the hints we receive. It would be much nicer to have full info about the plane with current capabilities and roadmaps, but MoD has not the slightest interest in this happening, which is BTW the right approach about issues critical for national security. It is easy and cheap to complain because people try to make sense of the available info, but your accusation that we are just searching for what we want to see instead of the truth is completely gratuitous and I find almost offended by it. If you don’t like it don’t participate, there is no more juicy info to talk about, period.
For instance Izd. 30, now that you raise the topic: what part of SFC of high BPR engine + highest specific thrust of any equivalent does not imply VCE in your opinion? Discuss it with facts if you think I am wrong, I am more than ready to be corrected, but mocking the topic without nothing concrete to say is contributing nothing useful to the discussion and rather taking the thread even more in the wrong direction.
Sad and so much irreplaceable information was lost on all those deleted Pak-Fa threads. This is what I mean by bay layout, physical dimensions without layout is pretty useless:
Given the sizes of Russian weapons destined for the Su-57 it is not very difficult to infer that the bays have two launchers each and allow free space at least 40 cm + pylon + clearances in depth. We cannot be sure but this looks the most likely possibility.
Isn’t E-2 Hawkeye operate in UHF band?
It is mobile, it is used in anti air and it have been sold to Egypt, France, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Singapore and Taiwan.
E-2D is L band AFAIK
Isn’t R-74 and R-73 and RVV-MD all have very big tail
Paralay answered this already. In any case I don’t know if I have seen R-74M2 already, the missile programs to go with Su-57 deliver quite little info about their progress.
I don’t think you need a cruise missiles that can fly 550 km to defeat medium range, mobiles SAM such as Buk or Tor-M1.
SPEAR with max range of 140 km is more than adequate to that task, even F-35B can carry 8 internally, it also got an jet engine for low altitude launch.
Please allow me to be sceptic with these new wonder weapons that are going to be four or eight times smaller than current ones while doubling their range and being ultra lethal. Will they even have a warhead? There are a number of ways of degrading the guidance of smart weapons you know, if the warhead is 5 kg HE (just to say something) it needs to impact right at the target to have any effects at all. You cannot go around physics just because somebody in JSF program wants to sell more weapons under too optimistic premises, as it always happens BTW in order to get a development program started.
In any case what I meant is that these kind of air defences are always going to be difficult to find and have ranges enough to attack planes at substantial distances, in case you carry external weapons. See Serbia again, they didn’t have the radars on all the time or were static, waiting for someone to eliminate them.
In any case, these weapons and tactics would be more or less ok against low level militaries. I don’t see this working against powerful IADS, simply not. And it makes sense, since they are used always against weaker countries, not against China or Russia.
it is too early to predict Su-57 cost
Gutenev is quoted as saying it would cost 2.5 times less than F-22 and F-35. That would be very roughly between 36 and 57 million, at the time this was said (2018). I guess they know how much it ill cost.
Secondly, i don’t think you can design weapons bay for F-35 so that it can carry four JSM internally
I guess you can’t, that is the point.
fighter are more than capable of carrying missiles which can out range SAM, but i don’t think any of them can out accelerate or out climb medium/long range SAM
It depends. In any case you know the engagement geometry and kinetic capabilities of each involved element is relevant. A fast supercruiser will be able to come much closer to a SAM than the equivalent subsonic strike plane. An anti radiation missile launched from it will reach the target much faster, its missiles will have much more range etc. Engagement windows depend very strongly on the target, no point IMO in discussing this.
Flying faster will increase IR signature which will increase time of exposure
What AD system can detect a plane at say 300 km via IR?
Once you carry ordnance which can fly 550 km or even 900 km (MALD-V) , it isn’t very necessary to carry them internally
Again, depends how deep in the enemy territory the targets are, and what air force is countering you.
If i recall correctly, the current load is 4 MRAAM with potential space for 6 MRAAM, which is quite similar to F-35, J-20
Nevertheless, it is surely not double the load.
The bays from what we know would have space for 4 R-77 sized missiles side to side if they had folding wings. They would need two double pylons, currently all indicates there are only two single ones per bay so this third missile you mention would not have any point to attach it to.
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In an extreme case, maybe additional missiles could be hung on the doors of the WB like in F-35, going to 6 or even 8 missiles per bay. Have not really checked but I guess is doable since the bay is very deep. This would make sense for instance to do patrol with 2 x SRAAM, 6 x MRAAM and the second bay carrying additional fuel, maybe around 1500 kg more that would we like 15% extra fuel for range close to 4000 km, considering current range and fuel capacity estimations are reasonable. That would be many hours on station and very long reach indeed.
The air frame will remain but there are various enhancement that make it less of an issue:
1-ACE engine with 20% more thrust
2- Ramjet air to air missiles
3- DEW
4- Miniature weapons with extreme range: AGM-X, GBU-X, SiAW
They will not be the only ones improving technology and will start the race with a burden other planes do not have. To the concrete points:
1. 20% thrust increase in what flying regime? Again over optimistic claims from manufacturers eager to sell. If it is VCE it will help increase dry thrust. But it will not necessarily improve subsonic fuel economy just by being VCE. A plane like F-35 will welcome more thrust at that regime but will it turn into a supercruiser like the F-22? Most probably not, because of the high drag inherent to the design.
2. Ramjet AAM: not the only ones working on this. In fact Russia with Zircon is close to deploy scramjet missiles, do you want to bet how long until this tech goes to a very long range AAM?
3. True. Twin engine planes have an advantage in terms of power generation and big airframes can evacuate more heat. Russia works on this actively too.
4. See above. Physics rule, a small missile will always have smaller range and warhead than a bigger one despite all Powerpoints in this world.
Mach 10 is the top velocity when missile travel out of atmosphere (same as all ballistic missile), at that point it can be intercept by SM-3
It never leaves atmosphere. SM-3 is of no use.
Once reentry Kinzhal will be slower, furthermore, i would imagine it need to hit its target still, so the direction of travel will eventually come back to the original flight path, and the interceptor missiles will intercept in a head on collision rather than tail chase so i guess that account for something
But the missiles manouver, very hard. You don’t know when it is going to move in what direction so you end up eventually chasing it.
Bottom line, the maneuvering, hyper sonic target drone like GQM-163, AQM-37, Silver Sparrow could be intercepted, so SM-6 clearly don’t have trouble with target faster than Mach 2.2
It is not that simple and I don’t take these assurances demonstrate the ability to intercept real enemy hypersonic missiles in combat conditions, at all. If you have any good link it would be interesting to look at it. After decades of ABM scams I am not very confident in these statements, specially when physics point it would be very difficult or impossible.
What i trying to convey: Kinzhal is class as an air launched ballistic missiles rather than a Scramjet or tactical boost glider, the kind of hypersonic weapon that will give US armed force an issue is boost glider and scram jet missiles
This is probably very confusing but the ability to fly at hypersonic speed but doesn’t give a weapon the same capability as the so called supersonic weapon being developed now.
Most ballistic missiles can fly at hypersonic speed but they can’t do so at the same altitude or flight path as current developing hypersonic weapon.
The maneuvering capability of Kinzhal is likely similar to Pershing II and Blue/ Silver Sparrow aka terminal maneuvering in re entry.
I understand what you mean but don’t completely agree. Air breathing CMs or gliders have their own advantages against BMs. But creating a SAM system capable of intercepting a manoeuvring hypersonic missile of any type is far from being an issue already mastered.
Ramjet missiles like Meteor can maintain Mach 4 velocity out to about 230 km and Mach 3 out to 270 km when launched from 50kft, M1.3 while Mig-31 launched R-37 can out range that, i think it is a big stretch to assume Mig-31 can engage stealth fighter from such distance.
They don’t need to see the stealth fighters at all, they would have OTH to do that for them. And how would the stealth planes remain stealth while they locate targets and guide missiles towards them? Long story short, it is far from an obvious thing. BTW, what is the engagement window of a 3 M missile against a 2.8 M plane?
The top speed goal of Su-57 was originally Mach 2.35, but this was reduced to Mach 2.1 and then to Mach 2
This is more or less what I head too. Apparently higher speed would have required to increase weight to make the keels more robust but have no further details.
as i heard the main reason for the difference is that the T-50 uses more composite materials in its primary structure than the Su-35S, which makes heavy use of titanium.
Different parts of the plane use different materials. Structure is alu, surface is mostly composite, areas around the engines are titanium. No big changes in 5G from 4G apart from having big a complex surfaces created in composites
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