Does the rumoured S-500 SAM play any role in this future ABM system?

And do these programmes finally mark the transition from PESA to AESA Air Defence Radars for the Russian Armed Forces?

t-50has 70 % of surface coverd with composite and 35 %of its weight.not bad,but the proportional will be increased

And the LCA is over 95 percent composites in surface area. Just saying HAL has some useful experience in that regard, which can no doubt benefit the PAK-FA and FGFA.

BTW Teer, regarding the LCA and MiG-29UPG’s EW suite, from what I gather it’s merely a partially indeginesed Elettronica Virgilius ER suite?:confused:

Phazatron is gunning to put an AESA on helos as well.

Only on naval Ka-52Ks, though.

India may learn very little about design from the stealth jet projects as most of the work has already been completed, Mohanty said.

“When we are talking about joint development, three areas are important—upgraded avionics, composite material related to stealth technology and the engine, which could have helped our own Kaveri engine programme,” he said. “I don’t think India is going to get much in design knowledge, maybe more in the production stage. I wish India could have joined earlier.”

Well… That’s a little depressing. Thanks to all the delays in negotiations the Indian government only formalised the agreement after the Russian’s had already frozen the design and started building the first prototype. Any TOT India’s going to get may mostly be in the form of production licenses and documentation for various components and materials when HAL starts building the FGFA.

I’m not sure what you mean – the Fregat-series are electronically scanned in elevation (FRESCAN-method), as is the Podberiyozovik. Also, EMPAR and ARABEL are engagement radars like the Tomb Stone of the S-300 (which I’m sure you know has been navalised).

The Fregats aren’t true PESA radars, though. They use a slotted planar array antenna: the beam may be electronically scanned in elevation, but ultimately FRESCAN is more of a ‘bridge’ technology between mechanically scanned radars and electronically scanned arrays.

And the Tomb Stone is just an illuminator; not the main radar of the Kirovs it’s mounted on. That honor still goes to the Fregat, which, frankly speaking, is essentially 80s technology…

22350 will have phased arrays, if everything goes well, on the first vessel.

Also apparently the 20385s will have AESA, potentially that Phazatron pyramid we saw.

Yes, but it’s strange they have to jump straight from conventional radars like Fregat to AESA. By rights they should already have PESA type radar systems on their ships now.

Having gone through a fair bit of literature on Soviet/Russian Air Defence Radars, I’ve always found it curious why there has never been a phased array search radar on Russian Navy ships to replace the old Fregat.

With the vast experience Russian Design Bureus have in PESA technology they could roll out at least an EMPAR/ARABEL-class rotating naval radar in no time. Heck, they could just ‘navalise’ an existing radar like the S-300 or 400’s air search radars by adding a stabilised mount and maritime scanning modes.

So why does the Fregat’s slotted antenna adorn Russian warships to this day?

Just done some research (and updated WIki),
the two systems are not compatible, from what I have read, India has fitted western probe/drogues to their aircraft, whilst Pakistan has done the opposite.
Interestingly, UPAZ can transfer 4,600lbs/min compared to 6,000lbs/min for boom or 2,000lbs/min for NATO probe/ drogue.

The higher fuel transfer rate is probably because of Russia’s large fleet of transports, bombers and heavy fighters, which require more fuel than the smaller fighters and transports that populate most Western fleets. Russian tankers don’t have booms, so the hose-drogue system has to compensate.

I noticed that the Russians also used a probe and drogue system, but can offload 2,700l/min (comared to Nato’s 2,000l/min).

Are the two systems compatible? If not, have India fitted their Western aircraft with Russian valves, or vice versa?

The Russian system is called UPAZ. The Indian IL-78s have Israeli-made refuelling equipment so I can’t say whether it’s compatible with Western aircraft. However India has been able to refuel its MiGs and Su-30s just fine with the Israeli system(which you could call Western).

The Pakistani IL-78s have UPAZ installed. If they’ve refuelled any F-16s with it then it means they are probably compatible.