Have you noticed how ‘straight-out-of-the-box’ all ‘professional’, ‘semi-professional’ or just the well-informed have been automatically comparing the T-50 to the F-22- the F-35 doesn’t even get a look in. Even some (premature) alarm bells regarding F-22 cancellation & export.
It’s like some subconscious drift.

If the T-50 was a turkey in the RCS department, do you think the Indians would be so keen to sign on the dotted line and hand over $Xbns?, LM would be clamouring all over the IAF, again the F-35 has never had a look in.

Sukhoi’s aiming for (at least) F-35 stealth with uncompromising flight performance, at least matching and in some areas exceeding the F-22.
Time will tell, but a very solid start, no?

I would think the T-50 is compared to the F-22 in terms of performance mainly because that is what it is trying to beat, not the F-35 which we all know is slower and has a larger RCS than the F-22.
I have yet to see any professional or even well informed people claim it will better the F-22 in the RCS area, infact it seems that many claim it will be more in the F-35 league in terms of RCS but with F-22 flight performance. I have yet to see any alarm bells ringing anywhere in any service regarding the T-50 though, perhaps time will reveal them.

I thought the Indian navy is now interested in the F-35 too but may be wrong.

EF was designed by 4 different nations and majority of delays weren’t due technical, but political reasons.
The same can’t be said about JSF, which culminated in recent change of program leadership.

That’s fine but when all is said and done the F-35 looks like it will still beat the Tyhpoon by a good clear margin in terms of being in service on time.
If the F-35 is a disaster at two years overdue, which is what many are claiming than by the same logic, regardless of the reasons, the Typhoon which was four to six years late was a complete an utter disaster and actually makes the F-35 delays look pretty good.

Why is it so important that is in service on time? The Typhoon for example was between four and six years late yet and the program was more than double the cost it was meant to be yet that caused no serious issues.
What i’m trying to say is that after looking through these forums I simply don’t understand why some aircraft manufacturers are held to different standards than others, it seems very biased. :confused:

Just remember that the current plane is a first prototype not more. And even for that most sources see the RCS around F-35. The final production version will be much more refined. Which means it will be world leading.

If I have read that right, are you seriously suggesting the T-50 prototype has an RCS better than the F-35?
And how will the final version be a world leader if it matches the F-35’s RCS but doesn’t match the F-22’s RCS, by my logic the F-22 would still be the world leader in that department.

The original plans saw the F-22 weighting some 14365 kg only. The aircraft weights 19700 kg nowadays or ~5t more.

Thankyou for explaining. Is the T-50 only around 1000kg lighter than the F-22 at empty weight though?

The Typhoon was late for many reasons, several years and much depends on what you see as the starting point. If you take the plans from 1988 (development start) as reference the aircraft is about 6-7 years late. Don’t know the original cost plan, but the total programme cost have gone up to a certain extend.

Thankyou for your information.

What I don’t understand is something that me and a friend were discussing last night and that is the Typhoon was six to seven years late and yet is still considered a good worthy program. Then when we talked about the JSF he claimed it was a disaster because it was, according to him two years late. He was steadfast in his conviction that it was a disaster but at the same time claimed Typhoon wasn’t because it, in his words worked out in the end very well and is faster. I couldn’t understand his way of thinking but maybe he knows something I don’t?

He also claimed the Typhoon would be able to do any mission the JSF can and says our government knows this but just wants to futher ally itself with America, is this true or somewhat streatching the truth?