The Russian Ministry of Defense has published a propaganda video featuring the main military aircraft of Moscow. In the video, published for the Russian Aerospace Force Day, there is also the first Russian fifth generation fighter, the Sukhoi T-50. Although there are other platforms such as the MiG-29KUB, Yak-130, Su-35, Su-33, Tu-95 and the two acrobatic teams in the country, the protagonist of the new movie is the PAK-FA.
The eighth T-50, equipped with the systems foreseen in the specifications of the Ministry of Defense such as the AESA radar and the three-dimensional vector thrust control, completed the final configuration flight tests that ended two weeks ago. The ninth T-50 will fly in September.
The production plant of the Aircraft Association Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the Russian Far East will start mass production within the 2018, with deliveries of the first fighter stealth of Moscow in the early months of the 2019.
Right from the start, the design of the T-50 was considered quite sophisticated if not similar in performance to that of the F-22 Raptor. If it can be even higher this is all to be demonstrated.
The Russians confirm that the Pak-Fa will be built in a number between 800 and exemplary 1000, including exports. For the T-50, an operating cycle of forty years is expected, with an estimated cost of 100 million dollars per hunt. The twelve T-50 that will be delivered to the Ministry of Defense, will be subjected to various tests before committing the government with an order of several billion dollars. Started the Low Rate Initial Production, the cost of the PAK-FA should range from the 100 to the 120 million per sample.
There are no data on development costs incurred. Figures that must be placed in the majestic rearmament plan wanted by Putin that will end, as a first phase, in the 2020. The T-50 represents the first experience for the Russians with absorbent radar materials, compared to the thirty-year experience gained by the Americans with the F-117.
In the video, the two T-50 fly with a pair of AL-41F1, developed for Su-35 Flanker-E. Although exceptional for pre-stealth, like the Su-35, the AL-41F1 engines were not designed for the particular profile of a fifth-generation fighter.
The Russian Ministry of Defense places great trust in the prototype of the new Izdeliye 30, considered the definitive engine for the T-50. Unfortunately, the development of the propulsion system will only be completed between the 2025 and the 2027.
If in the naval field (the thought goes to the design of submarines Akula for example) the Russians have always been at the forefront, aeronautical research stopped in 1990, with the fall of the Soviet Union. Propulsion is the most challenging and costly aspect of developing any aerial platform. From the reliable F119 turbofans of the F-22, for example, comes the Pratt & Whitney F135 of the F-35. The transition for what seemed like a simple evolution, did not turn out to be so natural and free of technical difficulties, still partly unresolved today.
(images: MoD Russian Federation)
