"The sixth generation technology is already being tested on the PAK-FA". It is a strange statement from the company KRET, a subsidiary of Rostec, issued to TASS a few hours ago.
As stated by the Kremlin in recent months, Russian designers are working on the sixth and seventh generation. Despite Russia not yet operating its fifth-generation fighter, Moscow plans to fly a hypersonic platform within the 2025. Declarations impossible to confirm, but from Moscow they specify that the planning phase is well underway, with concept final already validated.
The first specs for the sixth generation Russian fighter are known: hypersonic aircraft, single-seater, invisible to the enemy, super-maneuverable, multi-functional and made with composite materials. The aircraft will also be produced in a pilotless variant.
We know that preliminary studies on sixth-generation fighters are underway both in the US and in Russia, while the hypersonic asset, as well as being expensive, still imposes certain technological limits. The United States, despite advances in the propulsive apparatus for the hypersonic regime, is still unable to produce cells resistant to that flight regime due to high temperatures. The Russians, therefore, may have discovered a new material.
Preliminary studies started, finally, also on the seventh generation, imagining specifics of an operating context at least 60 years away.
Returning to KRET. The company is responsible for the T-50 electronic warfare. "The solutions that will be applied in the sixth generation fighter are now being tested on the PAK-FA, as well as on ground equipment. Part of the aerodynamic configurations and the sixth-generation fighter navigation system have already been installed on the PAK FA ".
The T-50 up until now shown to the public, would seem to belong to the fifth generation. T-50 is equipped with both AESA radar and three-dimensional vector thrust control. Right from the start, the design was considered quite sophisticated if not similar in performance to that of the F-22 Raptor. Possible modifications could refer to technological demonstrators not yet revealed.
KRET supports the so-called "Unified Electronic Warfare System" for the future sixth generation fighter unified electronic warfare system. Part of this integrated technology has already been developed for the PAK-FA. The integrated avionic system is one of the principles on which the F-35 is based.
(photo: Sukhoi)
