Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

[Lurky McLurker]

Mig 41. But having the horizontal stabilator removed with a YF-23 type Tail. Pretty fresh design if indeed so.

love that "mig 41" design. if it is close to this itll be one of the best looking combat aircraft ever, imo

 

[sndef888]

Haha yeah sure, let's pretend that the MIg-35 program didn't exist. What makes you thing that this, an aircraft that's designed privately, would be the one that the russian airforce will procure in say 2035 when they can't even procure Mig-35 or even Su-57 in a large number right now?

People just gets easily enthused over new fighters, similar thing happened with the unveiling of korean KF-X (this one is not even 5th gen!). Once you take a closer look at the state of each country's tech development, and imo more importantly, its respective manufacturing capability to produce them in a substantial enough number, you'll soon realize that these kind of projects nowadays can only materialize if they're done either by China or US. Getting it out of the CAD or PPT file by itself is already a very rare feat to accomplish. So adjust your expectations, otherwise you'd be very disappointed.

The Su-57 and Mig-35 might not be production issues. Perhaps they just didn't meet expectations of Russian air force.

Of course, I'm just speculating

 

[sndef888]

I don't know how I feel about the lack of horizontal stabilisers, on one hand it looks futuristic, on the other hand it looks kind of weird

 

[Inst]

View attachment 74806

This rendering might be somewhat close to what's under the tarp. No horizontal stabilisers, single high thrust engine and extremely forward positioned intakes. Looks a lot nicer than the F-35 and without the horizontal stabilisers, would be stealthier if other factors equal.

Question is how developed the program is. Is it a flyable demonstrator like 2010 PAKFA andn 2011 J-20 flight test prototypes? Far less developed or far more ready? Definitely an interesting new fighter. Sukhoi is smashing it.

BTW @Inst if you look at photos, it is clearly at least F-35 sized overall and about J-10 length. Definitely larger than the light weight fighters. It needs to accommodate decently sized internal bays. I say light weight 5th gen is a bad idea because of payload and range limits. No one has bothered developing a light weight 5th gen. The smallest are high thrust single engine or mid thrust twin engine. If this is available for purchase soon and priced well, it's going to be popular because there are no alternatives. J-xy isn't for sale. Su-57, J-20, F-22 are not for sale... well Su-57 isn't yet. FC-31 requires user to complete according to their specs and would cost a lot more and more time. J-xy (China's development out of FC-31) isn't going to be available. Don't listen to Pakistani guys saying it surely is. Only unfinished FC-31 is available, not PLAN's carrier J-xy.

For the air defense role it doesn't matter how crappy your payload is, especially if you have other stealth fighters in your stable for the interception / HARM function.

The lightweight stealth fighter concept is more to serve two purposes.

-First, for China itself, a lightweight stealth fighter with poor payloads presumably would also have low cost, and would give China the ability to have "flying mine"-type stealth fighters like the F-35, but be able to put them into service in large numbers. I've previously proposed China buying Su-57 to provide "skeet" fighters to distract and absorb Western fire, but the Su-57 is still a large platform. A lightweight stealth fighter, in contrast, can perform this "skeet" function infinitely better than the Su-57, provided it can be cheap enough. Here, the stealth fighter's poor payload is not actually an issue, because this fighter isn't intended as strike, but rather air defense with an attritional mission.

-Second, for export buyers, lightweight stealth fighters provide an affordable alternative to the F-35 when the F-35 is becoming prolific. The proposed aircraft is also a mainly non-stealth strike fighter, which should satisfy the needs of most export partners, while at the same time avoiding terrible arms races (which is a plus for the proposed lightweight stealth fighter).

 

[Inst]

I don’t think that’s the case. In a recent interview the head of the Checkmate program stated that they are going with the FC-31 route of privately funding the design. I think Russian Air Force will acquire it, just to fill the gaps of retired Fulcrums.

Ultimately, it depends as to how good the Checkmate's stealth shaping is. If the shaping is excellent, I don't see why the RuAF wouldn't purchase it, because while the Su-57 is a questionable counter to the F-35, the Checkmate could possibly be an excellent counter.

 

[james smith esq]

Well, “Check-Mate” is quite final. So, this thing better be a phenom!

 

[Gloire_bb]

Ultimately, it depends as to how good the Checkmate's stealth shaping is. If the shaping is excellent, I don't see why the RuAF wouldn't purchase it, because while the Su-57 is a questionable counter to the F-35, the Checkmate could possibly be an excellent counter.

RuAF doesn't see anything wrong with 57's ability to counter F-35 and 22. It's what it itself ordered and wanted to obtain, after all.
LTS, on the other hand, is made to meet the expectations of foreign customers.

 

[panzerfeist1]

Judging by those more recent aircrafts, this thing would be joining service by around 2035, which is also around the time China would introduce its 6th gen aircraft.

Do the Chinese even have 3 stream cycle engines or pulse detonation engines for aircrafts, photonic radars, or any of that in development I can let you take a lucky guess which of those countries do before talking about 6th gens

I might be going ooh and aah with the darksword uav as well but they dont have anything comparable to the Su-70 that is also going to enter service.

 

[anzha]

I might be going ooh and aah with the darksword uav as well but they dont have anything comparable to the Su-70 that is also going to enter service.

I would strongly suggest anyone advocating Russian technological and manufacturing prowess over Chinese consider how many Su-57s have been placed into service vs J-20s. In addition, the scale of the planned Su-57 buy is...76? I do believe it's strongly suspected the Chinese already have that many in service, not 6 or 7 years from now, but today.

The Russians talk a lot, but rarely deliver on the timelines they claim.

The Americans bicker and air their wildly dirty laundry in public (or near enough) including their massive screw-ups.

The Chinese, by and large, make a public statement and then stick to it. They don't make a public statement until they are certain they can fulfill it.

 

[Bob Smith]

Do the Chinese even have 3 stream cycle engines or pulse detonation engines for aircrafts, photonic radars, or any of that in development I can let you take a lucky guess which of those countries do before talking about 6th gens

I might be going ooh and aah with the darksword uav as well but they dont have anything comparable to the Su-70 that is also going to enter service.

Russians are entirely truthful about everything they say and can do so much on a $1.5 trillion economy. What I would expect from a Russian larping as an Israeli.