Russian KamAZ-5350 (6x6) trucks began to be equipped with additional armor designed to protect against drones. It is not yet known to what extent the kits are being mass produced, but they are already being supplied to the troops. In addition, the troops began to receive KamAZ-6350 (8x8) trucks with factory armored cabs of the 2nd protection class. The total weight of the armor set for the KamAZ-5350 truck is 750 kilograms, the armor is placed on the outer and inner parts of the cab, gas tank and engine. The armor is combined and contains Kevlar sheets. The armor class is not reported.
Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
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Depends on the composites, you need high temperature ones like BMI to have better heat resistance than aluminum, which the F-22 uses lots of but it’s expensive so not sure if the Su-57 use that material.
All this is not that important though, even the F-22 is still limited to Mach 2 in practice because of reducing maintenance on the RAM even though it’s physically able of quite a lot more.
When Su-57 was announced it had some thing like 30% by weight of composites .
Skynews Arabia had small clip last year. most of stuff is what is publicly known but this Superior Stealth capabilities is new line. i presume Stealth emphasis has increased over time. so highly likely materials are changed as they once announced there is new stealth materials few years ago.
This MIG-31 can launch missiles at 70K feet altitude and updated version they are practicing shooting ballistic missiles and satellites.
my theory is that Su-57 may not need that high performance.
Skynews Arabia had small clip last year. most of stuff is what is publicly known but this Superior Stealth capabilities is new line. i presume Stealth emphasis has increased over time. so highly likely materials are changed as they once announced there is new stealth materials few years ago.
This MIG-31 can launch missiles at 70K feet altitude and updated version they are practicing shooting ballistic missiles and satellites.
my theory is that Su-57 may not need that high performance.
They have been working on a prototype MiG-31 with fly-by-wire. So I wouldn't be surprised if MiG made yet another upgrade to the existing airframes. The MiG-31BM upgrade package is a decade old at this point and was based on components from the MiG-29SMT. They could be making another upgrade package which would add systems developed for the MiG-35 to the MiG-31.
PAK DP it is supposed to use an Al-51 engine variant. Given that the original AL-51 hasn't entered serial production yet I doubt the engine will be available soon. The PAK DP engine is supposed to be an Al-51 engine core with a modified afterburner and maybe also modified low pressure section.
The PAK DP aircraft will likely be Mach 3 capable. And should be able to fire hypersonic cruise missiles. Which could be an air launched variant of the Zircon.
PAK DP it is supposed to use an Al-51 engine variant. Given that the original AL-51 hasn't entered serial production yet I doubt the engine will be available soon. The PAK DP engine is supposed to be an Al-51 engine core with a modified afterburner and maybe also modified low pressure section.
The PAK DP aircraft will likely be Mach 3 capable. And should be able to fire hypersonic cruise missiles. Which could be an air launched variant of the Zircon.
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The Su-57 isn't suitable enough as an interceptor against air launched cruise missiles. Russia has a huge airspace, and the radar network does not cover the whole country. Even when the radar network will achieve full coverage with the completion of the Voronezh radar network there will be gaps where low altitude flying objects can pass through. A high speed interceptor can also act as the tip of the spear and as a flying extension of the radar network. With a faster aircraft you can also deploy aircraft much quicker to different fronts and be better able to defend against a more numerous opponent which can attack from either Europe or Asia.
The PAK DP could also enable the interception of US carrier task groups with hypersonic missiles as a replacement for the Tu-22M3M.
The latest hypersonic missiles like the Zircon are a lot more compact than the Kh-32 liquid propellant rocket and have higher performance in terms of speed and range. So even a smaller platform like the PAK DP could carry several of those.
Russia has had this kind of interceptor aircraft since the end of WW2 and it is unlikely they will stop having it. Especially after the MiG-31 achieved such a great performance in the SMO. Since Russia does not have the numbers of aircraft to fight the combined West, they will likely focus on quality over quantity. For whatever reason people seem to think Russia will have the same kind of mindset as the Soviet Union with regards to weapons development. But they couldn't be further from the truth. Russia has almost half the population of the Soviet Union and it doesn't have the Warsaw Pact nations on its side anymore. So quality is imperative to keep a military edge.
This is manifest in all their latest weapons systems and platforms.
Finally, they will need to assign some task to keep the design engineers at MiG busy. And keep the Sokol factory loaded. The PAK DP is how it will likely happen.
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There‚s no need to explain the Russian requirement and that‘s nothing I question, I only think given so many other projects within the last two decades there is a rather slim - and IMO barely a - chance that the PAK-DF, PAK-DA or the new transport and whatever they plan in parallel will ever materialise. Just look at the Su-57? It is at best only now ready to enter production at a level worth to be called serial production and maybe the S-75 - IMO the most likely one to reach hardware status - but all these fancy other types will in my opinion remain paper-projects.
The Russians, just like the Soviets, seldom cancel a project. At worst the PAK DP and PAK DA will be drip fed funding and take two or three times the time to develop.
I think the PAK DA has the top priority with regards to both of those projects. The Tu-95MSM and Tu-22M3M have basically no replacement in current production as a theater bomber. The PAK DA's Izdeliye RF engine is already being bench tested with at least two aircraft prototypes being under construction. I expect the stealth bomber prototype to fly this decade. It might fly before the Su-75 unless it hits some kind of snag during development. But the engine already passed bench tests at Kuznetsov so I think that is unlikely.
Tupolev started out by building a test rig for the cockpit of PAK DA so they can test the cockpit design. They also built a 1:10 scale prototype of the PAK DA airframe made of composites. I assume this was done to test the flight control for the airframe. The people who worked on the cockpit test rig got a state prize. So you can pretty much assume that part of the work was finished satisfactorily.
The Russians basically rebuilt the Tupolev bomber factory and fully equipped it. Kuznetsov design bureau and its plant at Samara were also raised from the ashes and furnished with fully modern equipment. The Tu-160M is basically a reverse engineered Tu-160, and its NK-32-02 engines are basically reverse engineered NK-32 engines. Everything was moved from paper schematics to CAD drawings and production was changed to modern automated methods.
The PAK DP is way earlier in the design process and they haven't even bent metal yet. I have heard nothing about the airframe design having been finalized or anything else really. The Russian government also recently assigned MiG to build a budget jet trainer aircraft to make a replacement for the Aero L-39 Albatros. So that could lead to further delays for the PAK DP project.
The PAK VTA project is the most delayed one I think. Especially now that they seem to be getting further behind the move to resume production of the An-124. The PD-35 engine is further behind in testing than even the Izdeliye RF. I wouldn't be surprised if the PAK VTA only happened in the later part of the next decade.
The AL-51 engine isn't in serial production yet. They had issues with reliably producing them at scale several years ago. The engines were basically manufactured with a lot of human labor. Handcrafted prototypes. UEC Saturn is currently busy with import substitution projects as well. They had to make the M90FR gas turbines for the Navy, they are working on the PD-8 engine replacement for the SaM-146 used in the Superjet and Be-200, they make the cruise missile engines, and they are testing the Al-41ST-25 gas pumping variant of the Al-41. But their factory at Rybinsk also seems to be getting loads of modern tools to mass manufacture the PD-8 engine. So maybe that will solve whatever engine production issues they have.
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