knight11
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INTRODUCTION
RUSSlA’S military aircraft manufacturing industry has well and truly recovered from the slump following the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago. With the first public disclosures a year ago of the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA stealth fighter the industry is yet again creating designs at the forefront of fighter technology. Sukhoi is today one of the world’s most active manufacturers of combat aircraft, with a genuinely global customer base catering to nations that do not qualify or will not purchase US and EU built products, or who prefer the less politically restrictive terms of Russian sales. While China’s reverse engineering of two Flanker variants has produced considerable public controversy in Russia, Sukhoi continues to market more recent Flankers to the PLA. With the stealthy PAK-FA now planned as a replacement for domestic and export Flankers, the proliferation problem observed with the Flanker is set to further expand over this decade.
T-50 PAK- FA / Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA)
The stealthy T-50 PAK-FA or Perspektivniy Aviatsioniy Komplex Frontovoy Aviatsii [Future Tactical Air System] was devised from the outset to be a multi-role high performance replacement for the Flanker family of fighters, intended for both the Russian Air Force and foreign export clientèle appeared in the Russian media a couple of years ago, many US observers labelled the aircraft an F-22-ski. Much more detailed analysis showed otherwise, and indicated important advances in aerodynamic and control system design. By US definitions, a mature production PAK-FA would qualify as a Low Observable or Very Low Observable design. It is intended to be the same size as the US JSF but has a mission profile closer to the F-22 Raptor, with air superiority being the primary mission and ground attack and reconnaissance being secondary.
A major problem observable in many if not most analyses of the PAK-FA (and more recently China’s J-20) has been ‘mirroring’, or making assumptions about foreign development methodology, design reasoning and design definition based upon Western, especially US practices. This is more than often pure folly, since Russian industry follows quite different strategies in prototyping and progressive development based upon very disciplined risk management and incremental expansion. Many of the claims made about the stealth capability of the T-50 in the US amount to simple misinterpretation, resulting from a failure to study past Russian practices.
The "Heart" of an Aircraft is its engine and the T-50 features the advance Saturn 117S developed by NPO Saturn Research and Production Association
The T-50 is a large fighter, comparable in size to the Flanker, F-15 and F-22. Russian sources have indicated an internal fuel capacity of the order of 25,000 lb, to provide exceptional subsonic range, and high supersonic persistence. The prototype T-50 aircraft are fitted with the early production -117S engine developed for the Su-35S. It uses core components from the Al-41 F super-cruise engine, itself developed for the cancelled MiG MFI delta - canard supercruiser along with an improved fan and other components from the standard AL-31F Flanker engine. The 117S engine will permit supersonic cruise but it is not the intended production engine for the T-50. The latter is currently in development, and is intended to match or better the Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 used in the F-22.
Low Observable or Very Low Observable Design
The most prominent feature of the T-50 is its shaping, which is without dispute intended to provide a genuine stealth capability in the forward hemisphere, and possibly also in the aft hemisphere.
The planform of the T-50 is edge aligned, in the manner of most US stealth aircraft. This is intended to place reflections from the leading and trailing edges of the wings and tail surfaces, and the inlet strake, into very specific and narrow common lobes.
Northrup Grumman/McDonnell Douglas YF-23A Technology Demonstrator Stealth Fighter
The forward fuselage of the T-50 is chined, in a manner very similar to the F-22, the intent being to reflect upward and downward any impinging radiation in the plane of the aircraft’s flight, and to modest angles above and below same. The inlet leading edges are also edge aligned, in a manner which fuses ideas used in the F-22A and YF-23A. The widely spaced inlet tunnels provide an outward S-bend to increase reflection losses in an absorber coated tunnel. Much more interesting is the careful faceting of the engine nacelles, which is designed to remove the specular reflections seen with the Flanker or F-14 nacelle geometries, this idea being borrowed from the YF-23A.
The wing/fuselage join is generally well sculpted, and intended to remove the corner reflector between the wing and fuselage. The lower fuselage tunnel will produce similar unwanted effects to the sculpted lower fuselage of the F-35.
The aft quadrant of the T-50 presents interesting questions. The current prototype configuration exhibits the very same vice as the F-35, which is the use of circular or axi-symmetric engine nozzles, the anti-thesis of good stealth design. Moreover the rounded aft engine nacelles ‘undo’ much of the good effect produced by the chined center afterbody and faceted forward nacelles.
This suggests that the prototypes are not using the final nozzle or aft nacelle design, and we should not be surprised to see F-22 style nozzles appear later in development, as the production engine is introduced.
An overall assessment is that the T-50 prototype stealth shaping has all of the vices of the stealth shaping in the F-35, as a result of which application of mature absorbent materials and other stealth measures in a production design would produce similar stealth performance to the F-35, which is inferior to the F-22A Raptor in key aspects.
What is clear is that the T-50 prototypes are intended to prove aerodynamics and systems, and we will not see full application of stealth materials and detail component design until we see later prototypes. This is a risk minimization strategy. The aerodynamic design of the T-50 is innovative, and intended clearly to achieve ‘extreme agility’ throughout the envelope. The fully moving tails, movable inlet strakes, 3D thrust vectoring, and leading and trailing edge surfaces extend considerably on the superlative aerodynamics of the Flanker. The T-50 is clearly intended to out fly the F-22 in close combat and supersonic combat.
Another important qualification is that the extreme agility of the PAK-FA design will significantly degrade the kill probability of all United States Air to Air Missiles, (AAM) especially though the AIM-120 AMRAAM, which will be challenged to sustain the necessary manoeuvres to defeat the PAK-FA. Like the F-22A Raptor, the PAK-FA will provide a significant capability for the kinematic defeat of inbound missile shots.
WEAPONS
Clockwise from Left: (1) The primary BVR weapon to be carried by the PAK-FA is the KTRV RVV-SD - (2) The Close combat weapon is the KTRV RVV-MD air-to-air short range missile - (3) KTRV Kh-58UShKE Kilter Anti-Radiation Missile - (4) Kh-38/Kh-38M air-to-surface missile
Most of the T-50’s weapons will be carried in a long weapon bay in the floor of the fuselage tunnel. Two ‘scab’ fairings were evidently added late in the design to carry Within Visual Range (WVR) missiles, likely the RW-MD in early aircraft. Intended early weapons include the RW-MD, an enhanced R-73/74 Archer, the RW-SD, an enhanced R-77M Adder, and the large 200 nautical mile R-172 missile, intended to kill AEW&C aircraft and tankers from standoff ranges. A new internally carried ASM is in development, as is a yet to be displayed small diameter bomb analogue.
SENSOR SUITE
The MiG-35 Zhuk AE AESA designed by Phazotron is the first Russian AESA design and is expected to spawn upgrade packages for PAK-FA
The sensor suite is to include the large Tikhomirov-NIIP active phased array or AESA radar, a new Infrared Search/Track system, and an advanced radio-frequency surveillance system, a suite similar to that initially planned for the F-22A Raptor. While uncertainties will continue with respect to the stealth performance of the aft fuselage, it is abundantly clear that the T-50 PAK-FA will not match the stealth performance of the F-22A Raptor, but will be more agile and manoeuvrable, especially in close combat, and will have better range and persistence by virtue of greater fuel fraction.
OUTRIGHT WINNER
The T-50 PAK-AF will outperform the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in all cardinal parameters, and will in a mature design produce similar stealth performance. Evolved legacy fighters like the F-15SE, F/A-18E/F and Euro-canards are wholly outclassed by the T-50 and have little hope of surviving in combat with this design.
Current planning indicates a build of 200 aircraft for Russia, a similar number for India, and 600 or more aircraft for other export clientele. The T-50 PAK—FA is a significant technological advance by Russia, and breaks the three decade long monopoly on stealth design held by the United States. In strategic terms, it completely nullifies established United States planning for its fighter fleet recapitalization, as only the F-22A Raptor is viable in airspace defended by the T-50 PAK—FA.
CONCLUSION
India's neighborhood is littered with several type of fighters, Pakistan has the F-16, the untested and rather crude JF-17 and China has the Flankers and Sukhoi Su-35M which it recently agreed to procure from Russia. However, the most alarming development to consider for India is the advancement of the J-20 Stealth Fighter concept by China, this fighter when certified for airborne operation will give a decisive edge to the PLAF. Hence, India needs speed up the already floundering project to fill in the yawning gap that the J-20 has left behind to be competitive in the Asian region. General Giulio Douhet quoted rightly way back in 1921 “To conquer the command of the air means victory; to be beaten in the air means defeat and acceptance of whatever terms the enemy may be pleased to impose... ”(Adapted from the works of Dr Carlo Kopp and Peter Goon and other Internet Sources)
RUSSlA’S military aircraft manufacturing industry has well and truly recovered from the slump following the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago. With the first public disclosures a year ago of the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA stealth fighter the industry is yet again creating designs at the forefront of fighter technology. Sukhoi is today one of the world’s most active manufacturers of combat aircraft, with a genuinely global customer base catering to nations that do not qualify or will not purchase US and EU built products, or who prefer the less politically restrictive terms of Russian sales. While China’s reverse engineering of two Flanker variants has produced considerable public controversy in Russia, Sukhoi continues to market more recent Flankers to the PLA. With the stealthy PAK-FA now planned as a replacement for domestic and export Flankers, the proliferation problem observed with the Flanker is set to further expand over this decade.
T-50 PAK- FA / Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA)
The stealthy T-50 PAK-FA or Perspektivniy Aviatsioniy Komplex Frontovoy Aviatsii [Future Tactical Air System] was devised from the outset to be a multi-role high performance replacement for the Flanker family of fighters, intended for both the Russian Air Force and foreign export clientèle appeared in the Russian media a couple of years ago, many US observers labelled the aircraft an F-22-ski. Much more detailed analysis showed otherwise, and indicated important advances in aerodynamic and control system design. By US definitions, a mature production PAK-FA would qualify as a Low Observable or Very Low Observable design. It is intended to be the same size as the US JSF but has a mission profile closer to the F-22 Raptor, with air superiority being the primary mission and ground attack and reconnaissance being secondary.
A major problem observable in many if not most analyses of the PAK-FA (and more recently China’s J-20) has been ‘mirroring’, or making assumptions about foreign development methodology, design reasoning and design definition based upon Western, especially US practices. This is more than often pure folly, since Russian industry follows quite different strategies in prototyping and progressive development based upon very disciplined risk management and incremental expansion. Many of the claims made about the stealth capability of the T-50 in the US amount to simple misinterpretation, resulting from a failure to study past Russian practices.
The "Heart" of an Aircraft is its engine and the T-50 features the advance Saturn 117S developed by NPO Saturn Research and Production Association
The T-50 is a large fighter, comparable in size to the Flanker, F-15 and F-22. Russian sources have indicated an internal fuel capacity of the order of 25,000 lb, to provide exceptional subsonic range, and high supersonic persistence. The prototype T-50 aircraft are fitted with the early production -117S engine developed for the Su-35S. It uses core components from the Al-41 F super-cruise engine, itself developed for the cancelled MiG MFI delta - canard supercruiser along with an improved fan and other components from the standard AL-31F Flanker engine. The 117S engine will permit supersonic cruise but it is not the intended production engine for the T-50. The latter is currently in development, and is intended to match or better the Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 used in the F-22.
Low Observable or Very Low Observable Design
The most prominent feature of the T-50 is its shaping, which is without dispute intended to provide a genuine stealth capability in the forward hemisphere, and possibly also in the aft hemisphere.
The planform of the T-50 is edge aligned, in the manner of most US stealth aircraft. This is intended to place reflections from the leading and trailing edges of the wings and tail surfaces, and the inlet strake, into very specific and narrow common lobes.
Northrup Grumman/McDonnell Douglas YF-23A Technology Demonstrator Stealth Fighter
The forward fuselage of the T-50 is chined, in a manner very similar to the F-22, the intent being to reflect upward and downward any impinging radiation in the plane of the aircraft’s flight, and to modest angles above and below same. The inlet leading edges are also edge aligned, in a manner which fuses ideas used in the F-22A and YF-23A. The widely spaced inlet tunnels provide an outward S-bend to increase reflection losses in an absorber coated tunnel. Much more interesting is the careful faceting of the engine nacelles, which is designed to remove the specular reflections seen with the Flanker or F-14 nacelle geometries, this idea being borrowed from the YF-23A.The wing/fuselage join is generally well sculpted, and intended to remove the corner reflector between the wing and fuselage. The lower fuselage tunnel will produce similar unwanted effects to the sculpted lower fuselage of the F-35.
The aft quadrant of the T-50 presents interesting questions. The current prototype configuration exhibits the very same vice as the F-35, which is the use of circular or axi-symmetric engine nozzles, the anti-thesis of good stealth design. Moreover the rounded aft engine nacelles ‘undo’ much of the good effect produced by the chined center afterbody and faceted forward nacelles.
This suggests that the prototypes are not using the final nozzle or aft nacelle design, and we should not be surprised to see F-22 style nozzles appear later in development, as the production engine is introduced.
An overall assessment is that the T-50 prototype stealth shaping has all of the vices of the stealth shaping in the F-35, as a result of which application of mature absorbent materials and other stealth measures in a production design would produce similar stealth performance to the F-35, which is inferior to the F-22A Raptor in key aspects.
What is clear is that the T-50 prototypes are intended to prove aerodynamics and systems, and we will not see full application of stealth materials and detail component design until we see later prototypes. This is a risk minimization strategy. The aerodynamic design of the T-50 is innovative, and intended clearly to achieve ‘extreme agility’ throughout the envelope. The fully moving tails, movable inlet strakes, 3D thrust vectoring, and leading and trailing edge surfaces extend considerably on the superlative aerodynamics of the Flanker. The T-50 is clearly intended to out fly the F-22 in close combat and supersonic combat.
Another important qualification is that the extreme agility of the PAK-FA design will significantly degrade the kill probability of all United States Air to Air Missiles, (AAM) especially though the AIM-120 AMRAAM, which will be challenged to sustain the necessary manoeuvres to defeat the PAK-FA. Like the F-22A Raptor, the PAK-FA will provide a significant capability for the kinematic defeat of inbound missile shots.
WEAPONS
Clockwise from Left: (1) The primary BVR weapon to be carried by the PAK-FA is the KTRV RVV-SD - (2) The Close combat weapon is the KTRV RVV-MD air-to-air short range missile - (3) KTRV Kh-58UShKE Kilter Anti-Radiation Missile - (4) Kh-38/Kh-38M air-to-surface missile
Most of the T-50’s weapons will be carried in a long weapon bay in the floor of the fuselage tunnel. Two ‘scab’ fairings were evidently added late in the design to carry Within Visual Range (WVR) missiles, likely the RW-MD in early aircraft. Intended early weapons include the RW-MD, an enhanced R-73/74 Archer, the RW-SD, an enhanced R-77M Adder, and the large 200 nautical mile R-172 missile, intended to kill AEW&C aircraft and tankers from standoff ranges. A new internally carried ASM is in development, as is a yet to be displayed small diameter bomb analogue.
SENSOR SUITE
The MiG-35 Zhuk AE AESA designed by Phazotron is the first Russian AESA design and is expected to spawn upgrade packages for PAK-FA
The sensor suite is to include the large Tikhomirov-NIIP active phased array or AESA radar, a new Infrared Search/Track system, and an advanced radio-frequency surveillance system, a suite similar to that initially planned for the F-22A Raptor. While uncertainties will continue with respect to the stealth performance of the aft fuselage, it is abundantly clear that the T-50 PAK-FA will not match the stealth performance of the F-22A Raptor, but will be more agile and manoeuvrable, especially in close combat, and will have better range and persistence by virtue of greater fuel fraction.
OUTRIGHT WINNER
The T-50 PAK-AF will outperform the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in all cardinal parameters, and will in a mature design produce similar stealth performance. Evolved legacy fighters like the F-15SE, F/A-18E/F and Euro-canards are wholly outclassed by the T-50 and have little hope of surviving in combat with this design.
Current planning indicates a build of 200 aircraft for Russia, a similar number for India, and 600 or more aircraft for other export clientele. The T-50 PAK—FA is a significant technological advance by Russia, and breaks the three decade long monopoly on stealth design held by the United States. In strategic terms, it completely nullifies established United States planning for its fighter fleet recapitalization, as only the F-22A Raptor is viable in airspace defended by the T-50 PAK—FA.
CONCLUSION
India's neighborhood is littered with several type of fighters, Pakistan has the F-16, the untested and rather crude JF-17 and China has the Flankers and Sukhoi Su-35M which it recently agreed to procure from Russia. However, the most alarming development to consider for India is the advancement of the J-20 Stealth Fighter concept by China, this fighter when certified for airborne operation will give a decisive edge to the PLAF. Hence, India needs speed up the already floundering project to fill in the yawning gap that the J-20 has left behind to be competitive in the Asian region. General Giulio Douhet quoted rightly way back in 1921 “To conquer the command of the air means victory; to be beaten in the air means defeat and acceptance of whatever terms the enemy may be pleased to impose... ”(Adapted from the works of Dr Carlo Kopp and Peter Goon and other Internet Sources)
![[Bregs]](/data/avatars/m/148/148509.jpg?1491816884){kind=avatar}
