Military and Commercial Technology: Timing of the first flight of Super-Sukhoi fighter was announced

Friday, 11 September 2020

Timing of the first flight of Super-Sukhoi fighter was announced

NickJ 1972

Timing of the first flight of Super-Sukhoi fighter was announced

By Boyko Nikolov

On Sep 9, 2020

MOSCOW, (BM) – According to the information provided, the modernized Su-30SM2 fighter will make its first flight by the end of 2020. The car will receive engines from the Su-35S, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

The lack of unification in many major components is one of the problems of the Russian fighter fleet. In the foreseeable future, it can be partially solved. As it became known, by the end of the year, the modernized Su-30SM2, equipped with an engine from the Su-35S fighter, should take off.

We are talking about the AL-41F1S [not to be confused with the AL-41F1 installed on the Su-57]. There is no official confirmation of the timing of the first flight of the new version of the Su-30.

AL-41F-1S has all-aspect thrust vector control. In comparison with the AL-31FP engine – the basis of the Su-30SM power plant – the AL-41F1S thrust is increased by 16 percent. The service life of the aircraft engine is two times higher than that of the AL-31FP. The weight and dimensions of the products are comparable.

“A more powerful engine from a Su-35 will give a larger thrust reserve. And this means an increased amount of ammunition and equipment that the plane can have on board,” Izvestia quotes the words of Honored Test Pilot Colonel Igor Malik.

According to the publication, the improved machine should also receive a new radar station in the future. All the Su-30SMs at the disposal of the Ministry of Defense want to be brought to a new standard.

Now the Su-30SM, along with the Su-35S, is the basis of the fighter fleet of the Russian Aerospace Forces. In total, more than 90 such aircraft were handed over to the Aerospace Forces. In addition, various export versions of the Su-30 are popular with foreign customers: India, for example, has ordered more than two hundred Su-30MKIs.

The Su-30SM aircraft is its Russified version, and in a broad sense it is a development of the Soviet Su-27. On twelve pylons, the Su-30SM can carry up to 8,000 kilograms of combat load. The fighter has a wide range of weapons, including air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles and guided bombs.

In the future, all variants of the Su-27, which are operated by the Russian Air Force, can be replaced by the promising fifth-generation fighter Su-57. The first production car was planned to be handed over to the troops last year, but it crashed during tests.

As of August 2020, Russian aircraft manufacturers were close to completing work on the second production Su-57: the photographs presented at that time show the new aircraft in detail. In total, by 2027, aircraft manufacturers must deliver 76 such fighters to the Aerospace Forces.

#####