Yuri Stepanov
By TOC on December 9, 2021
MOSCOW, ($1=73.63 Russian Rubles) – The Su-57 fighter will be armed with hypersonic weapons, and from 2027 the aircraft will go into the army with a new engine, said in a statement Andrei Elchaninov, first deputy chairman of the board of the Russian Military-Industrial Commission [MIC], learned BulgarianMilitary.com.
“Tests of the aircraft with the new engine should be completed by 2024. In general, tests with the completion of the second stage engine will continue until 2026, the delivery of new aircraft is planned under the new state armaments program from 2027. Will, there will be about 25 out of 76 planes within the already concluded long-term contract,” Elchaninov said.
According to him, there is already a serious increase in the demand of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for this aviation complex.
“Soon, the Su-57 will be able to use hypersonic weapons, the missile is ready,” Elchaninov said.
The Su-57 is a fifth-generation multi-role fighter designed to destroy all types of air targets in long-range and short-range battles, defeating enemy ground and surface targets while overcoming air defense systems. His first flight took place on January 29, 2010.
At the end of 2020, the first serial Su-57 was accepted into the Russian Air Force. By the end of 2024, the Russian military plans to receive 22 more such aircraft. A total of 76 fifth-generation fighters are to be produced by 2028, which will equip three air regiments.
Earlier it was announced that the first Su-57 will be produced in series, but with engines of the previous generation. The “second stage” engine [Izdelie 30, manufactured by UEC], which will provide the Su-57 with supersonic cruising speed, began flight tests in December 2017.
Su-57 is well-armed, but F-35 has a nuclear gravity bomb
Mark Episkopos, who has a Ph.D. in history and often analyzes Russian military technology, claims that the Russian Su-57 is very well armed and maintains a huge range of air-to-air missiles as well as anti-ship missiles. Although the F-35 Lightning II currently lags behind its Russian rival in terms of several missiles, that will soon change, says Episcopos.
According to Mark, a revision of the American fighter of the fifth generation is coming soon. It will receive new options for a selection of new missiles and bombs, including the B-61 Mod 12 with a nuclear gravity bomb.
The reason for comparing the weapons capabilities between the two most discussed fighters in the last at least two years is the statement of the Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov that the Su-57 surpasses the F-35 of the Americans in all respects.
However, the bishop largely refutes these allegations. He spoke about the radar capabilities of the American plane, emphasizing the fact that in the sky this fighter gets a complete dynamic picture of the battlefield, thus providing important information to his colleagues during hostilities. What’s more, the F-35 can build this dynamic radar picture thanks to information shared by Allied and friendly fighters in the air at the same time that the F-35 is conducting military operations.
Another key detail discussed in absentia between the two experts [Episcopos and Leonkov] is the low radar section. Both claim that their aircraft has a better low radar cross-section. It is not clear on which fighter the low radar cross-section is better, but Episcopos compares this to an F-35 as a baseball in the air. According to the American setter, this is due to the better-developed stealth technology compared to the Russian one.
Mark Episcopos has questioned the ability of Russia’s S-400 Triumph and S-500 Prometheus air defense systems to track US stealth fighters, but he says this is serious. In recent years, the S-400 has performed well in tracking stealth fighters. This possibility is no longer foreign to the world, and in addition to Russia, China and India also have similar radars. Moreover, Germany has a radar system that was tested on the F-35 Lightning II nearly two years ago and successfully intercepted and tracked the flight of the American fighter.
Is the nuclear gravity bomb an advantage?
The Su-57 has one sure advantage over its American competitor, the F-35 – the use of the Okhotnik drone. The National Interest compared the Russian drone’s first flight to “a hint to the United States that the Russian airborne forces are also capable of breaking through the enemy’s air defenses and launching bombings.”
The use of a nuclear gravity bomb is an advantage if the enemy does not have it. Russia has nuclear gravity bombs. Russian experts from Utro.ru claim that the attacking drone Okhotnik is the one that can be armed with the equivalent of the American B-61 Mod 12, as it is designed for massive airstrikes.
So far, however, there is no officially confirmed information from the Russians, or Russian sources, that Okhotnik was tested with a nuclear gravity bomb.
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