Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57 is one of only four operational 5th generation fighters anywhere on the planet, keeping the rare company of China’s Chengdu J-20 and America’s Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35. Each of these fighters was developed with different specialties in mind, but share a collective focus on a few specific design elements that have come to define their generation of aircraft, including stealth and data fusion capabilities.
There’s little doubt that America’s stealth fighters are the best in the world, with China continuing work on the WS-15 engine they believe will bring the J-20 on par with America’s dogfighting champion, the F-22 Raptor. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, on the other hand, isn’t an acrobatic prize fighter like the F-22, nor is it a long-range interceptor like the J-20. It is, however, an incredibly sneaky flying supercomputer that can make other platforms in the area more lethal through its presence. Russia’s Su-57 is widely seen as the least stealthy of the 5th generation entrants, but there’s more to a fighter jet than radar cross-sections.
Related: HOW THE F-35 FLIES THE LINE BETWEEN FAILURE AND SUCCESS
Comparing these jets to one another in a head-on way doesn’t really do any of them justice, as none were intended to operate alone in contested airspace full of opposing fighters. Each of these platforms was developed to fill a role within a broader force structure and strategy, and as such, are unlikely to run across one another one-on-one in even the most dramatic of scenarios. Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t compare these fighters on paper, it just means that which fighter would win in a Top Gun-style dogfight isn’t quite as important as which offers a greater jump in capability for the forces it supports.
All that is to say that, the Su-57 might just be the worst 5th generation fighter on the planet… but that doesn’t make it a bad fighter at all.
PAK FA: The troubled beginnings of the Su-57
The long road to the first Su-57 taking to the skies began in 1979 under the former Soviet Union, with plans to field a next-generation fighter that could enter service in the 1990s. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 practically halted progress on the program, leaving America’s F-22 Raptor to claim the title of first stealth fighter unopposed with its first flight in 1997. Real development on the modern fighter program began once again in earnest in 2002, with America’s F-22 set squarely in the program’s sights.
By 2007, Russia’s PAK FA program, which was short for “‘prospective aeronautical complex of front-line air forces” in Russian, was once again steaming toward fielding a real stealth fighter. India, keen to have their own 5th generation aircraft, agreed to team up with the Russians to continue development and begin procuring what would eventually become the Su-57, but the partnership wasn’t to last.
In 2018, the Indian government signaled their departure from the program despite Russia’s promising claims about their first batch of prototype fighters, and while India’s official reasons didn’t suggest problems with the program itself, unofficially, rumors swirled that India had given up the PAK FA program because the fighter it produced simply wasn’t stealthy enough to survive in highly contested airspace, alongside a list of other concerns.
Nonetheless, Russia persevered. A total of 12 prototype Su-57s were constructed for testing and assessment, and just months after India backed out of the program, Russia’s Defence Ministry signed a contract to purchase the first two serial production Su-57s, slated for delivery in 2019 and 2020. Russia had already placed their prototype fighters in “operational service,” deploying them to Syria for little more than headline fodder and a few promotional photos, but these first two production jets were to be something more: They would not only represent Russia’s top-of-the-line fighters, they would be the nation’s first-ever production stealth aircraft.
The first production Su-57 crashed before it could even be delivered
Related: THE RUSSIAN AIR FORCE IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY
In December of 2019, just days before the Russian military expected to receive their first serial production Su-57, the program was met with yet another dramatic setback. Sukhoi, the firm tasked with developing the Su-57, was conducting flight testing with the fighter to ensure it met the requirements for delivery when the aircraft crashed just 111 kilometers from the airfield it departed from.
The pilot, a civilian contracted with Sukhoi, ejected and survived, but the aircraft was a total loss. In the days that followed the crash, Russian investigators would cite a failure of the tail’s control surfaces for the incident, limiting the pilot’s ability to control the aircraft. According to Russian media outlets, the aircraft exploded upon impact with the ground.
It was a significant setback for a fighter program that had already spanned nearly five decades in its various iterations and a huge blow to Russia’s fragile reputation as a global military power. Shortly after the crash, Igar Ozar, the CEO of Sukhoi, resigned from his position.
That wasn’t the fighter’s only issue with production
Related: RUSSIA’S HIGH PROFILE WEAPONS ARE ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS
One crash isn’t the extent of the Su-57’s production woes, however. The Russian government still projects to receive as many as 76 of the stealth fighter this decade, but while they were intended to field an advanced engine system designed specifically for the aircraft’s stealth role, delays in the engine’s development have hindered progress. It’s now expected that each Su-57 delivered to the Russian Air Force for the foreseeable future will come fitted with the Saturn AL-41F1 engine also found in the 4th generation Su-35S.
Not only does operating an older engine limit the performance of the Su-57, it also has a detrimental effect on stealth. Contrary to popular understanding, stealth isn’t a single technology or piece of equipment, but is rather a variety of overlapping technologies, production methodologies, and combat tactics. Defeating detection and weapons lock isn’t just about radar, it’s also about infrared heat signature–and the 4th generation engines designed for non-stealth aircraft employed in the Su-57 aren’t good at masking either.
And it’s not just with stealth and propulsion that the Su-57 continues to lag behind the competition. One of the aircraft’s selling points has also been its sensor suite and advanced avionics — with the Russian government claiming the fighter is capable of full 360-degree sensor coverage much like the flying supercomputer F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. To date, it does not appear that any such system is online in the Su-57, with the Rand Corporation analysis positing that sanctions placed on Russia after its military annexation of Crimean in 2014 have further hindered the system’s development.
What is the Su-57 really capable of?
Related: SEA RAPTOR: THE NAVY’S SWEEP-WING F-22 THAT WASN’T TO BE
It’s always difficult to divine real combat capability when analyzing programs like the Su-57. It’s difficult enough with a program like the F-35, which benefits from a concerted marketing campaign aimed at keeping the taxpayer happy with their investment and presenting the aircraft as a worthwhile purchase for foreign allies. It’s even more complicated in a nation like Russia, where news media is strictly controlled by the government. As a result, what we know for sure about the Su-57 and its capabilities is a shorter list than what we’re pretty confident about through analysis of open-source information, news reports, images, and video of the aircraft.
That is to say that any concrete breakdown of the Su-57’s capabilities should be taken with a grain of salt. Those who claim to know for sure what the aircraft can do are relaying numbers and data provided to the public by Sukhoi by way of the Russian government–who, like the United States, is counting on foreign sales of the fighter to offset the high cost of the plane’s development and production. In other words, Russia has at least two motives to present the Su-57 as more capable than it is: to present an image of military might in the face of Western opposition, and to entice potential buyers who want a stealth fighter but aren’t allowed (or can’t afford) to pursue the F-35.
But despite the marketing smokescreen, there are a number of things we can glean about the Su-57 and its capabilities.
It’s ranked last for stealth
Related: WHY OUR APPROACH TO ‘STEALTH’ HAS TO CHANGE
While exact figures regarding the radar cross-section of the Su-57 aren’t available, the aircraft’s design is indeed stealthy… but stealth isn’t something you have or don’t have, it’s really more like a spectrum. Aircraft can be stealthier or less stealthy than others based on a variety of variables ranging from production tolerances in the fuselage construction to the direction from which they’re being observed. The Su-57’s stealth is hampered by Russia’s struggle to bond body panels of the aircraft as tightly as necessary to inhibit a radar return and by its modified 4th generation engines.
The Su-57 ranks last in stealth among its 5th generation counterparts, but that doesn’t mean its stealth capabilities should be utterly dismissed. Again, in combat, it’s not about whose fighter has the smallest radar cross section or infrared signature, it’s about leveraging these platforms for maximum effect, and the Su-57 wasn’t designed to serve as stealthy scrapper like the F-22.
As aviation expert and Defense Editor for Aviation Week Steve Trimble once explained to me, the Russian affinity for stealth isn’t as powerful as America’s, and as such, they aren’t looking to win the stealth competition. Instead, they’re just trying to make the Su-57 a sneaky and capable fighter with bombing capabilities… and in that regard, they seem to be succeeding.
Its avionics are headed in the right direction
Related: FIGHTER PILOTS HAVE TO CONSERVE MENTAL ENERGY LIKE JET FUEL. HERE’S HOW
It remains unclear just how far along the Su-57’s avionics suite truly is, but Russian officials have repeatedly drawn parallels between its ability to fuse data from a variety of sensors and the F-35’s game-changing degree of situational awareness. While the full sensor suite does not appear to be operational yet, industry publications have pointed to the Russian use of open system architecture and dispersed computing within the aircraft as strong indicators that the systems aboard the Su-57 are not only advanced, they’re upgradeable.
The Su-57’s cheek-mounted radars, nose-mounted X-Band N036 Byelka (Squirrel) AESA radar system, and 101KS ‘Atoll’ infrared search and track sensor give the fighter a great field of view and everything it might need to identify even stealthy opponents on the horizon.
It’s got speed and acrobatics
Related: RUSSIA’S STEALTH FIGHTER IS FINALLY STARTING TO LOOK DANGEROUS
The Su-57 may not be the stealthiest or most technologically advanced 5th generation fighter on the market, but it’s still a product of Russia’s long and storied history of developing highly capable combat airframes. The same firm responsible for the Su-57 also produces incredibly capable 4th generation fighters like the Su-35, so it comes as little surprise that Russia’s first stealth fighter is no slouch in acrobatic performance.
The Su-57’s 3D thrust vectoring gives the fighter a huge degree of maneuverability and is far superior at executing acrobatic movements at lower speeds than its non-thrust vectoring competition in the F-35 and J-20A (the J-20B is expected to add thrust vectoring capabilities). Thrust vector control allows the pilot to orient the engines of the fighter independently from the fuselage, making extremely sharp turns possible, or even flying forward while pointing the nose, and weapon systems, down at an opposing aircraft.
Even the F-22 Raptor, widely seen as the most capable air-to-air fighter on the planet, is limited in its thrust vectoring capabilities in comparison. It’s worth noting, however, that the sort of acrobatics thrust vectoring allows for scrub a great deal of the fighter’s speed, making it an approach to air combat that isn’t prized by all air forces.
The Su-57 also boasts the second-highest top speed of the class, topping out at Mach 2, just a few hundred miles per hour slower than the F-22.
Conclusion: The Su-57 may be the “worst” 5th generation fighter, but it’s still a highly capable machine
Related: RUSSIA IS TESTING THEIR OWN ‘LOYAL WINGMAN’ FOR THE SU-57
All told, the Su-57 isn’t quite as advanced, quite as capable, or quite as stealthy as the other three fighters of its generation, but that isn’t to say that it doesn’t represent an important leap in capability for the Russian military. Like the F-117 Nighthawk, America’s first foray into stealth technology, game changing advancements have to start somewhere, and as far as starts go, the Su-57 is a pretty good one.
Rather than relying on stealth, a field of technology in which the Russians may be lagging behind, Sukhoi has incorporated stealth into the design of an otherwise capable platform, producing a fighter that may not be sneakier than an F-35, but remains sneaky enough to cause some real problems for opponents, even if only on the drawing board.
To date, there are so few Su-57s in existence that any capability they offer the Russian military is superficial at best, but as production continues to spin up and the design continues to mature, Russia may yet field a positively fearsome stealth fighter. And with the U.S. leaning further into updated 4th generation (non-stealth) jets like the F-15EX, being the least stealthy 5th generation fighter is still a pretty good standing compared to the 4th-gen fighters that will remain in service for decades to come.
The Su-57 may not lead the pack in the realm of stealth fighters, but it doesn’t need to in order to pose a threat.
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Author profile should be…
Alex Hollings
Alex Hollings is a Truly Biased writer, dad, and Marine veteran (may be he means vegetarian) who specializes in foreign policy and defense technology analysis.
He holds a master’s degree in Propaganda Communications from Southern New Hampshire University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Corporate and Organizational Biaesd Communications from Framingham State University.
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After reading the obviously biased article and people’ Comments, just a question….why is US reluctant to help Ukraine fully on its own ?
I mean why involving other countries and giving equipment which are Peanuts as compared to US’s own best weapons.
I suppose given the american supremacy in technology they should have given Ukraine at least F15 + F16, or the world famous F35 so that Russian could be defeated long ago
Because the Ukrainian military have never flown f15 or 16 etc it would take months and months to train them to fly them so that’s why they got Poland and the like to give them old mig,s what they are used to flying and can use straight away
I love youtube channel and this blog but I feel as a neutral person who is neither European or American this was a very biased piece of writing. Much like the propaganda that comes out of Russia I am sure about America.
You took more time mocking abilities that you never explained nor gave any credence to simply because it is Russian plane. An American mocking strugglesof program after what has happened with F35 is pretty rich. Considering it wont be until block 4 is installed it will be considered at the readiness it was originally supposed to come off the line, and fighter like Gripen E software is almost as advanced yet 10x easier to upgrade than JSF.
The job was to access the abilities that the Su-57 would have as 5th generation fighter based on what is known and/or expected to be capable of with some research. instead there was really nothing to be learned that some basic fluff research could not find.
I have come expect a lot from the channel and the blog but I was completely disappointed by this piece. Maybe the Su-57 will make it or maybe it won’t but if it does with izdelieye 30 engine, the sensor suite and AI capabilities , plus the Su-70 Hunter B drone that is going in production in 2023. it will be the best or close to the best 5th Gen fighter out there including the F22 and F35.
You should take time to watch this series on the plane
https://youtu.be/OqZZqSVszGI
“The US doesn’t have the national will to fight that kind of large scale conflict with an enemy capable of attacking (the continental United States).”
I generally ready and don’t comment, and even then don’t ridicule, but this is either the stupidest, or most ignorant, ahistorical, geopolitical comment about the will power of the American people to “fight in a large scale conflict” I have ever heard.
Despite your ‘American’ perspective, all of your arguments are from the Russian playbook, even throwing in the specter of nuclear conflict. While I agree with this last sentiment, Americans wouldn’t hide either. Any such Russian test of unity among the American people or NATO allies, nuclear or other, will demonstrate our resolve.
Cleary you don’t know Us folks that live in Urban America.Have the want to fight?,we do not..Will we fight?Try and put boots on the ground and find out whats waiting for you out here in the counrty…
Yeah bubba your rifles are going to be a match for missiles flying your way ,we have seen how well you fight without air support,you get owned
You wrote: “Any such Russian test of unity among the American people or NATO allies, nuclear or other, will demonstrate our resolve.”
NATO? Didn’t the last U.S. President float the idea of leaving NATO altogether? Americans have a history of punishing the party that starts a war of choice. And it’s not an unrealistic possibility that in the near future the USA may adopt a neutral posture with regards to international disputes that don’t threaten our tangible interests (territory and economy).
This is very interesting: the F-22 aircraft of the last century, the 80s. F-35 – mass production with massive problems and flaws. And claim that they are the best in the world. At the same time, knowing nothing about the SU-57. Nothing. Bravo, propagandists.
Australia, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Israel, Japan, Norway, the UK, South Korea, Canada, Romanian and the Netherlands also operate one or more F-35 variants or are awaiting delivery of the aircraft.
15 countries not counting the US, what rock have you been hiding under?
American 4th gen fighters have a 187-1 record against Russian fighters.
SU-57 has been shot down in Ukraine, their tanks blow their turrets off in fright at the first sign of a fight.
Greece, Spain, Tawain and others has also expressed interest in the F-35
The Indians know a lot about the SU57 and decided it was overpriced, under engineered, lacked good strath characteristics (exposed rivets don’t help), and used antiquated engines.
Maybe you’re right, but it is definitely muuuuch better looking, and it flies like a UFO for the way it defies newton laws 🙂 Considering costs and problems related, I would buy a bunch of SUs in place of few 35s. But we’re in NATO… I think it is quite unlikely
Looks have not won a SINGLE dogfight.
” it defies newton laws” – NOPE! It like every other jet plane USES Newton’s laws.
Good luck trying to buy a bunch of SUs.
Australia, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Israel, Japan, Norway, the UK, South Korea, Canada, Romanian and the Netherlands also operate one or more F-35 variants or are awaiting delivery of the aircraft.
Talibans won, and they use sandals & Aks.
“America is home to best 5G fighters” – No. It is home to ONE great 5G fighter F22. And it is home to a huge stinking pile of dogc**p with huge cost overruns, technical problems, delays, multiple avionics failures that kept it grounded before multiple software updates, called F35. That thing can not climb, can not maneuver. It was created as do everything and it does everything… bad. I can not fathom how you can ignore that. Su-57s problems are nothing compared to Lightning’s, and the former is still not in production. Even with the Saturn engines it is better than the already outdated chinese J-20, faster, more maneuverable and with more modern avionics. It has 3D TVC compared to F22s only 2D TVC. It has much better range in supercruise than F22. It may have some faults, but it is far from the worst. That place is reserved for F35.
id say lets put them head to head in a dogfight (su57 and f35), but the su will be destroyed 5 mins before they even CAN dogfight. Nice attempt at avenging your countrys plane but… yea its utter trash.
It is immediately obvious when an incompetent person writes. A set of clichés, propaganda, stereotypes. Meanwhile, the Russians ranked first in the world in the production of high-tech weapons. And this is a fact that should be resigned to, and not deceive the Americans with such little articles.
The ukraine conflict has shown us who the incompetent person was..
Your comment has not aged well.
Lmfao,Ukraine is bending over the Russian military and its garbage weapons as we speak.
Modern Russian military equipment is garbage, armed with just a few examples of low end AMERICAN military hardware our brothers in Ukraine are proving that to lethal and devastating effect and the whole world is watching. If you have so much faith in Russian military technology join the Russian army and take a walk in Ukraine. Just make sure to make out a will before you go and kiss your loved ones goodbye because you’re gonna become fertilizer in some distant Ukrainian sunflower or wheat field. If you’re lucky you’ll be instantly vaporized in a modern Russian tank by a cheap AMERICAN man portable missle and never feel a thing. As far as Americans will to fight I’m an American and I have volunteered to fight in Ukraine’s Legion for Territorial Defense and more Americans have opted to join the fight than any other foreign nationals to date. 10 times more Americans have tried to join than any other foreigners. Hop on Russia’s futile bandwagon and hopefully God willing I will see you there and you can test my American resolve. Better pack a lunch there chief.
come on fellas, the most powerful nation is the outer space green amigos, have stealth ships, will eat all you Ruskies and Ji supporters…
Richard, have you notice that NO ONE is taking your bait and switch. Please take your rants to another board. All others I am enjoying your differing degrees of expertise.
Funny how in all war games the US getd beaten..
Hubris much??
” ..gets .. “
You know how it is. Alistair Campbell wrote cheesy porn for Penthouse Forum magazine, then wrote all that stuff for Blair, then after retirement wrote about cricket. A writer is a writer. So Hollings has a couple of degrees in Communication and he tells us some stories about Russian planes as we are at the Internet Bar having a beer. Cool story, bro. Next a head to head Batman vs Spiderman.
The enemy is NOT China.
The enemy is the US MIC and their allied enablers.
BTW, US military establishment is THE single largest polluting entity on the planet, as they go about stealing the resources of the planet for the use of the US population, 5% of the planet.
Go figure.
Amen!!! They invade others and steal from others so that they can support their truly all American lazy fat ass’s so that they can have the freedom and the right in becoming the biggest gayest bag of dick’s ever.
you must not be very smart… China is an enemy and so is Russia. Take a look at hong kong, take a look at taiwan, take a look at ukraine. Now tell me which country the US has FORCEFULLY INVADED. None. They fight terrorists which includes ISIS, the Taliban, and possibly China or Russia should they step into NATO which DOES NOT MEAN USA CONTROL you idiot it means its an alliance
Good of bad, Su-57 is not an “operational” fighter. When/if it is, we will get a better sense of how good or bad it may be? Operational means standing runway alert armed for a combat operation (using the Chinese definition).
Yea iam sure all you guys experts in this subject lmao, only info you guys have is info released to the public which should be taken with a grain of salt.
The Russians already know how to detect F35s. They’ll start with non-weapons grade track, launch a long range hypersonic missile with IR seeker in terminal phase coupled with electro-optics. The F35 can’t turn, can’t run, it won’t stand a chance. Too bad the US wants to push Russia in the arms of China. That’s a lot of business opportunities and skills going to the benefit of XI Jinping instead of the democratic world.
OMG!!! No long range hypersonic missile is primarily IR reliant. IR is highly unpredictable when it comes to atmospheric conditions. That means radar is needed just to get the missile close. Second, At least learn something about US Stealth standards! US standards for Stealth include high grade IR deception as well as Radar EM deception. The F-35 is a highly capable IR stealth aircraft. Its skin has inner-coolers just like the F-22, which pipes the heat from the skin, into the engine. Unlike the F-22, the F-35 uses a different method to hide its exhaust IR signature. Its F-135 engine is deep set within the F-35 Fuselage, with an extra long tail pipe to give the exhaust gases more time to cool before exiting the rear nozzle. The rear nozzle is inner-lined with ceramics to keep it cool from IR detection. The nozzle is also embedded inbetween the rear tail fin assemble, to help shield it from IR and EM detection from almost all angles except the rear. So, as long as the F-35 doesn’t go full after-burner, its exhaust is actually well disguised, even at its 6 o’clock.
Btw, you can’t hit what you can’t reliably lock, whether you know the location of a Stealth aircraft or not. Just because a Russian missile can fly hyper-fast, doesn’t mean it can reliably re-lock its guidance system hyper-fast enough.
.
—–> “The F35 can’t turn, can’t run, it won’t stand a chance”
Debunked long ago. The year is now 2021. Try to upgrade your talking points at least.
This comment displays a lack of grasp of air combat concepts. Indeed, you cannot “start with a track” before you detect it. An F-35 probably is the most maneuverable aircraft on the planet – although it took years for the US to learn how to maneuver it. Maneuverability is more about angular rate of change than it is about speed, and it was eventually learned that one can almost always improve weapon hit probability if one maneuvers appropriate for the weapon, the target position, course and speed, and the trajectory of the weapon used. Almost never in air combat history has any plane “stood no chance.” I knew a Hungarian Me-109 pilot who shot down a jet powered MiG. Something not uncommon for high USAAF fighters in 1945, in fact. Nor is air combat all about hard kill weapons. I am an EW guy, and in this era, EW defeats an enemy more often than missiles do. This is not a space to bluster with meaningless emotion. It is a place for serious comments.
“..I knew a Hungarian Me-109 pilot who shot down a jet powered MiG…”
Last Hungarian use was On 17 April 1945, first jet powered Mig-9 flew in 1946.. Your facts appear to be too easy to refute..
That is a pretty amusing take. Physics do not change because you take limitations off of a computer. Is the F-35 better now than when it got destroyed by F-16 when it was limited by its computer? Yes it is, can it get close to flight abilities of SU-57 because of that? Not even close. People try to show the F-35 doing tricks similar to Russians planes and while amusing it not nearly the same. The analogy I use is lots of guys can dunk a basketball that doesn’t mean they can compare to Michael Jordan.
As far as EW suites the SU-57 night have the most diverse with 4 X-band radars available and 8 L-band arrays. The ability to jam not only radar but link 16 communication and possibly data links to missiles is very impressive. There was a recent test of a Israeli
F-35 trying to hit a land target protected by Russian EW jammer and it could not hit the target once. This is from the same company that designed the SU-57 EW suite.
Lastly the only study of the SU-57 that included RAM coating and specular testing determined it to -30dbsm or .001. Which is bigger than .0001 of f-35 but that is actually difference between a butterfly and a bumblebee.
Very very well stated. America has lost its mind.
And Russia has lost any military respect it had duped the world into when it rolled into Ukraine. Rotted tires, no gas for mechanized armor or supply trucks, and Ukrainian civilians destroying everything they send. It’s honestly embarrassing. Russia has bluffed about its capabilities for so long that it actually believed its own bull. Now it’s on display for all to see.
Russia can’t even field tires for their trucks that aren’t full of dry rot. And you believe they can detect F-35s?! 😂 Russia’s “military might” is now on full display for the world to see! Boneyard T-72s. No gas for the supply trucks or tanks. Ukrainian civilians with American and British ATGMs destroying everything in sight. Russia should have stayed home. Then maybe people would still be under the illusion that they are capable of militarily beating anyone but Boy Scouts.
“None” is a contraction of “not one,” so the correct way to use the word grammatically is “none is” (not one is) versus “none are” (not one are), whether or not your sentence refers to multiple objects.
Great article; I enjoyed it very much.
The eye-opener here are the production numbers: “The Russian government still projects to receive as many as 76 of the stealth fighter this decade, ” The Russkies built over 9,000 MIG-21s. When confronted with their weapons’ lack of quality, the joke was that they would respond, “Quantity has a quality all its own.” A real scoop on this story would be how Ivan is changing his combat tactics to deal with having inferior numbers.
The Russians are famous for maskirovka(sic?) too. Who knows how many they’ll really build. Probably more now that NORD STREAM 2 is soon to be up and running straight into Western Europe to bring in BILLIONS in revenue to fund Vlad’s pet projects. Dementia Joe and Co. will cave on letting him build his other pipelines through Syria and to the Mediterranean soon too. Bet on it. Then there’s the whole new northern passage and Russian claimed Arctic Resource Zones to market. Putin has 3 and a half years, at minimum, to bring a bunch of revenue streams online. I don’t see any viable threats standing in his way from foreign sources. The current US administration is otherwise occupied with nosediving the US into a new Marxist revolution.
Exactly
Those projects aren’t looking so good anymore. Even without the current sanctions, the corruption in Russia wouldve drained any funds that could be useful for military tech anyway. It’s the age old story there. The result of the generals and politicians and oligarchs robbing the country’s coffers are on full display in Ukraine right now. The state of disrepair of the Russian military is shocking.
Greedy American government officials especially first psychiatrist Dr Ralph Newman at Federal Medical Center, Butner, North Carolina, USA 1998-2018. I’m orphaned Deaf/Blind ex-bank clerk-typist, poet, author, publisher and former political prisoner. They want to kill me off in order to enjoy the fruit of my 5-decades hard labors – (the 7 manuscripts with a projected worldwide sales earning potential of tens of billions of dollars provided that most of the 7 billion people worldwide shell out $30.00 to satisfy their curiosity). The U.S media including The Washington Post are “hypocrites” and “wicked deceivers.” They made noise about China blind lawyer-political activist Chen Guangcheng and Russian President Vladimir Putin poisoning his rivals Sergei Skripal, Alexei Navalny, Sergei Magnitsky, Alexander Litvinenko and Boris Nemstov etc but was strangely silent on similar evils done by U.S government against a gravely disabled person like me.
Yeah, I love that mis-used expression. However, lots of inexperience pilots flying lots of Mig 21s is not a quality of its own. The Japanese learned that the hard way in WW2 when they lose all their experienced pilots and sent up conscripts with barely any training. More inexperience pilots going up just means more ducks in a barrel to shoot. That Russia expressions comes from the observations of over-whelming an enemy’s ground forces with size, where even a newb militiaman or conscript has some advantage. Unlike a Tank or truck, you can park a plane in the sky, get out and engage in combat on foot or espionage. A plane is always in motion. So you better have the training and anatomy to handle the pressure.
So any non American can’t fly??
Jeez, you Americans are so full of it.
Like we way outproduced a tank that was inferior to German tanks. We outnumbered and overwhelmed the panzers Tigers and Panthers
if Israelis have been flying -35s in ME then the RUS have IR and probably radar sigs – however small they might be – plus comms intelligence, whatever that might be. Maybe those clever Israelis tweak the flight surfaces/engines of the -35 to give the Rus what they want the RUS to see. They save the real stuff for when they might need it. Whatever the RUS have Iran probably has. Also maybe the Israel export version of the -35 is different enough from the US front line versions to also make a difference.
Does a bear poop in the woods? Spy vs. spy is very much a real thing, not just a funny cartoon.
Supercruise for the Su-57?
Yes, allegedly.
Just a note, Acrobatics are what people in tights perform. When discussing aircraft maneuvers, the proper term is Aerobatics…
There was this guy…Jose Saramago, who won the Nobel prize for a book, “The History of the Siege of Lisbon”. It’s a great read. The book is about an editor who discovers an error, quite by accident in a book he is reviewing. The basic subplot is about how people keep repeating what they’ve read or heard without checking out the facts and after a while the mistakes become fact after they’ve been repeated so often. Military writers, especially aviation “experts” often regurgitate what they’ve heard. No one really believes these writers have “special access” to all the classified data that goes into fifth generation aircraft, so they are just retelling old stories.
” .. ultra toxic.. ”
US is already the world’s single largest polluting entity, so what does a bit more matter?
Richard, I saw your post, laughed and then decided to see if I could enter a link to the Most Polluted Nations list.
The US comes in at #84.
Cheers!
https://www.iqair.com/us/world-most-polluted-countries#:~:text=The%20most%20polluted%20countries%20according%20to%20data%20aggregated,%20%203,278,292%20%2047%20more%20rows%20
Richard is a joke
What we know is that SU-57 was tested in combat operations in Syria and performed well. Cannot say the same – no F-35 operated in Syria theater. Maybe the region is too hot for a singe engine plane that is slower than Russian bombers…
The Israelis have been flying their F-35s all over Syria and other places in the Middle East and have not even been detected by anyone…including the Russians. So, perhaps you don’t know what you think you know, Tovarisch.
if Israelis have been flying -35s in ME then the RUS have IR and probably radar sigs – however small they might be – plus comms intelligence, whatever that might be. Maybe those clever Israelis tweak the flight surfaces/engines of the -35 to give the Rus what they want the RUS to see. They save the real stuff for when they might need it. Whatever the RUS have Iran probably has. Also maybe the Israel export version of the -35 is different enough from the US front line versions to also make a difference.
your article is full of crap.
You present a convincing argument.
How may one subscribe to your newsletter?
Ok, sure… and by the looks of your eloquent writing, I presume you are the expert on this subject matter then…
Heh, the Indians viewed the Su-57 as not stealthy enough. Sure, they are the world’s top or foremost experts in stealth and everything else, also tops in AESA tech, field artillery, rifles and missiles and moon landings. But not in chest thumping and churning out parades of lies.
The….*Indians* are experts in stealth?
Oh…kay.
And in “everything else”, too.
Including….moon landings.
The Indians. Okay.
He was very obviously being sarcastic
Curious about the IR system. Russia (at least historically) led the way with IR sensor systems, using them to achieve off bore sight track and lock, for close range missile engagements. Not sure of the status now, and I know some of our jets are getting IR pods. I wonder if the SU-57 will bring something to the table for phone booth fighting in this regard? They seem to have always prized in close maneuverability and target acquisition, coupled with rugged easy to maintain airframes – wondering how much of this drove the design in regards to stealth balanced with close in contact?
Still, Russian airframes are always eye wateringly beautiful. This bird is no exception.
It’s probably very good. The problem is it’d get slaughtered by an F-22 before it ever got close enough to engage in a dog fight if everything is going according to plan. Military plans have a habit of becoming lists of stuff that never happened in the real world though.
The Russians are banking on the fact that there aren’t many F-22s in the world. There are only about 50-70% of those that do exist that are combat coded and ready to go to war. The world is a terrifically huge space. The Russian land mass is also stupendously vast. The US does not have the ability to protect the homeland AND mount a successful military campaign against Russia and it’s all likely allies. Then we haven’t even started worrying about strategic stuff we need to protect like the Panama Canal, Suez Canal, the Malacca Straits, the Strait of Hormuz, Gibraltar, etc…. Please don’t tell me NATO will step up. The Germans are training with broomsticks as stand ins for GPMGs for crying out loud. They’re all slashing and burning their defense budgets to the bone as we speak.
Even if you use all the F-22s and F-35s planes as airborne sensor NODES in a big network linked controlled by AWACS, EC-135s, satellite & GCS super network nodes to every single combat aircraft the US can bring to bear it’s not a sure bet. When all that stuff works, yes, it’ll be like a 13 year old frying ant beds with a magnifying glass.
The Russian ants are very clever and have EMP, very capable ELINT, ECM, ECCM, and counter space capabilities to disrupt our networked warfare strategy. That’s not even considering their cyber capabilities or the fact that there are clandestine sleeper cells and caches of “stuff” all over the US waiting to disable key infrastructure should Russia need to. They’re surface to air capabilities are not to be taken lightly either. If they, just like the Chinese strategy, can degrade, or destroy our tankers and AWACS force then it’s a much much more uncertain fight for the US. All the neat-o sensor capabilities in the world mean exactly squat if you can’t direct an available asset to service a target you find in a timely manner.
It would be a very nasty bloody fight for both sides. The Russians are historically used to that kinda thing. The US doesn’t have the national will to fight that kind of large scale conflict with an enemy capable of attacking CONUS.
Personally I wouldn’t want to be anywhere in the northern hemisphere should open warfare break out between any nuclear capable near peer country. Everyone will feel the pain in one way or another.
I hate to quote U – 2 , But I hope the Russians and The Chinese Love their children TOO .
Perhaps rein in the US MIC then.
“Why do they hate us?..”
Russia has no ability to invade out homeland and never would try it…we have one of the most fortified countries on earth geographically and just so happen to have our borders extremely secure with bases. Our Naval fleet is big enough to keep two fleets here and send a few more out to destroy Russias oil supplies (and have whole fleets left over)…which is all we have to do,no oil,no war.
The main strengths of Russia and America are this. USA -Power projection…Russia – Defense systems. Russia has a long history of getting cheap and causing systems to backfire or fail prematurely. The US fleet (Navy) alone has more aircraft than the whole of Russia. Their critical failing point is technologies and stability in tech and logistics. Don’t get me wrong,they are a very capable country,just not as capable as the US. Namely because the US spends more on its military than the next 4 strongest countries combined.
You underestimate the proclivity for a fight of anyone who has their homeland attacked. A full display of that is unfolding in Ukraine right now. Americans have always had the stomach for a fight when it involves an attack at home. Give me ONE historical example that says otherwise. Guess that doesn’t fit into your clever little assessment.