T-50. Image via China Military Report.
by DAVID AXE
So Russia’s got a new stealth fighter: the long-delayed, much-ballyhooed T-50, built by Sukhoi. Bill Sweetman, the godfather of U.S. aviation reporters, described the T-50 as an improved version of the 1990s-vintage Su-30 Flanker, rather than as a Russian F-22.
“For anyone contemplating the use of the word ‘Raptorski’: don’t,” Bill wrote. “While this is an airplane that could have been the answer to the Advanced Tactical Fighter requirement, way back when, it’s not an F-22 in many important ways.” He cited the T-50′s non-stealthy engines and intakes and other features.
Chinese aerospace experts are similarly reserved in their assessments of the T-50. Considering that China, too, is reportedly developing a stealthy fighter, Chinese opinions on the T-50 could be revealing. One Chinese expert told the press that T-50 “could hardly compete” with the F-22, according to China Military Report.
The expert is quoting saying a fighter’s performance depends greatly on its “information technology equipment,” which I take to mean radar, avionics and networking gear. “Judging from the exhibition, the Russian fighter in the information and data chain is not like the United States [fighter]. … [The] F-22′s main feature is the powerful information technology,” CMR wrote.
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The Russian fifth generation fighter “T-50″ 29 day test flight for the first time. China’s “weapons knowledge,” Xiong, deputy editor of World Wide Web the same day to accept the aircraft when reporters were briefly Comments.
He said the first flight from the existing information and the circumstances, the Russian T-50 could hardly compete with the U.S. F-22 “Raptor” fighter par.
He is the aviation expert? deputy editor of the world wide web?
I would put a tornado f3/f18/f15 or f16 against that
pile of commie junk anyday. Better pilots,missiles, avionics
,radar,ECM and tactics.
A eurofighter or f22 would kill it before the ruskie
even picked then up on radar.
More pathetic ruskie engineering !
“More pathetic ruskie engineering !”
Mr. president if i may talk freely, the russkie talks big but frankly we think is short of know how.
Classic.
“I would put a tornado f3/f18/f15 or f16 against that
pile of commie junk anyday. Better pilots,missiles, avionics
,radar,ECM and tactics.
A eurofighter or f22 would kill it before the ruskie
even picked then up on radar.
More pathetic ruskie engineering !”
This comment is the definition of american idiot.
Mathew
1/ I’m engish
2/ I personally know Uk fighter pilots who laugh
at the Russian planes.
3/ friends with various senior military people
in the Uk and us who all told me that the Russians
need to quadruple their defence spending over the
next fifteen years to have any chance of competing
with the USA.
4/ The above are facts.
finally… some brits backing the americans…. trust me… we will need it by 2025… dwindling resources will make the war of our age… but the sad thing is that the mainstream fighter will be the F-35… not F-22… not very good… especially against this new russian fighter… we need more f-22s… we need to get rid of defense secretary gates… the guy is complacent moron… its politics… its not like hes saving money… he is just building more F-35s… he fired the two generals who opposed him… DEath to Gates!!!
I can’t help but see the T-50 as developing into a juggernaut of a strike fighter, with its tall dual weapons bays, and range as afforded by it’s large internal tankage. Unless Mr. Sweetman has shoved his head into one of the intakes, I’m not sure I give his estimations any credit.
With its capable payload, a group of these in an Air Defense role could likely do a BARCAP line, hosing off clouds of Novators or AA-12s or whatever, keeping the incoming strike package and its escorts so engaged, that they run out of their own AAMs (trying to tailchase) and fuel stores, to the point of aborting.
Additionally the T-50 can also loose its birds at the fat unstealthy rear aspect of egressing F-35s for a quick rack up of kills.
It is definitely not on par with the Raptor in its current state, but could be very troublesome in an environment populated by otherwise A2A anemic F-35s.
[...] War is Boring (yes, they’re on a roll) analyzes the new Russian T-50 and finds it to be an update of the Su-30, rather than some sort of [...]
“I would put a tornado f3/f18/f15 or f16 against that
pile of commie junk anyday. Better pilots,missiles, avionics
,radar,ECM and tactics.
A eurofighter or f22 would kill it before the ruskie
even picked then up on radar.
More pathetic ruskie engineering !”
corrected:
This comment is the definition of a british idiot.
2/ I personally know Uk fighter pilots who laugh
at the Russian planes.
>> What a surprise, british who think they are better than everyone else. How many times throughout history you done this only to be ripped a new one. LOL. What do you expect from conceited fly boys. And what exactly do the english produce? You’ve got nothing without the US.
3/ friends with various senior military people
in the Uk and us who all told me that the Russians
need to quadruple their defence spending over the
next fifteen years to have any chance of competing
with the USA.
>> Wow, you know people. What does this have to do with the T-50? Its obvious Russia doesnt have the $$$ to match the US so they are just looking to ward people off. It doesnt mean their stuff is junk. Have a look at history Tim – the few times Russians actually fought western trained pilots the loss ratio was around 1:1. Missiles – *LOL*. AIM-120 is trash. Avionics, radar, ECM – not anymore. That gap is bridged or very close to. Tactics? Considering the tactical failings of the US in vietnam you have to wonder and the RAFs history isnt that stellar – go read how daft the low level raids in the GW were.
I think your scenario at the end would be a quite different too. More likely the Euro/F-22 would not see the PAK until it was within IRST range (F-22 doesnt even have one) at which point the PAK gets first shot.
“I would put a tornado f3/f18/f15 or f16 against that
pile of commie junk anyday. Better pilots,missiles, avionics
,radar,ECM and tactics.
A eurofighter or f22 would kill it before the ruskie
even picked then up on radar.
More pathetic ruskie engineering !”
While the Su-50′s stealth and radar may not as good as the F-22 Raptor’s, it still has excellent defense.
The F-22 might have the first “see” on the radar but the Su-50 might have the first “lock”, on account of the slack F-22 locking systems.
Secondly even if the F-22 did fire a missile before the Su-50 could detect it, they can easily avoid the missile. Maneuverability to the “ruskies”.
And look how much the US spent on the F-22? Russia has much less $$$ but still produces good quality fighters.