Posted on 05/21/2017 7:11:41 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Exactly 40 years ago, on May 20, 1977, the prototype of Russia's legendary Su-27 fourth generation fighter aircraft, Т-10-1, made its first flight. Sputnik reviews the history of development and modernization of the aircraft to show that it is still second to none in close air combat and is far from becoming out of date.
Russia's Su-27 rightly serves as a symbol of Russia's defense industry of the second part of the 20th century, on a par with the T-72 tank and Kalashnikov assault rifle. In this particular aircraft, the USSR implemented all of the most advanced technologies of the Soviet school of aircraft engineering, thanks to which the aircraft is ready for almost limitless modifications.
© PHOTO: SUKHOI COMPANY
Russia's Su-27, designed as a counterweight to the F-15.
Dozens of modified Su-27 jets nowadays patrol the skies of more than 20 countries, and constant design and engineering support means that the service life of this graceful bird is far from over.
Sputnik reviews the history of development and modification of the aircraft.
Everything began at Sukhoi Design Bureau at the end of 1969. The USSR needed an air superiority fighter to catch up with the US' F-15 fighter being developed in the US under the FX program from 1966.
The prototype of the Su-27, factory code T-10, was finished by September 1971. After the concept was presented, Soviet Air Force heads decided to move ahead with two designs in parallel. A lighter version by Mikoyan (now known as the MiG-29, NATO reporting name Fulcrum), and a heavier version by Sukhoi.
In 1976, Sukhoi started to build its first three T-10 prototypes (two for flight testing and one for structural testing). The first two flying prototypes of the Su-27 were fitted with AL-21FZAI engines.
Construction of the first prototype T10-1 was completed in April 1977 and on May 20, 1977 it made its first test flight.
In May 1978, the testing program was expanded to cover a second prototype, the T-10-2, and the year after that, in 1979, it received the prototypes T-10-3 and T-10-4, fitted with AL-31F engines.
The aircraft however had shortcomings in the fly-by-wire (FBW) system that replaced the conventional manual flight controls of the aircraft with an electronic interface.
Extensive redesigns followed (T-10-3 through to T-10-15) and a revised version of the T-10-7, designated the T-10S, made its first flight on April 20,1981.
The T-10S was lost in an accident on September 3, 1981. The second T-10S came from the production line with the designation T-10-12 and a new airframe. That prototype was lost too, on December 23, 1981.
Eventually the T-10-15 demonstrator, T-10S-3, evolved into the definitive Su-27 configuration.
The T-10S-3 was modified and officially designated the P-42, setting a number of world records for time-to-height, beating those set in 1975 by a similarly modified F-15 called "The Streak Eagle."
For its record attempt, the P-42 was stripped of all armaments, radar and operational equipment. The fin tips, tail-boom and the wingtip launch rails were also removed. The composite radome was replaced by a lighter metal version. The aircraft was stripped of paint, polished and all drag-producing gaps and joints were sealed. The engines were modified to deliver an increase in thrust of 1,000 kg (2,200 lb), resulting in a thrust-to-weight ratio of almost 2:1.
The production Su-27 (NATO designation Flanker) began to enter operational service in 1985, although manufacturing difficulties kept it from appearing in strength until 1990.
The Su-27 is a highly integrated twin-finned aircraft. The airframe is constructed of titanium and high-strength aluminum alloys. The engine nacelles are fitted with trouser fairings to provide a continuous streamlined profile between the nacelles and the tail beams. The fins and horizontal tail consoles are attached to tail beams.
The central beam section between the engine nacelles consists of the equipment compartment, fuel tank and the brake parachute container. The fuselage head is of semi-monocoque construction and includes the cockpit, radar compartments and the avionics bay.
The aircraft is equipped with a 30mm GSh-301 gun with 150 rounds of ammunition and a range of missiles, rockets and bombs mounted externally on ten hardpoints.
Its infrared search and track system, laser rangefinder, radar and helmet-mounted target designator provide detection, tracking and attack capability.
The range of air-to-air missiles carried by the Su-27 aircraft includes: R-27R1 (NATO designation AA-10A Alamo-A), all-aspect medium-range missile with semi-active radar homing and R-27T1 (AA-10B Alamo-B) with infrared homing and a range from 500m to 60km; and R-73E (AA-11 Archer) all-aspect, close-combat air-to-air missile with infrared homing and a range from 300m to 20km.
Ordnance for air-to-ground missions include: 100kg, 250kg and 500kg freefall and retarded aerial bombs; 500kg incendiary devices; 25kg and 500kg RBK cluster bombs; and C-8, C-13 and C-25 unguided aerial missiles.
The Su-27 is equipped with a new electronic countermeasures suite for individual aircraft, and for mutual and group protection in the forward and rear hemispheres.
The countermeasures system includes a pilot illumination radar warning receiver, chaff and infrared decoy dispensers, and an active multi-mode jammer located in the wingtip pods.
The Su-27 is equipped with a Phazotron N001 Zhuk coherent pulse Doppler radar with track-while-scan and look-down / shoot-down capability.
The range of the radar against 3m² targets is over 100km in the forward hemisphere and 40km in the rear hemisphere. The radar has the capacity to search, detect and track up to ten targets with automatic threat assessment and prioritization.
The aircraft has an OEPS-27 electro-optic system, which includes an infrared search-and-track (IRST) sensor collimated with a laser rangefinder. The range of the electro-optical system is 40-100km, depending on the aspect angle presented by the target.
The Su-27 is in service with Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, and is built under license in China as the F-11. A variant, the Su-30MK, has been sold to India with licensed local production.
In May 2006, the Su-27 was selected by the Mexican Navy. It required ten aircraft, eight single-seat and two Su-27UB two-seat trainers.
In August 2007, Indonesia ordered a further three Su-27SKM and three Su-30MK2 aircraft.
The latest version is the Su-27SM, an upgrade for the Russian Air Force which has strengthened fuselage for extra weapons payload, improved N001 radar, glass cockpit with three-color multi-function displays and improved avionics. The first was delivered in December 2003.
Back in August 1992, a group of Russian Air Force Su-27s made a friendly visit to the USAF air base Langley. During that visit a proposition was made to the American side to have a demonstration dogfight between Su-27 and F-15.The flight involved one Su-27UB, one F-15D and one F-15C.
The Su-27 rose to the challenge and triumphed.
The F-15D was not able to shake the Su-27 from its tail: using only minimum afterburners and maximum non-afterburning thrust the Russian fighter without much effort managed to stay behind the F-15D, whose engines were set to full afterburning thrust.
During this chase, the Su-27's AOA never exceed 18 degrees. At the same time Su-27 faced with the same task easily lost the F-15C and was soon on its tail and not long after that the F-15D became another target.
Back in 2015, the Indian Air Force pilots flying Sukhoi Su-30 MKI had a resounding 12-0 scoreline in their favor against Royal Air Force Typhoon jets in Within Visual Range (WVR) dogfighting operations, part of joint air combat exercise.
It is expected that the Su-27 family will maintain its presence over the modern battlefield for some decades to come, more so as the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA makes it appearance in suitable numbers for the Russian Air Force.
russia is not our enemy
russia is our natural ally
You are delusional. I don’t mind working with the commies to get rid of ISIS and Al Qaeda but as long as the former KGB commie is in charge (and those like him) , they are the enemy of freedom
I think the su-27 is the most beautiful airplane I’ve ever seen, maybe.
that thing is completely amazing.
>Russia’s Su-27 rightly serves as a symbol of Russia’s defense industry of the second part of the 20th century, on a par with the T-72 tank
Didn’t we use the T-72 for target practice in Iraq? I think we had bradlys armed transports blowing them up left and right.
The poster is definitely a friendly.
You're picking on one of my favorite FReepers. His posts on military hardware are better than porn. And who's this "enemy" of which you speak? Is this 1962?
“Its infrared search and track system, laser rangefinder, radar and helmet-mounted target designator provide detection, tracking and attack capability.”
Old technology.
We hold exercises against adversary platforms all the time. It is nonsense to “think” the aircraft being profiled is anything special.
It is not.
We fly these engagements all the time to assess an adversaries capability. If we merely flew to the merge and did an engagement (waxing their butt), we would be bored and not really learn what their envelop is.
This jet is no where near US capability, and using a russian source is amusing because it is so darned entertaining in its fantasy. This also applies to that hoopla regarding the indian exercise.
And contrary to the article, which made it sound like the engagements were a spur-of-the-moment thing, piffle. Events like that require coordination of airspace, agreement on tactics to be used, knock-it-off criteria, weapons limitations for simulations, kill criteria, ROE and DLOs.
It is not something that just happens. . .we are professionals and flying our jets to exploit knowledge gained is the objective, whereas the adversary (russia or india) only wants to have something to crow about.
BVR is certainly the goal for AA engagements, but it is upset by tactics and good ECM. If the merge happens, then you are dealing with the Su-27 in your face.
The Russians have good ECM and experience in denying an adversary the long range shot. If they cannot shoot at long range, then close air happens.
The AMRAAM is good and getting through jamming though.
Good post. Thanks.
IMHO, the Globalists are the bigger threat to freedom then Putin ever could dream of being.
Tactics alone, and ECM, will help but will not stop the F-22. We can see them well before they can “see” us, and that means their ECM is marginally effective. (You don’t always drive around ‘jammin’ because its like turning on a flashlight in a dark room).
The enemy has to “see” our jet and they won’t. The bad guys will just start blowing up next to their lead/wingman and wonder where the shot came from.
F-22 is great BVR and doing grinder tactics by the F-22 ensures the likelihood of a merge is low.
If a merge does happen, the F-22 will smack’em hard.
True about the quality of the pilots. The USAF did an exercise with the Indian Air Force, the latter flying Su-30’s. The Indian pilots get some of their training from the Israelis. The USAF fighter jocks were impressed. In the hands of a good pilot, the Flanker can be a very dangerous opponent.
Yabbut, we have a lot more F-15 and F-18’s out there that do not have the advantages of the F-22. I would worry about them, they are the likely ones to encounter a Flanker.
Good point, but with F-22 A/A leading the sweep will significantly reduce the threat. . .and like I posted, we have never fully exploited our capability (for learning about adversary capability).
Putin is a commie and KGB. Russia ain’t any different today than then.
I don’t care if Trump wants to work with them to destroy Muslim crazies. Don’t kid yourself about Russia
And since when is asking a question picking on someone?
If you think Putin is not in league with them you are more than a little off
According to what source? Or are you just pulling stuff out of your keister?
Second to none? Where in the real world have SU27s ever beaten American made fighters?
Now that the F-22 has been mentioned, it is probably the right time to readdress the “swarm” issue. The numbers of F-22 and F-35 platforms are finite, due to game playing with acquisition. In theory the F-22 line was shut down and dismantled early to insure the acquisition of the F-35 which due to cost is also a finite asset. Both aircraft are state of the art, but in relatively limited numbers. In tests they beat the opposition hands down, but can they survive a numbers game in a real war on a foreign battlefield with the difficulty of logistical supply, and other factors?
A question difficult to answer when considering perhaps China as the adversary. An example that comes to mind, would be the undergunned, middle weight WWII American tank the Sherman, that pretty much had to resort to tactics to survive against the Germans until there were enough of them to virtually swarm the enemy. Cost was not a factor for the US, as the sherman was built with cost in mind. A potential winner with the right numbers and tactics, but built with cost and numbers as the primary drivers. Just my HO.
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