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Deliveries of fifth-generation fighters to Russia's Air Force will start in 2015 rather than in 2013 as previously announced, the Air Force chief said on Tuesday, according to RIA Novosti. "In 2013, I hope... the [Sukhoi] PAK FA prototype will be ready and fine-tuned, and we will start deliveries to military units in 2015," said Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin. A prototype of the fighter made its maiden flight in Russia's Far East on January 29. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said after the 47-minute flight that the first batch of fifth-generation fighters would go into service in 2013. Russia has been...

On 29 January 2010, the Sukhoi PAK-FA (Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy, literally "Future Front line Aircraft System"), which could variously be described as a technology demonstrator, the first prototype of the future T-50 fighter, or an intermediate step between the two, took to the air for the first time from the freezing runway of Dzemgi Air Force Base (shared with the KnAAPO plant) at Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East Siberia (see also http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/497/). A fundamental step has at last been accomplished in the development of the long-expected Russian response to the American F-22 RAPTOR air dominance fighter. The...

Introduction In late January 2010, the PAK FA made its maiden flight, ushering in an end to an era of US dominance of stealth, fifth generation fighter aircraft. Military analysts of every shade and nation spent endless times speculating and awaited the first flight with sleepless nights and over bitter arguments about its final configuration, for the PAK FA was kept so secretive that none other than a very choice few knew what it would look like. Combat aircraft are the spear tip of any military power, and play a pivotal role in air warfare. And in today's day and...

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iran began enriching uranium Tuesday to the threshold at which it could set off a nuclear reaction, following through on a warning it had issued a day before, state media said. The enrichment was taking place at its Natanz facility under the surveillance of U.N. nuclear watchdog inspectors, Tehran said. An official with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that a team of inspectors was on site. The United States and its allies fear Iran intends to build a nuclear bomb, while Tehran says its nuclear program is for civilian energy and medical use. On Monday,...

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Russia has started the construction of the fourth Borey-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine designed to carry the Bulava missile, a shipyard spokesman said on Monday. "The work on the sub construction effectively started last year," he said. It was previously reported that construction of the Project 955 Svyatitel Nikolai (St. Nicholas) submarine at the Sevmash shipyard in the northern Russian city of Severodvinsk was delayed from December 2009 until the first quarter of 2010. Russia's newest Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, which is expected to be armed with the new Bulava sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), is currently undergoing sea...

France defended on Monday its decision to sell an advanced warship to Russia, shrugging off concerns that the helicopter carrier could threaten Georgia and arguing that Moscow had to be treated with respect. Russia asked to buy the 21,300-tonne, Mistral class warship to modernise hardware that was exposed as outdated during its five-day war against Georgia in 2008. After months of debate, France finally announced on Monday it would sell the vessel to Russia for an undisclosed sum. President Nicolas Sarkozy defended the decision during a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was paying a flying visit to...

India's Arjun tank will battle for its life against a squadron of Russian T-90s in trials likely to determine the controversial vehicle's future. The long-awaited trials, which start in March, will pit the 14 indigenous Arjuns against the 14 T-90s, day and night for a month, according to the national Business Standard newspaper. The 24th Infantry Division stationed in Bikaner will conduct the trials in the rugged deserts of the northern state of Rajasthan, around the cities of Bikaner, Suratgarh and also Pokhran, the site of India's first nuclear bomb test in May 1974. The performance of tanks and their...

Major Work Ahead On T-50 Stealth Fighter By David A Fulghum, Maxim Pyadushkin and Douglas Barrie Russia has begun flying a stealthy fifth-generation fighter to rival the U.S. F-22, but Western analysts question whether Sukhoi can develop and deliver the aircraft by 2015 as promised. Sukhoi’s T-50, which made its 47-min. first flight on Jan. 29 from the KnAAPO facility in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, is the prototype of the PAK FA “future front-line aircraft,” the first new-generation fighter for the Russian air force since the Su-27 Flanker entered service in 1984. India plans to co-fund development and co-produce the new aircraft. The...

After today’s news, listed below, it should be painfully obvious to everyone that the concept of NATO as a military alliance designed to thwart any attack against a member state is a bit less useful if you sell the other side your own military equipment. France today announced it...

Russia declares NATO a ‘threat’ 08.02.2010 11:39 Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, just before the weekend’s Munich Security Conference, declared NATO to be Russia’s greatest threat. The Kremlin declared a new doctrine citing NATO as a threat and strongly criticizing the decision to put American Patriot missiles in Poland and the anti-missile shield elements in Romania. “I am shocked. This is not realistic,” stated NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, at the conference’s second day, Saturday. Rasmussen added that the shock is doubled by the fact that he met with Russian leaders not long ago to discuss NATO’s new strategic plan...

"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. Such as it is, however, the press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislative power, the executive, and the judiciary." "If humanism were right in declaring that man is born only to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot be unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It...

Romania has agreed to base American anti-missile systems on its territory. These will probably be land based Aegis systems. So far, Aegis has achieved an 83 percent success rate during live test firings. So now everyone wants an Aegis ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) ship for protection. The Aegis system was designed to operate aboard warships (cruisers and destroyers that have been equipped with the special software that enables the AEGIS radar system to detect and track incoming ballistic missiles). However, there is also a land based version that Israel is interested in buying. The development version of AEGIS was land based,...

Ukraine Exit Polls Say Yanukovych Has Won Election Exit polls from Ukraine's presidential election indicate opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych has narrowly won. Mr Yanukovych is given a lead of 3-5% over Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. President Viktor Yushchenko lost in the first round. If correct, it would be a remarkable comeback for Mr Yanukovych, who was swept aside five years ago by the Orange Revolution. He would be expected to make Ukraine's foreign policy more pro-Russian. The BBC's Richard Galpin in Kiev says the result would be an extraordinary indictment of the Orange Revolution leaders' failure to deliver on their...

The former commander of the Russian navy's Baltic fleet on Friday denied Swedish media reports that Russia dumped radioactive and chemical waste into Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea in the early 1990s. "This is complete nonsense and a clear provocation, propagated at an international level," Admiral Vladimir Yegorov, who commanded the Baltic fleet from 1991 to 2000, told the Interfax news agency. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Thursday called for the previous governments to explain a television report that Russia dumped chemical weapons and radioactive waste off the shores of a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. According...

After favouring the U.S. for its recent purchases of hi-tech military equipment, India has now turned to Russia, its old supplier, for the next generation fighter aircraft. PAK FA, Russia’s fifth generation fighter, which boasts of radar evasion characteristics, made its maiden flight only late last month. India inked an agreement with Russia for jointly developing this aircraft, but the time taken to complete the paperwork meant that 70 per cent of the plane was already developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau. Now India has planned to enter the project mid-way. It will discuss the development schedule for the coming...

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed surprise Saturday that Russia still considers the military alliance a major security threat just as their ties are improving. "I was surprised to read that Russia considers NATO a main threat in its new doctrine. This does not reflect the real world," he said, according to his spokesman James Appathurai. "NATO is not an enemy of Russia. We want a strategic partnership with Russia because we share common threats," he said, a day after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new military strategy document, naming NATO as a threat. The document, published on...

Near the brink in Georgia - Ben Smith: Near the brink in Georgia February 03, 2010 Near the brink in Georgia I have a story today on a fascinating new book on the Georgia war of 2008: President George W. Bush and his senior aides considered — and rejected — a military response to Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia, according to a new history of the conflict and interviews with former officials in the Bush administration. With desperate Georgians begging for American help in closing down the key route through which Russian soldiers were pouring into the country, Bush’s national...

An installation test flight of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is scheduled to take place this year in the Baltic Sea from a stealth frigate being built for the Indian Navy at Kaliningrad in Russia, A. Sivathanu Pillai, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, BrahMos Aerospace Limited, said on Tuesday. The missile’s vertical launcher and fire control system, made in India, was transported to Kaliningrad and fitted into the stealth frigate, a Talwar-class ship. Dr. Pillai disclosed this when Russian National Security Advisor Nikolai Patroshev, along with Ambassador Alexander Kadakin, visited the BrahMos Complex in New Delhi. The BrahMos missile...

Moscow's policy breeds frustration in Kaliningrad EASTWEEK 2010-02-03 | Agata Dubas and Jadwiga Rogoża On 30 January, the largest social and political protest in many years took place in Kaliningrad. Ten thousand people demanded better welfare conditions for the region and the resignation of the Kaliningrad governor Georgy Boos; they also called on PM Vladimir Putin to resign. The underlying cause of the protest came from Moscow's long-term policy of prioritising Kaliningrad's integration with Russia while attaching secondary importance to the region's development. The policy of centralisation (which has been adversely affecting the region), as well as the changes to...

Russia says concerned at Romania hosting U.S. missiles MOSCOW Fri Feb 5, 2010 2:14pm EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia Friday said it was concerned by Romania's decision to host interceptor missiles as part of a U.S. plan to protect Europe and demanded clarification. Romania said Thursday its top defense body had approved the deployment, which Washington says is aimed at defending against current and emerging ballistic missile threats from Iran. "We certainly have concerns in this regard. There is a demand for clarification," Russia's Foreign Ministry said. The Romanian deployment is part of a revamped U.S. missile defense approach taken...

Central Partnership, Russia's leading independent production company, has won a government tender to make the first fully state-funded feature since Soviet times — $8 million budgeted patriotic war film, “The Brest Fortress� — in association with state film studio Belarusfilm in Russia’s Western neighbor Belarus. It is the first of a raft of similar government-backed patriotic films that will roll out from 2010 onwards under a new policy that switches state funding to projects more in line with wider Kremlin political priorities. The amount of money pledged is nearly 10 times as much as the maximum amount given in Russia...

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Friday signed a new version of its main military strategy document which named NATO expansion as one of the chief threats to the country's security. The document, published on the Kremlin web site, listed first among "chief outside military threats" the fact that NATO is attempting to "globalise its functions in contravention of international law." It also cited attempts to bring "military infrastructure of NATO members closer to Russian borders, including by expanding the bloc." Russia has bristled at moves by former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO and relations between...

* Even the replacement of the Soviet-backed government and the rise of the Muslim-fundamentalist Taliban didn't quite end the adventures of the Il-76 in Afghanistan. On 3 August 1995, a MiG-19S fighter operated by the Taliban government intercepted an Il-76TD operated by the Russian airline Airstan and forced it to land in Kandahar. Taliban officials were annoyed at Russian backing of anti-Taliban Afghan forces and wanted to use the crew as hostages for the return of Taliban members believed to be held by the Russians. The Russian government negotiated to no effect; a scheme to perform a commando raid to...

Indian Air Force's multi-role Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighters could be armed with supersonic cruise missiles by 2012, giving them the capability to strike ground targets from stand-off distance. "The work to adopt the missile for deployment on fighter is being carried out by the Rosoboronexport, the Sukhoi Design Bureau and NPO Mashinostroyeniya (Russian partner in BrahMos JV)," a top official of the aircraft manufacturer has said, adding that the missiles could be mounted on the aircraft in two years. With this, India would get the capability to fire these missiles from land, sea as well as air. BrahMos are already...

A Russian cargo freighter flying on autopilot performed a successful rendezvous and docking with the space station Thursday night, delivering two-and-a-half tons of supplies and equipment for the international outpost and its resident crew. While flying 212 miles over the extreme southwestern Atlantic, the Progress M-04M spacecraft linked up to the aft docking port of the station's Zvezda service module at 11:26 p.m. EST. "Docking confirmed. Contact and capture," NASA commentator Rob Navias announced from Houston's Mission Control Center. "Docking occurring almost to the second as had been planned by Russian flight controllers." Hooks and latches were engaged a few...

In the last few months, major Russian newspapers, that have been critical of the government, have been attacked by hackers. Currently, Novaya Gazeta, highly respected for its investigative reporting, has had its web site shut down by hackers for a week (via a powerful DDOS attack). Novaya Gazeta publishes three issues a week, and its reporting is picked up globally via its web site. Novaya Gazeta's reporting has certainly upset some people, as four of their reporters have been murdered in the past nine years. Last November, hackers broke into the web site of mass audience (circulation of a million)...

In an unexpected announcement, the president of Romania said Thursday his country would host missile interceptors as part of a new U.S. defense shield. President Traian Basescu said the Supreme Defense Council, Romania's top military and security body, had agreed to such a plan after a request by Washington. "Terrestrial interceptors will be placed on Romania's territory as part of the anti-missile system," Basescu was quoted as saying by Radio Free Europe. "According to the calendar agreed with the American side, the components located on Romania's territory will become operational in 2015." He said the missile defense system would "protect...

Libyan defense minister Younis Jaber arrived in Moscow Tuesday, Jan. 26 to sign a $2 billion military acquisitions deal that makes his country the first in the Middle East to obtain the top-of-the-line S-300 PMU-2 interceptors which Russia is holding back from Iran. debkafile's military sources report that Tripoli has purchased two brigades of four missile batteries each, conditional on their delivery by the end of 2010.

A visionary from the Philippines, Duke Puntalangit,  warns that the Fatima chastisements will begin this year 2010.  According to the visionary, the Middle East crisis will eventually result into an all out war in that region, afterwhich,  a revolution originating from Russia, will engulf Europe.  This series of events will cause chaos and bloodshed in all major cities in Europe, the global economy will plunge deeper, consequently giving the window of opportunity for Russia and China to execute militarily against Europe and the US.   Puntalangit warns that mankind has entered a point of no return and that the chastisements...

India has introduced into its Armed forces the new BrahMos missile, the head of the BrahMos Aerospace company, Sivathanu Pillai, told RIA Novosti news agency today. Established in 1998, BrahMos Aerospace, a joint Indian-Russian venture, produces and markets BrahMos supersonic missiles. The sea-based and land-based versions have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and Navy. Earlier in the day, Russia's security chief, Nikolai Patrushev, visited the BrahMos plant in Hyderabad, where the new missile is produced. The missile, known as BrahMos Block-2, has a top speed of over Mach 5, which makes it virtually impossible...

Piercing the army's armour of deception Ajai Shukla / New Delhi February 4, 2010, 0:31 IST Vital facts on the Russian T-90 tank deal were suppressed and its performance on the field has been a disaster. On August 24 last year, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) dressed up failure as achievement when — almost nine years after India bought the T-90 tank from Russia — the first 10 built-in-India T-90s were ceremonially rolled out of the Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) near Chennai. No reasons were given for that delay. Nor did the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reveal the T-90’s ballooning...

Once upon a time, the beaches of Goa were known for free love. But as a string of high-profile sexual assaults on tourists culminated in the alleged rape of a 9-year-old Russian girl last week, the idyllic strip of sand along the Arabian Sea is fast gaining a fearful reputation. The answer? According to the state's ministry of tourism, those cute pre-teens in two-pieces are asking for it.“You can't blame the locals; they have never seen such women. Foreign tourists must maintain a certain degree of modesty in their clothing. Walking on the beaches half-naked is bound to titillate the...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says Moscow has agreed to sell Libya weapons in a $1.8 billion deal. Mr. Putin made the announcement Saturday while meeting with the head of Izhmash, a major Russian gun manufacturer. He said the contract was signed Friday, and covers both small arms and more complex weapons. Russia's Interfax news agency had quoted a "military diplomatic source" as saying Libya was ready to buy about 20 fighter planes from Moscow, as well as air defense systems and several dozen tanks. Libyan Defense Minister Major General Younis Jaber met with officials in Moscow earlier this week....

The Indian Navy will formally induct the Russian-made MiG-29K naval fighter jets for deployment on Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier on February 19 in the western state of Goa. The first four of the 16 MiG-29Ks that India had bought from Russia in 2004 along with Gorshkov were delivered at the INS Hansa naval base in Goa in a knocked-down condition on December 4 last. Senior Indian Navy officers said the jets have been assembled and the Russian pilots are flying them as a standard procedure before Indian Navy pilots takes over from them. "The formal induction ceremony has been fixed...

Sukhoi's Stealth Fighter May Be Quick Export to India Posted by David A. Fulghum at 2/2/2010 9:12 AM CST U.S. intelligence officials are closely monitoring the testing of Sukhoi’s T-50 stealth fighter prototype. It’s first flight from Komsomolsk has packed Russian blogs with pictures and videos taken from the base’s fence line and transcripts of in-flight conversations between Russian aircrews. Funding aid for the program is expected to come from India, say U.S. officials. India's air force is becoming sophisticated and has adopted an operational flexibility and tactical innovation similar to U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter units. The flights...

The US and Russia have agreed in principle on a deal to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) that expired in December after 15 years as the centerpiece of nuclear arms control, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The deal, which officials said could be ready to sign in two months, would cut each side’s nuclear arsenal to between 1,500 and 1,675 operationally deployed warheads — down from 2,200 on the American side and 2,800 in Russia, which has also kept an unknown number in reserve. Both countries would also commit to deeper cuts in the number of operational...

It may surprise readers to learn that in 2009 Vietnam was Russia’s best customer for its arms exports (www.defensenews.com, January 21). During 2009, Vietnam bought six Russian kilo-class submarines and 12 Su-30MKK fighters (Hanoi, VNEXpress, December 16, 2009; Kommersant, December 18; Interfax, December 15; RIA Novosti, December 4). While Vietnam most likely bought these weapons to counter the growing might of the Chinese navy and its continuing claims to the Spratly Islands off Vietnam’s coast, the motives for both sides are deeper. Although Vietnam’s fleet is antiquated, it clearly has decided to develop those capabilities to counter China’s claims and...

Russia's T-90 vs India's Arjun Ajai Shukla / New Delhi February 02, 2010, 0:23 IST Next month, India’s homegrown Arjun tank will take on the new Russian T-90 in a long-awaited comparative trial. The outcome could decide whether the Indian Army will ride Indian tanks into future battles or continue its reliance upon a heavily criticised fleet of Russian T-72 tanks, which even the army chief admits is 80 per cent blind at night, when most tank battles occur. The army’s Bikaner-headquartered 24 Infantry Division will conduct the month-long trials in the desert expanses around Bikaner, Suratgarh and Pokhran. A...

On March 29 of last year (2009), DefenseReview published a story stating that we disagreed with the cancellation of the F-22 Raptor program, and calling for at least 1,000 Raptors, total, to be built and fielded. This is because we knew that advanced Russian and Chinese Gen 5 (5th-Generation) fighters have been under development for quite some time, and will likely pose either a grave military threat to the United States or undermine our power around the world when dealing with Rogue Islamic states/countries. Well, three days ago, the AFP and other international news sources reported that the Russians have...

Leadership: The speaker of the House wants to extend a proposed freeze on domestic programs to include defense spending. In a world of growing threats, perhaps she'd also like to cut her travel and bar bill. Last week the Russian air force celebrated the maiden flight of the Sukhoi T-50, Moscow's version of the American F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. We have shut down the F-22 production line, viewing it as an unaffordable and unnecessary extravagance. (snip) Everybody has to make a sacrifice," Pelosi was quoted as saying in an interview with Politico, shortly before Obama announced his proposed discretionary spending...

On January 29, the prototype Russian fifth generation Prospective Aircraft Complex of Frontline Aviation (PAK FA) “T-50” finally completed a successful 45 minute test flight in Komsomolsk-na-Amurye. The stealth multirole fighter was developed by OKB Sukhoi (experimental design bureau) to replace MiG-29 and Su-27’s and is reportedly analogous to the US F-22 (Raptor). Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi’s Director-General, praised the aircraft’s maiden flight, saying that it marked a breakthrough for the Russian aviation industry (Rossiya 24, January 29). Indeed, the reported technical specifications of the aircraft are impressive. It has a maximum supersonic cruising speed of 2,100 kilometers (km) per hour,...

On Friday morning, Sukhoi Company (JSC) and the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) celebrated its latest success in the ambitious and prestigious fifth-generation fighter aircraft project, the PAK FA. The T-50 prototype aircraft left the ground at the KNAAPO factory aerodrome in Russia’s Far East and made its first basic manoeuvres during a 47 minute flight. Congratulating all participants of the project on the occasion of the maiden flight, Alexey Fedorov, President and Chairman of control board of UAC, said that it “opens a new horizon for the Russian aviation for the rest of the 21st century and, hopefully, even further....

Russia’s revisionist policy towards the West OSW Studies 2009-12-20 | Marcin Kaczmarski Russia’s actions so far have led to a kind of deadlock. Moscow has managed to stop NATO enlargement into the CIS area, persuade the USA not to deploy the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, and avoid major consequences after the war with Georgia; nevertheless, the full implementation of its objectives remains unlikely.

Russia will not just watch Patriot missiles deployed 29.01.2010 15:13 Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin, warned on Friday that his country will not passively watch the deployment of a U.S. Patriot missile battery in Poland. The US will supply the Patriots and 100 troops in Poland this year, to be stationed not far from the Russian Kaliningrad border. "Do they really think that we will calmly watch the location of a rocket system, at a distance of 60 km from Kaliningrad?", the Russian diplomat said Friday. Rogozin refused to clarify what the response of the Russian side would be...

Russian FM 'doesn't understand' Polish missiles The Associated Press Friday, January 22, 2010; 4:52 AM MOSCOW -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he doesn't understand Poland's plans to station a battery of U.S. Patriot missiles near the border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Lavrov was reacting Friday to an announcement Wednesday by the Polish Defense Ministry saying a base with up to eight launch pads and manned by some 100 U.S. troops will be installed in the town 37 miles (60 kilometers) from the Poland-Kaliningrad border. Poland says the missiles, to be installed in April, will be used...

The United States will soon start transporting military supplies to Afghanistan across Russian air space as only some technical problems remain, Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday. Russia and the United States have discussed in detail the transit of military cargos through Russian air space on condition of inspection, Rogozin said in a video press conference between Moscow and Brussels. A summit between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama in July 2009 saw an agreement allowing 4,500 flights a year carrying U.S. troops and weapons to Afghanistan across the Russian territory for free. Obama hailed...

The Soviet-era Buran space programme, mothballed 20 years ago, may be revived. With NASA about to retire its ageing fleet of space shuttles, there is a pressing need for viable space transport. Propeller Two decades ago the Soviet space shuttle Buran blasted off on its first and only orbital flight. Just a few years later, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the programme was shelved. The Buran was the Soviet Union's answer to NASA’s space shuttle programme. On November 15, 1988, the shuttle was propelled out of the Earth’s atmosphere by the specially designed Energia booster rocket from the...

With only 3.000 speakers in Northwest Siberia the Ob-Ugrian language Mansi is on the verge of extinction. Predictions say it will be extinct in ten to twenty years at the latest. The same holds true for Khanti, a member of the same language family. It is for this reason that extensive documentation is so important. Johanna Laakso, professor for Finno-Ugrian Studies at the University of Vienna concerns herself with the documentation of this and other minority languages in the framework of an FWF project and the EU project ELDIA... The documentation of the languages Mansi and Khanti is additionally of...

The latest Russian fighter design, the T-50, made its first flight on January 29th. Also called PAK FA (Prospective Aviation System of Frontline Aviation), or T-50, it’s a radical development of the Su-27/30/35 series of aircraft. The 47 minute test flight was done without the new engines designed for the T-50. Russia has always had problems with high performance jet engines, and those woes continue. "Evolving" an aircraft design, in this case, the Su-27, is a Russian custom. New models of a base design are given new names. The U.S. also does this, but keeps the original name. The Russian...