Posted on 06/18/2010 2:01:19 PM PDT by EnjoyingLife
Ah, I'm so relieved that things are getting back to normal. I spent my formative years enraptured with the thrill of drop drills ('duck and cover;' remember that?) strategic missile gaps, the space race, submarine cat-and-mouse, missiles in Cuba, and other delights of the Cold War.
(Excerpt) Read more at militaryaerospace.com ...
“How many do they have in military service?”
Probably about as many as Iran has nukes.
Today.
” who they be telling anyone”
India and other purchasers.
Marketing hype.
Not stealthy. The Russians themselves say this. They “chose” not to have stealth (it was too expensive).
These are not designed to go up against Raptors.
from http://warfare.ru
Designed to compete against the F-22 in traditional Beyond Visual Range (BVR) and Within Visual Range (WVR) air combat, the PAK-FA shares all of the key fifth generation attributes until now unique to the F-22 - stealth, supersonic cruise, thrust vectoring, highly integrated avionics and a powerful suite of active and passive sensors. While the PAK-FA firmly qualifies as a fifth generation design, it has two further attributes absent in the extant F-22 design. The first is extreme agility, resulting from advanced aerodynamic design, exceptional thrust/weight ratio performance and three dimensional thrust vectoring integrated with an advanced digital flight control system. The second attribute is exceptional combat persistence, the result of a 25,000 lb internal fuel load. The internal and external weapon payload are likely to be somewhat larger, though comparable to those of the F-22A.
[..]
While the basic shaping observed on this first prototype of the PAK-FA will deny it the critical all-aspect stealth performance of the F-22 in BVR air combat and deep penetration, its extreme manoeuvrability/controllability design features, which result in extreme agility, give it the potential to become the most lethal and survivable fighter ever built for air combat engagements.
[..]
The tactical impact of a mature production PAK-FA is therefore a loss of the overwhelming advantage provided until now by the F-22A Raptor. Flown against the PAK-FA, a decisive outcome can only be guaranteed by numerical superiority of the F-22A force in theatre.
For what it's worth. And, you can bet there would be a LOT more of these babys in theatre than there would be F-22s, given the direction toward gutting US military capability from inside.
Probably wrong, or mostly so.
Their agile aircraft of current production is high, but matched or bettered by F-22. T-50 can be expected to up the ante again.
Weaponry...depends on apples or oranges. Air-to-ground favors F-22 due to technology, air-to-air favors them due to better missiles.
Two big pluses for F-22 are stealth and AESA radar's capability as a weapon.
However, there is the reticence of US to forward deploy high dollar assets, which the F-22 certainly is.
you owe us an apology ... this CAN’T REALLY be the guy’s photo ...
personally, i like the wide separation of engines ala the Tomcat as there is less chance of one consuming the other if it fails be it on its own or due to battle damage...
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