What Russia’s Stealth Fighter Developments Mean for America

The Heritage Foundation ^ | 11/30/2010 | Mackenzie Eaglen and Lajos F. Szaszdi, Ph.D.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Russia’s development of the PAK FA fifth-generation stealth fighter could challenge American air supremacy, especially if Russia sells the PAK FA to its usual buyers of military equipment. In the U.S., closure of the F-22 production line has severely limited America’s ability to respond to PAK FA proliferation by building more F-22s and potentially selling them to U.S. allies. The U.S. needs to revise its assessment of U.S. air superiority needs and then explore ways to modernize and strengthen the U.S. tactical fighter force.

With America’s closure of the F-22 production line and the recent debut of Russia’s PAK FA fifth-generation stealth fighter, American air supremacy for the foreseeable future is not as assured as the U.S. Department of Defense once predicted. Indeed, Lieutenant General David A. Deptula, recently departed Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance in the U.S. Air Force, recently made the startling announcement: “For the first time, our claim to air supremacy is in jeopardy.… The dominance we’ve enjoyed in the aerial domain is no longer ours for the taking.”[

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Ping

[dsc]

“With America’s closure of the F-22 production line”

That one cries out to Heaven for grand juries and impeachments.

[cunning_fish]

That article is a lot of hot air.
US air dominance is not in trouble.
The White House will surely get a Republican soon to resume a F-22.
But it is still not the case. Russians have fielded superior designs before but it didn’t help their Third World clients much.
It is not the stuff winning a battle.

[DesScorp]

The PAK FA is a bluff, a shell of an airplane. It has none of the advanced electronics that make planes like the F-22 effective, it's stealthy in looks only, and uses 30 year old engine technology. Like the MiG 1.42 project before it, it'll almost certainly never even see production for Russians, let alone anyone else. Beyond providing a bogeyman to sell more planes for Lockheed, it serves no real purpose other than as a Potemkin village of an airplane. There's no there, there.

[cunning_fish]

I think you are too much critical. In fact Sukhoi already tested most of technologies including AESA radar and 3d thrust vectoring to put into it with a Su-37 testbed since 2002.
They was waiting for an airframe to be designed. I won’t be surprised if they are to start mass produce it in 3-4 years.

[sukhoi-30mki]

I think you are off the mark over here. The PAK-FA project seems to be rather well managed by Russian standards. It is of no use comparing it with the Mig 1.42 since they were nearly bankrupt when testing it. In addition to having more funds, they have leveraged new systems developed for the SU-35BM and other platforms to save time as well as reduce risks. It will pushed into service since the Flanker series isn’t going to last forever.