Russia To Start Flight Tests Of 5th-Generation Fighter By 2009 / Russia To Start Flight Tests Of 5th-Generation Fighter By Yearend

Russia To Start Flight Tests Of 5th-Generation Fighter By 2009 / Russia To Start Flight Tests Of 5th-Generation Fighter By Yearend

(NSI News Source Info) KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, Russia - May 12, 2009: The serial production will start in 2010 (WAPA) - A Russian deputy prime minister said Monday that flight tests of a fifth-generation fighter will start in Russia by the end of 2009.

The Sukhoi PAK FA (or PAK-FA) is a fifth-generation fighter which is being developed by Russia. PAK FA stands for Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsyi (Перспективный авиационный комплекс фронтовой авиации in Russian) which roughly means Prospective (promising) Aircraft System of the Frontline Aviation. It is being developed by Sukhoi OKB, which refers internally to the project as the T-50. The PAK FA is intended to replace the MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker in the Russian Air Force; it is scheduled to have its first flight in 2009 and enter service with the Russian Air Force. The PAK FA was designed to compete with the USA's F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II, the world's first fifth-generation fighter jets. Russia is also developing a customized, twin-seater variant of the Sukhoi PAK FA, named Sukhoi/HAL FGFA, with India.

"By the end of this year, the plane will rise into the air and flight tests will begin", Sergei Ivanov told journalists after a shipbuilding meeting in the Far East, adding that serial production will start in 2010.

Russia's advanced multirole fighter is being developed by the Sukhoi aircraft maker, part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), along with India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), under a preliminary intergovernmental agreement signed in October 2007, and according to some press-sources, the project was denominated as "PAK FA T-50".

The first prototype is scheduled to make its maiden flight before the end of 2009.

The new airplane will have to replace the current fourth generation fighters like Sukhoi Su-27 and MiG-29 that constitute the main attack force of the Russian Air Force.

According to some official sources, the T-50 assembly line will be established in the Komsomolsk Amur facilities, where currently three prototypes are under construction and will be used in the experimental phases.

Official information does not exist on the specification of the T-50 and according to some experts, this new fighter will have a maxi take-off weight of 30 tonnes (as Su-27).

As regards other specifications, press-indiscretions assured the radar will be projected by Tijomirov Institute, builder of the Irbis radar installed on Su-35BM, an intermediate fourth generation fighter (IV+++) and the weapon systems will be built on the base of Sukhoi Su-35.

As regards the external shape, no details have been unveiled, although some experts consider T-50 similar to F-22 Raptor. The new fighter will have a cruise speed between 1.58 and 2.5 Mach. (Avionews)