but by being so late to the game Sukhoi has poached prospective customers with deeper pockets
There is no competition anymore. They are all owned by the same parent company UAC. Its branding and model. Su, Mig, Yak, Il, Tu they are all UAC same for Mil and Kamov.
It's not like Lockheed and Boeing where from time to time they partner but mostly just compete. If one looses they loose. It more like GM
With the many badges under their name.
In UAC it's " you want Mig35 right this way but more the Su35 as we pass, and do take a look at the Yak 130 trainer. Right here in the show room. "
It's the return to the master plan of the state owned system.
The Design offices take the name and plant and bid there offer to the management for approval.
Where they have competition is the outside parties. F16, F15, Typhoon, Grippen and Rafale. Fighters that are in the market and out of UAC.
That said, a JF-17 counterpart was/is clearly not a credible alternative for MiG, its export potential has been shown to be pretty limited
Jf17 was never a widely offered platform and had limits I mean it was basically a custom order for Pakistan who wanted inescence a modern Mig21. There was a history for it a tripartite the Pakistan's, the U.S. and PRC. Project Saber II. But it fell apartas the U.S. imposed sanctions first on the PRC and then Pakistan. Those two took what they had, kept at it and Jf17 comes together.
I'm not sure developing a single engine fighter would be the answer for MiG. In my opinion they (or rather the Russian MoD which refused to adopt the idea) lost a BIG opportunity in 2007 with the Skat UCAV.
This class of UCAV, are not easy.
UCAV can be easy sure and there are lots of them but the SKAT(fine name in Russian terrible in translation), nEuron, and X47B sit in a class that had they entered production would be akin to a Low end stealth bomber like the F117.
And despite the US, Russia, China, Europe and Isreal no one has put them in actual serial production. Why is that? Well it's a lot of things. You need more security (See RQ170 incident) more complexity jets rather than props full stealth rather than stealthy, autonomy vs remote control I mean if it's getting inputs from Moscow that's a dead giveaway that it's there. It's not as easy as flying a Reaper-Ski over Grazny.
The Drones we are used to seeing can get away with a lot because they are in low denial areas. A drone over Afghanistan even Pakistan doesn't need the same level of antispoofing and security as one intended to penetrate peer class air defences. And the only reason you need that level of stealth is near or peer class.
The Russians chose not to fallow through as they didn't have the investment infrastructure for it. And as we saw in 2011 that kind of security is critical the RQ170 fits just in the same potential mission of penetration of enemy defenses, it may not have been armed but it was of the same concept.
Since Mig is UAC and state owned they won't feel much of a hit if their new product doesn't sell. Although it will likely be cycled into the Russian Military.
Designing a new fifth gen is not easy more so for the claims of
Right. In the context of the post, I could only think of unbuilt/future projects, so I thought it was MiG-41.
Mig-41 which basically promised a fighter right out of Stargate SG1. A low observable mach 4+ interceptor.
I mean Mig31 is impressive on paper but the Russian Military has had a hell of a time keeping those flying and up to date even now. But they want a machine that is not just faster but stealthy.
Father more a headache is how in the heck is it supposed to intercept?
The Mig25 and Mig31 are keyed to critical technologies, a high powered look down shoot down radar and long range air to air missiles. Absolutely critical to there function as at high mach 2 almost mach 3 speeds, either Mig25 nor Mig31 don't turn and burn. Unlike Flanker and Fulcrom. Foxbat and Foxhound are not dogfight aircraft. They dogfight as well as the space shuttle.
Mig41 would seem to push the speed more than it's precursors at first glance okay, but then wait if these American and European aircraft its built to intercept are low observable than how does it vector in?
It can't carry the uber long wavelength radars need, no fighter could. You would need a radar the size of a B52 for that and even then it would not see a Low observable until it was still relivtivly close. The Mig41 wouldn't have a target until it was virtually on top of any low observable.
And all this before 2025?
A Concorde-moment, but in an era of F-35s, Su-57s and J-20s the MiG-35 is just an anachronism. Hell, the Eurocanards compare favourably!
