Fair enough sir, and indeed many blessings and a Merry Christmas to you Bubba.
Russian Su-57 Aircraft Thread (PAK-FA and IAF FGFA)
- Thread starter A Bar Brother
- Start date
Brumby
Major
According to a UAC press release in Feb 2015, three more prototypes will join the test program in 2015 (the year is coming to an end) but we have yet to see a single picture of it. Parts from T-50-6 had to be cannibalised to complete the T-50-5 rebuild. There is really no tangible news besides PR spin or real development besides artistic rendition. 2015 is not a good year for the Russian program unlike the Chinese J-20. I think the Russians need to spend more time on development effort rather than PR exercise.
b787
Captain
I do not know, it will depend in what do you mean, in my opinion, it was a good year, we saw again T-50-5 and it is hard to say it was not good, for me it was good i am glad i saw T-50-5 and i saw China buy Su-35s, i only can say to you that, because i see it was two things i thought they were going to happen
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Brumby
Major
I understand what is considered good is rather subjective. The only tangible achievement in 2015 is that T-50-5 was reconstituted and flew again on 16/10/2015. This was after 16 months following the fire incident and on the back of having to cannibalise parts from T-50-6.
On a big picture perspective :
(1) The program since the first maiden flight on 29/1/2010 has done only 700 plus flights. 2015 did not add substantially to this number. Considering that it is the fifth year of the program, we should see substantial ramping up of flight testing which did not happen.
(2)The planned introduction of the second stage of prototypes in 2015 did not happen. This plus (1) would suggest that the program is encountering unresolved technical issues and that would ultimately have an impact on overall program timelines
(3)Officially the number of planned service introduction is expected to be about 12 units by 2020 down from 50. This would be consistent with the lack of progress in (1) and (2).
(4)There are no key milestone development achievements announced in 2015 either with the planned new izdeliye 30 engines nor with the avionics/sensors 0101KS-P/V/U/N
(5)The technical design agreement with India that was expected in 2013 had yet to be inked even on the back of significant publicity that it would happen in 2015.
If 2015 was a good year, what would you write home?
b787
Captain
it depends, for example the pace of a program is subjective, the T-50 is flying with 117 engines that supercruise and have thrust vector control, they have shown the ability to use external weapons.
at least two have AESA radars, so everything depends what you call success, they will deliver more they say this is T-50-7
but their pace also depends on their deadlines
Brumby
Major
I understand 117 engines, supercruise and TVC are already resident in the SU-35's. The T-50 program is meant to deliver stealth and advanced avionics besides adopting a more advanced engine when it becomes available. Progress is measured relative to these metrics and unfortunately 2015 did not have anything to write home about regarding these KPI's.
at least two have AESA radars, so everything depends what you call success, they will deliver more they say this is T-50-7
but their pace also depends on their deadlines
We know from the F-35 program, the sensors were even more challenging than the airframe and flight dynamics. I expect that would be similar for the T-50 program. Until we actually see the introduction of a second stage prototype, we can't even make an assessment whether the design is even stable considering that to my knowledge the stage one prototypes did not finalise placement of sensors.
The program needs to demonstrate some tangible progress and introduction of the stage 2 prototype would be a good step in that direction. Hopefully 2016 will be a better year in terms of achievements.
b787
Captain
The program has no problem, , the second stage is the one will have a new engine, you can read about here, this is according to UAC head chief Victor Belousov, this aircraft will fly if everything is okay in 2018
The aircraft will be introduced to the Russian Air Force in 2017, according to Victor Bondarev, head commander of the Russian Aerospace forces
read about