These other aircraft are not 5th generation. If you compare Su-57 to F-35, it's miles behind in stealth. If you compare Su-57 to J-20, it's quite a bit behind in stealth. Fundamentally, the Russians don't behave like stealth is more important than aerodynamics. That's. problem.
If you need to paint your fuel trucks white so the fuel doesn't heat up too much for your precious stealth aircraft perhaps you pushed the stealth requirement up too much. I have seen the 3D viewgraphs on RCS posted here on this forum on the Su-57 and I disagree with your point of view. The only major limitation it has is the engines are not stealthy enough in the rear aspect. Which is why it won't enter mass production until the Su-57M comes out with Izd. 30. Some of the points like serrated panels on bomb bays are IMHO kind of bullshit. How many seconds do you need to open up the bomb bays to release the weapon? Plus the Su-57 already has recessed positions on the wing roots for air to air missiles unlike the F-35 which needs to open its huge under wing bay doors to fire any missile.
The J-20 is a previous generation airframe design. It is little more advanced than the MiG 1.44 of late Soviet period in terms of aerodynamics. It also has no TVC. It is a compromise design and is decent in that it used the best features available to China when it was conceived. The F-35 is seriously cut down in places it should not have been and overengineered in places it should have not. The J-XY seems to be just a twinjet F-35 clone.
if we just look at their solution to giving side coverage. Su-57 chose to use chin radar and J-20 follows the F-35 footstep of using some version of EODAS + networking with other assets. The former is simply going to expose one's location more than the latter.
The Su-57 also does sensor fusion and has datalink. Heck even the Su-35 does this. The IR sensor is not a replacement for the radar. It cannot compute target bearing and speed as easily for example. If it can do it at all. You would need at least binocular sensors and it would still be innacurate.
Given the western sanctions on Russia, China is one of the few places they can get help for more modern avionics.
We are 20 years past the first flight of KJ-2000 and the Russians still cannot finish development on an AWACS that only has active electronic scanning functionality in elevation.
You still believe this US website for Russian military news? According to them Russia cancelled the Su-57 program because India left the program. Yes, Russia needed a massive Indian capital expenditure that could not even buy a single F-35. Oops, they did not cancel it, but they only ordered a dozen aircraft for a decade because they have no money, oops, but they only ordered 70 when oil was at the lowest price in two decades.
According to this US website KJ-2000 is stalled because they do not have the money/electronics/whatever to finish the design. Then, like a day after they post that idiotic news, out come the Russians and fly the prototype and turn the radar on. The Russians chose a mechanically scanned AESA radar for the KJ-2000 because a) it is cheaper b) it is lighter. The Russians are developing a shitton of systems and some are lower priority than others. So yes, programs get delayed and, no, they don't get cancelled if they are really necessary.
The Il-76MD-90A platform it is based on was itself delayed like heck and the first serial aircraft was only delivered in 2019.
The difference between Su-57 and J-20 is pretty big. One is being mass produced and the other has 3 production aircraft. At current pace of production, I see FC-31/J-35 reaching 100 production units before Su-57.
Well. Both aircraft are in different stages of their lifecycle. Plus, like I said before, the Russians have the Su-35 in enough numbers they are not as desperate for a 5th gen as the Chinese were. If there was a pressing need they would ramp up Su-57 production. But there is no such need.
Going from demonstrator to a naval prototype would necessitate updating the internal layouts based on PLAN/PLAAF requirement. For example, they'd have to change that somewhat just to get faceted IRST included on there.
The J-XY will need some sort of IRST since even recent versions of the Super Hornet have it.
Looking at a picture of cockpit doesn't tell you how advanced an aircraft's avionics is. Neither does having a HMD. China right now is just far ahead of Russia in radar technology. Aside from 3 Su-57s, what other Russian ships or aircraft uses AESA radar? And keep in mind that powers a large part of one's EW suite.
But I gave you compute hardware specs. Also a VR helmet that works well enough not to make a pilot vomit needs loads of compute power. So yes it is an indicator. China has loads more wafer fabbing capacity than Russia sure. But how much do you think you need to make a couple hundred aircraft? At a rate of a couple dozen a year? Probably a single wafer or maybe two are enough. The Chinese military also won't be using SMIC or fabbing the chips on foreign companies. Even if they use HLMC, which is state owned, they are limited to 28nm. If they use HLMC.
All the Admiral Gorshkov class frigates and some of the Steregushchiy class corvettes have AESA. Yes the production is way more limited than Chinese AESA production and I admitted as much.
Based on what has happened so far in the Su-57 project, one would have to be very optimistic to think Su-75 will go into production in real numbers.
Japan has similar population, a larger GDP than Russia, and it has like 220 4th gen aircraft. What are "real numbers"?
Germany supposedly has 141 Eurofighter Typhoons but most of them have seriously degraded electronics because they cheapened out. Most of them are not operational for lack of spare parts. Early Eurofighters use Motorola 68K processors for logic. This was way obsolete even when the Eurofighter came out. Even a Playstation had more compute power. They cannot even hold a candle to the Su-30SM in terms of avionics let alone the Su-35. The French have 95 Rafale and slightly over 100 Mirage 2000.
Russia has 160+ Su-30 aircraft, 100+ Su-35, 80+ Su-27SM.
Plus none of those countries have dedicated interceptors. Russia has 130+ MiG-31BM.
As for that evil bugbear the F-35. 4 in Denmark, 12 in Italy, 24 in the Netherlands, 21 in Norway. That makes like 61 F-35A aircraft. The UK has some 27 F-35B types but those have limitations compared to the F-35A.
The fact is Russia can easily outmatch any two of the largest air forces in Europe all by itself if it wants to.
Unfortunately, it just shows neither you or the Russian industry believes the importance of stealth.
The Russians invented modern stealth theory. While the US was approximating RCS computations with polygonal faceted models which required high powered computers to calculate based on a public paper by Soviet scientist Pyotr Ufimtsev, they missed his later paper which had formulas for curved surfaces. They were using loads of compute power approximating curved surfaces with polygons and the Russians could use the later formulas and use only trivial compute power to know the exact RCS value.
The Russians know there is a competition between radar and stealth and to make a design overly reliant on stealth means you could end with an utterly obsolete aircraft with advancements in radar. So yes today they design with stealth in mind but only if it does not compromise performance.
If Su-57 is actually a 5th generation aircraft worthy of investment, Indian would not have left the project.
Yes. The Indians. The Indians must know.
Why you have seen from China so far is very lackluster. Their main export aircraft so far is still JF-17. They have been very reluctant to promote military gears that their own frontline units use.
Well this is changing. Plus it is not like they did not offer the J-10 but Pakistan did not want the model available back then.
Even once the J-XY comes out it seems they will make a separate land based version for export. Someone will have to buy that. So I think the PLANAF coastal units should get it if they want to have any exports of note.
