- إنضم
- 17 يناير 2012
- المشاركات
- 309
- التفاعل
Russia eyes second 5th generation fighter
الخبر يتحدث عن رغبة روسية لصناعه طائرة جيل خامس اخرى غير الباك فا
و المكتب المصمم سيكون ميكويان مصمم الميج الشهير
في الاسفل الخبر بالكامل و يتحدث عن شركة ميج و سوخوي
و بأنه دائما مايصنع نموذجين للطائرة واحد من ميج و الاخر من سوخوي كالميج 29 و السو 27
Russian media and military pundits have been heatedly discussing a second project of a cutting-edge fifth generation fighter that may join the Russian air force. A strong argument in favour of this backup project is competition, although such duplication of effort isn’t always a good thing.
The proposal to develop a second project of the fifth generation fighter was made by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who has recently been put at the helm of the Russian defense industry. He first voiced the idea of developing a second fifth generation fighter in February 2012. Since then, the ministry itself has never either backed or dismissed it. Some experts believe the project could be assigned to the Mikoyan design bureau, the only bureau in Russia capable of tackling this task on a par with Sukhoi, which is already developing the T-50 aircraft of the PAK FA series (Promising Aviation Complex Tactical Aviation).
According to Mr. Rogozin, competition clearly speaks in favour of this initiative. Addressing the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament, the deputy prime minister stressed that the Russian air force should have not one but two types of tactical fighters. The PAK FA aircraft is set to go into service by 2016.
Historically, the Russian air force has always had at least two types of tactical fighter jets in its fleet that basically supplemented instead of competing against each other. The existing MiG-29/Su-27 duet serves as a good example. The Su-27 has a longer range and is fitted with more powerful equipment and avionics, while the MiG-27 is lighter, less expensive to maintain and is better adapted for rough-field deployment.
The chronic lack of financing, which the Russian military faced in 1990s, forced it to put all its eggs into one basket and choose only one fighter plane as its ‘perspective tactical aircraft.’ The choice fell on the Su-27, favoured for a larger spectrum of combat capabilities and better flight performance compared to its MiG-29 rival. This status quo is here to stay, since the tested T-50 jet belongs to the so-called ‘heavy-class fighters’.
The potential niche for a second fifth generation fighter has thus been determined. It has to be a lighter, cheaper and simpler sort of aircraft, compared to the more ‘advanced’ T-50 plane. “A light aircraft would only make sense if its characteristics were brought closer to the heavier [T-50] fighter. First of all, we’re talking about the engines,” Russian military pundit Konstantin Bogdanov told The Voice of Russia. “If they developed an aircraft that would be powered by a single ‘Device 117,’ or a second-stage T-50 engine, this jet would be of interest both to the Russian air force and to the foreign market. However, in the foreign market, it would have to compete against the F-35, which would occupy the best niches by the time our lightweight fighter entered the market.”
According to Mr. Bogdanov, a cutting-edge light aircraft can attract the attention of the military. “Since the Russian air force shows no intention to purchase MiG-35 jets, they could be potentially interested in replacing the old MiG-29 fleet with brand new fighters.”
Still, Andrei Fomin, Editor-in-Chief of the “Vzlyot” (“Takeoff”) aviation magazine, doubts the potential of such aircraft. “As far as I can judge, the approved Russian State Armaments Program doesn’t provide for a second fifth generation fighter project, apart from the T-50. The fact that the Defense Ministry is going to cough up for the completion and the launching of the T-50 fighters, as well as mass production of a whole array of other types of hardware, dwarfs the chances of having a second project. This plan could perhaps be fulfilled in the context of international cooperation if Russia could attract one or more foreign investors.”
In a nutshell, a light fighter project is only worth the effort if it is brought as close as possible to the T-50. In that case, the new fighter will be assigned to the Sukhoi design bureau, which will effectively leave Mikoyan out in the cold again. Still, there is a clear demand for this kind of aircraft and it has been brought into the spotlight. Only time will tell what becomes of it.
