MAKS'11 [Part-2]

Exclusive pictures of Russia’s Sukhoi T-50 5^th Generation Stealth Fighter at MAKS 2011.

Russia's 5G fighter makes first demonstration flight

Russia's Sukhoi T-50 5th generation fighter performed its first demonstration flight at the MAKS 2011 International Aviation and Space Show on Wednesday.

The flight was observed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other dignitaries.

Experts said the pilots had not performed any aerobatic stunts because the plane is still going through a series of test flights.

It was important for the manufacturers to show that "the plane no longer exists just on paper, but is fleshed out in metal and up in the air."

The T-50, developed under the program PAK FA (Future Aviation System for Tactical Air Force) at the Sukhoi OKB, will be the jewel in the Russian Air Force's crown. The service has relied on the Mikoyan MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-27 family of combat aircraft as the core of its fighter force since the mid-1980s, but these aircraft are seen as approaching obsolescence.

The T-50 is Russia's first new major combat aircraft designed since the fall of the Soviet Union. When an operational fighter based on it is put into service, possibly as soon as 2015, it will be the Russian Air Force's first stealth aircraft, featuring low-observable technology that makes it almost impossible to detect with radar.

Like its U.S. counterpart, the F-22 Raptor, it will be able to cruise at supersonic speeds, and be capable of pulling high-G maneuvers that older aircraft cannot match thanks to thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzles and a hi-tech flight control system.

The T-50 made its first flight at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur factory airfield in Siberia in January, and since then two prototypes have been undergoing flight tests at the Zhukovsky flight test center near Moscow.

MAKS'11 [Part-1]

MAKS'11 ILYUSHIN IL-76 FLYING TESTBED [KAVERI ENGINE]

India's inches closer to its stealth fighter

Russia on Wednesday lifted the curtains on its Sukhoi T-50 stealth fighter, the platform on which India's fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) will be based. In a major leap forward for the Indian Air Force's FGFA programme, a T-50 prototype blazed through the skies at the MAKS 2011 international airshow outside Moscow --- the stealth jet's first public appearance.

The Russian air force is expected to kick off induction of its version of the stealth fighter in 2016.

India and Russia are jointly designing and developing the FGFA at a cost of $35 billion (Rs 1,57,500 crore), the biggest military programme in the country's history.

India plans to have a fleet of 250-300 co-produced fifth-generation fighters ---equivalent to the US Air Force’s F-22 ‘Raptor’. The IAF hopes to begin inducting the FGFA in 2018. China’s J-20 stealth fighter project is unlikely to materialise before 2020.

The 30-tonne FGFA will be a swing-role fighter with stealth features, advanced avionics, smart weapons, top-end mission computers and 360-degree situational awareness. The fighter will also have supercruise ability, allowing it to fly at supersonic speeds without kicking in fuel-guzzling afterburners.

Two T-50 prototypes have flown 80 test sorties since January 2010. The prototypes have been used to expand the fighter’s flight envelope. A third prototype will begin flight trials by the year-end for mission systems testing.

Indian Sukhoi 30MKI to be upgraded into “Super Sukhoi”

Moscow: The Indian Sukhoi 30MKI fighter aircraft will be upgraded with certain fifth generation aircraft characteristics to convert it into a “Super Sukhoi”, Alexy Fedorov, President and Chairman of the Board of Irkut Corporation of Russia announced during the MAKS 2011 show here.

India has five squadrons of Sukhoi 30MKIs numbering around 100 aircraft which are to be upgraded into the “Super Sukhoi” format. The upgrade will apply not only to the aircraft in service with the Indian Air Force (IAF) but also to those yet to be delivered to India and to be licence-manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Fedorov said.

The upgrade will include a new cockpit, an upgraded radar and certain stealth characteristics to make it less visible to enemy radar than the present Sukhoi 30. Most significantly, the aircraft will be able to carry a heavier weapons load including the airborne version of the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile, he added.

Fedorov said the Super Sukhoi will be a potent aircraft similar in features to a fifth generation aircraft, however, he refused to provide s specific details of the upgrade stating that the exact nature of the upgrade was still to be decided between the Indian and Russian sides. Discussions are currently on regarding various aspects of the proposed upgrade, he said.

The Irkut chief did not provide any indication of the price of the upgrade project. However, going by the general cost trends of similar upgrades, the price could run close to a billion dollars. The Super Sukhoi would be a potent weapons platform offering both ground attack of precision targets and air superiority roles.

Indo-Russian fifth generation fighter likely to compete in South Korean tender

Moscow: The export version of Russia’s T-50 fifth-generation fighter, also called as the PAK-FA, is likely to compete in a South Korean tender for 60 fighter aircraft with advanced Stealth capability. The version is being jointly developed by India and Russia and will be ready to fly in 2016.

India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will be a major beneficiary of this procurement as many of the aircraft electronics systems are to developed in India as part of the workshare agreement between India and Russia. The two countries are sharing the development cost of the project estimated at US$35 billion.

A RiaNovosi report quoting an unnamed official of the Moscow based Center for Analysis of World Arms Trade said that the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) had expressed an interest in having the T-50 compete along with Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter, Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle and the Eurofighter Typhoon. A report from Seoul said that the DAPA is likely to issue request for proposals late next year for the acquisition to happen by 2016-17. The PAK-FA is expected to ready for delivery in 2016-17 for both the Russian and India Air Forces.

The PAK-FA is scheduled to make its first pubic appearance at the Moscow International Air Show (MAKS 2011) currently on in the Russian capital. Two prototypes of the aircraft have been making test flights since 2010.

India plans to induct the FGFA by 2017. Defence Minister A K Antony had said during the Aero India 2011 show, "the difficulties in joining this programme are over. We've signed a deal with the Russians, and we will see the FGFA inducted by 2017".

Mikhail Pogosyan, chief executive of Russia's United Aircraft Corp said during a brief media interaction here that the Indo-Russian fifth generation project was on track.