Russia to Build Lethal PAK-DA Stealth Bomber—with Hypersonic Weapons?

 

Despite its economic struggles as oil price remain stubbornly low, Russia is pressing ahead with plans to develop its new PAK-DA stealth bomber while simultaneously resuming production of the Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack supersonic strategic bomber. However, Moscow will delay the PAK-DA effort in favor of the advanced Tu-160M2 derivative of the Blackjack, but the program will not be cancelled.

“We certainly are not going to stop the work on the development of PAK-DA,” Yuri Borisov, Russia’s deputy defense minister told the Moscow-based TASS news agency on April 15. 

Russia’s First 5th Generation Fighter Jet to Enter Service in 2017

Image Credit: wikimedia commons/Alex Beltyukov

 

The induction date for Moscow’s newest fighter aircraft has been pushed back.

Russia’s answer to the American F-22 and F-35 aircraft, the PAK FA T-50, will enter service with the Russian Armed Forces in 2017, Russian Air and Space Forces Commander Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev said over the weekend.

“Under the program, we will finish testing next year and will begin to receive the T-50 jets in 2017,” Bondarev told Sputnik News. Back in June, during the Paris Air Show, the head of United Russia’s Aircraft Corporation, had still talked about a potential 2016 or early 2017 induction date. However, serial deliveries are now slated to begin in 2017.

Russia Developing Fifth Generation Lightweight Fighter Jet

 

The new concept is loosely based on Mikoyan Project 1.44 (NATO reporting name: Flatpack). The venture was meant to create an alternative to the US’ Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) project which gave birth to the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.

Stealth Ability Neutralized! Russia’s T-50 Jetfighter to Rule the Skies

 

An active defense system developed for Russia’s fifth-generation T-50 jetfighter is also able to neutralize enemy planes’ stealth capability, RIA Novosti reported Friday, citing the press service of the Himalaya system’s designers, the Radioelectronic Technologies Concern [KRET].

The Sukhoi PAK FA fighter jet, also known as T-50, is ready to go into production next year, and boasts innovative technology which renders the pilot one part of the plane’s control system.

“The PAK FA is already to some degree a flying robot, where the aviator fulfils the function not only of pilot, but is actually one of the constituent parts of the flying apparatus,” explained Vladimir Mikheyev, deputy head of KRET, which is a unit of Rostech Corporation.

New Robotic Russian T-50 Fighter Jet Fit for Star Wars

 

Russia’s new fifth-generation T-50 fighter jet, currently in the testing phase, incorporates elements of automation which make it more like a robot than a fighter plane, explains a representative from the Rostech corporation.

The Sukhoi PAK FA fighter jet, also known as T-50, is ready to go into production next year, and boasts innovative technology which renders the pilot one part of the plane’s whole control system.

“The PAK FA is already to some degree a flying robot, where the aviator fulfils the function not only of pilot, but is actually one of the constituent parts of the flying apparatus,” explained deputy head of the Concern Radioelectronic Technologies [KRET] unit of Rostech, Vladimir Mikheyev. “That is, the reaction of the aviator is a part of the control loop.”