Russia “Accidentally” Exposes Model Of Hypersonic 6th-Generation Fighter Jet

 

 

Russia’s newest Su-57 fifth-generation stealth fighter jet has certainly made numerous headlines as a direct challenger to America’s F-22 and or F-35 combat planes. Now, it seems Russia is outlining its path to develop a sixth-generation fighter, according to media reports.

The new combat jets will be hypersonic; the first flight is scheduled for the mid-2020s. This was reported in June 2016 by TASS, citing the head of the Directorate of military aircraft programs, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Vladimir Mikhailov. “The [prototype] rise into the air, as we plan, no later than two or three years after 2020”, said Mikhailov. UAC plans to fly a hypersonic sixth-generation fighter before 2025. Mikhailov stated the program for the jet is currently underway, including engineering design.

Russia Might Be Working on New ‘F-35 Killer’ Drone

At this year’s MAKS airshow, which took place in August near Moscow, Drew talked to the first deputy chief executive officer of the electronic systems producer KRET, Vladimir Mikheev, about a drone model on display at the event. Mikheyev revealed that there was more to the miniature than would meet the eye.

Russian Air Force to Purchase 48 New Combat Jets

 

The Russian Defense Ministry and the United Aircraft Corporation will sign a contract at the end of August for the purchase of 48 Su-35 aircraft, to be supplied until the year 2020.

Vedomosti reported Tuesday that the $1.5 billion contract will be the largest signed by the Russian Air Force since 2012. Konstantin Makienko of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies said that it is unlikely that the Russian Defense Ministry will spend a similar sum on future contracts.

Get Ready, America: Russia Wants a New Stealthy, Long-Range Bomber

There is little concrete information about the new Russian bomber—but a stealthy long-range penetrating strike aircraft is not cheap. The Pentagon’s secretive new Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program is aiming to develop an aircraft that will cost roughly $550 million per jet. Developmental costs for the American aircraft—which will supposedly rely on “mature” technologies–are likely to be in $50 billion range. While the Russia PAK-DA is not likely to be nearly as expensive, it is going to cost tens of billions of dollars at a time when Russia’s resource-based economy is collapsing into what could be a prolonged recession. Unlike the Soviet Union—which had a more or less full-service, if dysfunctional, economy—modern Russia is little more than a glorified petro-state. There are very real questions as to whether Russia can afford to complete the development of the PAK-DA.

Nonetheless, Russia’s Tupolev design bureau appears to be moving full steam ahead with the development of the new aircraft. Mikhail Pogosyan, head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC)—a state enterprise that includes Tupolev—told RIA Novosti, a state-run Russian new agency (now known internationally as Sputnik International), earlier in the year that development of the PAK-DA had started in earnest in 2014. Pogosyan said that preliminary design work for the new aircraft was completed in April 2014 and some components are already being fabricated.

Russia developing next-generation strategic bomber

 

ZHUHAI (China), November 11. /TASS/. Russia is developing a prospective aviation complex for long-range aviation (PAK DA) – the country’s next-generation strategic bomber that is to make the first flight in 2019, President of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Mikhail Pogosyan said at the Airshow China 2014 International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition on Tuesday.

Russia Speeds Up Development of New Strategic Bomber

SOCHI, November 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will begin the full-scale R&D work on its future strategic bomber in 2014, a senior aircraft-manufacturing industry official said Thursday.

The project, known as PAK-DA (an acronym meaning “future long-range aircraft”), has been in the works for several years but was given the formal go-ahead by the Russian leadership last year.

Like U.S., Latest Russian Bombers Testing Hypersonic Weapons

Not to be outdone by the Americans, Russia’s next generation bomber, the PAK-DA, will be loaded with the latest in hypersonic weaponry, the Defense Ministry told Ria Novosti newswire on Friday.

The PAK-DA is Russia’s answer to the newest stealth bombers being built in the United States by Boeing and Lockheed Martin . Equipping them with hypersonic weaponry just puts Russia on par with air defense technologies already being tested in the U.S.

Communist Bloc Military Updates: Russia “hits afterburner” on stealth tech: PAK FA fighter to enter combat duty in 2015, PAK DA strategic bomber projected to enter service by 2025; modernizes Soviet-era inventory, upgrades for Blackjack and Backfire-C bomber fleets by 2020

All of the upgraded combat aircraft will remain in service until the Tupolev Design Bureau develops Russia’s fifth generation, stealth-based strategic bomber, PAK-DA, with the expectation that the first will enter combat duty in 2025.

Under the snappy title, “Russia hits afterburners on stealth tech,” Shane McGlaun and Trent Nouveau write: “It comes as little surprise that Russia has significantly accelerated development of its stealth program in recent years, and remains on track to debut an operational Sukhoi PAK FA twin-engine stealth jet fighter sometime in 2015.”

Full article: Communist Bloc Military Updates: Russia “hits afterburner” on stealth tech: PAK FA fighter to enter combat duty in 2015, PAK DA strategic bomber projected to enter service by 2025; modernizes Soviet-era inventory, upgrades for Blackjack and Backfire-C bomber fleets by 2020 (Once Upon A Time in the West)