The T-50 PAK-FA bests the F-35 in several
categories, including fuel load —19,624 lbs internally for the F-35 vs. 25,000 lbs
for the T-50. And the Sukhoi fighter also boasts something called “extreme plus
agility.”While the T-50 lacks the “critical all-aspect stealth performance” of
the F-22, its “extreme plus agility” could make the PAK-FA the “most lethal and
survivable fighter ever built for air combat engagements.”The F-35 and T-50
have similar RCS behavior. But the T-50’s unusual shape could actually prove
advantageous — in a separate analysis, American radars have an exceedingly hard
time detecting the PAK-FA, while Chinese “counter-VLO radars” spot the T-50
best — bad news on all fronts. The T-50 prototype is still in the early stages
of development, and the PAK-FA won’t enter service until at least 2016 (and
even then, probably not in large quantities). As it stands, the T-50 wouldn’t
satisfy the requirements of a very low observable (VLO) design, crucial to
modern fifth-gen aerial warfare and considering America’s difficulty in
detecting the T-50 — to say nothing of successfully engaging it — the skies
could get a lot less friendly for the Joint Strike Fighter in the next decade.
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| F-35 |
The United States Air
Force undertook the Advance Tactical Fighter program in the mid 1980’s. Two air
superiority fighters to replace F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon have since
then been developed. In 2005 the first fifth generation fighter jet the
Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor was introduced by the USAF. It is an air
superiority, supersonic, highly maneuverable stealth-featuring fighter equipped
with state of the art weapons and electronics. It has supercruise at Mach 1.8,
which means fly at Mach 1.8 without the use of afterburners. The F-22 has never
been sold to a foreign country. Even though it was expensive, the US let
Lockheed Martin built another fifth generation fighter – The F-35 Lighning II.
The aircraft is similar to the F-22 in terms of stealth and having top modern
weapons, but it was built in three different variants because it was planned to
be used by both the Marines, Air Force and Navy and therefore needed to have
STOVL and Vertical Take off and Landing features. The equipment and performance
can be changed depending on the mission, for example, if the objective does not
require stealth technology the external pylons for weapons or fuel can be
loaded (which increases the not only the weapons load but also the
radar-visibility). This fighter got extremely expensive because to build a
fifth generation aircraft capable of doing vertical takeoffs and landings
proved itself to be extremely complex. The project has currently cost the US
tax payers over 1 trillion dollars, and is by that the most expensive aircraft
program ever.
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| T-50 PAK FA |
The Sukhoi PAK FA “Perspektivny
aviatsionny kompleks frontovoy aviatsii”, which means
“Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation” is a twin-engine,
multirole fighter jet developed by Sukhoi. It is planned to be introduced by
2016. The aircraft is equipped – just like the Raptor – with top
modern weapons, stealth technology and has supercruise at mach 1.6. Since it
has not yet been revealed there is very much speculations about it and there is
a lot of propaganda involved. For instance Vladimir Putin claimed that: “This machine will be
superior to our main competitor, the F-22, in terms of maneuverability,
weaponry and range” which you can choose to interpret in any way you want. But it is by many considered to be the best fighter in the
world when it enters service with the Russian air force. The main points that are considered by many to be
better with the PAK FA than with the raptor is its IRST, its engines and its 3D
Thrust vectoring system (the Raptor does not feature IRST and only has 2D TV).
The engine that is currently being developed by Saturn and is said to be the
“fifth generation fighter engine” will be delivered in the coming years and
just like any other tremendously expensive project there has been a lot of
speculations about it. India is also currently developing a fifth generation fighter
projected to be introduced in 2022, namely the HAL FGFA, which is an upgraded
version of the PAK FA. It is claimed that it is supposed to have 43
improvements compared to the PAK FA, among others stealth,
supercruise, advanced sensors, networking and combat avionics.
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