{"id":190136,"date":"2010-01-03T21:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T02:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/01\/03\/report-russia-enters-test-with-pak-fa\/"},"modified":"2010-01-03T21:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T02:01:00","slug":"report-russia-enters-test-with-pak-fa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/01\/03\/report-russia-enters-test-with-pak-fa\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Russia Enters Test With PAK-FA"},"content":{"rendered":"
Click for full size<\/p>\n
\n

<\/a> Nose Radar Installation<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Wing Leading Edge Arrays<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Optical\/IR Search and Track<\/span><\/div>\n

We now have a report that they have run up the engines in the prototype and taxied<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The first prototype of the aircraft rolled out on the runway of KNAAPO aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the country’s far east. The test pilot switched on its engines and made two runs on the airstrip, during which breaks were applied several times.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The report says that they expect to field the aircraft in 2015, but my guess is that this is either a deliberate deception, or self delusion.<\/p>\n

We are still getting conflicting reports on just what the aircraft is like, though this story reports a 3,500 km range, which I assume refers to ferry range, and is roughly equivalent to that of the F-22, for which the Wiki quotes a 2,000 mi (3,219 km) range.<\/p>\n

Assuming that this is the case, I would assume that the PAK-FA is a bit smaller than the F-22, since the Russians tend to have internal fuel tanks which are not rated at the aircraft’s full performance (the equivalent of a internal “external tank”), as they are doctrinally less inclined to use either external tanks or aerial refueling.<\/p>\n

One thing that is almost certain though: That its missiles will have superior kinematics to the AMRAAM\/AIM-9Z used by the Raptor. The current Russian missiles are larger and heavier than the American loadout, and larger missiles=larger motors=longer range and better terminal performance.<\/p>\n

Also, my guess is that the Russians are going “stealth lite”, with a greater reliance on sensors and missile kinematics, as opposed to all aspect stealth.<\/p>\n

The photos from the Wiki<\/a>, show a larger AESA radar array (top pic), wing leading edge mounted arrays for better off-axis performance (middle pic), and an Optical\/IR Search and Track (bottom pic) for passive, or 3rd<\/sup> party designated, engagement of targets.<\/p>\n

My guess is that the missiles will be mounted conformally, as opposed to internally, because the associated weight of internal carriage of larger missiles would very likely prove prohibitive.<\/p>\n

But those are just my not-particularly-educated guesses, and we have to wait for the first blurry photos to be leaked to Aviation Week & Space Technology<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click for full size Nose Radar Installation Wing Leading Edge Arrays Optical\/IR Search and Track We now have a report that they have run up the engines in the prototype and taxied: The first prototype of the aircraft rolled out on the runway of KNAAPO aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the country’s far east. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1008,1033],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-defense-procurement","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}