This blog is dedicated to progressive and liberal thought. It also discusses new technology, how technology affects privacy and developments in Russia, China, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Rightardia fully supports the rights of workers to organize, the feminist movement, and all Americans regardless or ethnicity, sex or gender.It uses humor, satire and parody to expose conservative thought for what it truly is: BS! Rightardia contributes to the DNC, DCCC, DSCC and MoveOn.Org.
Rightardia is not certain if the US Air force even has an Air force units dedicated to the air defense mission anymore.
An interceptor is a different type of fighter aircraft that is designed to fly fast and high and destroy aircraft violating sovereign air space. Usually interceptors are large twin-engined fighter aircraft.
This RIA Novosti video will take you on a tour of the Khotilovo Airbase, home to Su-27 and MiG-31 fighter-interceptors.
After the Nazi invasion of the old Soviet Union, the Russians became more concerned about defense than the US in which a good offense, often preemptive, is considered the best defense.
August 22, 2010 02:45:55 August 21, 2010 22:45:55
6:51 pm (NYC) 11:51 pm (LON) 2:51 am (MOW)
Despite holding the position as one of the world’s biggest economies, China seems unwilling to shed its reputation for producing cheap replicas.
And one of their more ambitious copycat efforts may put a strain on Russia-China relations.
“This Chinese plane is simply a Russian design stuffed with local electronics,” says Maksim Pyadushkin from the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technology about the Chinese J11B jet’s resemblance to the Russian Su-27.
“It's a knock-off.”
The Chinese J-11 is on the top and the SU-27 below it.
Last year, Russian aircraft sales internationally topped $3 billion – second only to the US. But others too want a slice of the aviation pie.
Vadim Kozyulin, program director for conventional arms from the Russian Center for Policy Studies, says that fake Su-27s are widely offered in the world arms market. “Sooner or later, Russian arms traders will face competition from the Chinese colleagues,” he told RT.
China was given the design plans for the Russian fighter jet in 1995, when it promised to buy 200 kits and assemble them domestically. After building 100 planes, the Chinese said the Russian plane did not meet specifications, only for a copycat version soon to appear – "Made in China" – without copyright.
Although it made its first flight over 30 years ago, the Su-27 remains the bedrock of the Russian air force, and is highly popular abroad.
“I don't think anyone who's flown on the SU-27 can ask for a different plane, unless we are talking about a new generation jet,” believes Lt. Colonel Andrey Alekseyev, Air Force Pilot.
“It's maneuverable and has a huge range.”
Some are calling for calm over the controversy. While the similarities between the two planes are clear, experts say the Chinese J11B does not have the latest Russian high-tech features and will be no match for it on the international market.
Rather than a continuing dogfight over the copycat plane, it is possible that Russia and China may yet settle the matter amicably at the highest political level.
Now Russia will have its own stealth jet fighter-bomber. Sukhoi promises to have it ready this year and start producing it in 2010.
They tell that the design of the plane is still kept secret and those sketches are the only clue that people have, but as it is known it would be a decent F-22 competitor.
PAK FA literally means Prospective (promising) Aircraft System of Frontline Aviation.
It is being developed by Sukhoi OKB, which refers internally to the project as the T-50. The PAK FA is intended to replace the MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker in the Russian Air Force. It is scheduled to have its first flight in 2009 and enter service with the Russian Air Force. The PAK FA was designed to compete with the USA's F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II, the world's first fifth-generation fighter jets.
Russia is also developing a customized, twin-seater variant of the Sukhoi PAK FA, named Sukhoi/HAL FGFA, with India.
In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union outlined a need for a next-generation aircraft to replace its MiG-29 and Su-27 in frontline service. Two projects were proposed to meet this need, the Sukhoi Su-47 and the Mikoyan Project 1.44. In 2002, Sukhoi was chosen to lead the design for the new combat aircraft. The PAK FA will incorporate technology from both the Su-47 and the MiG 1.44.
The Novosibirsk Chkalov Aviation Production Association (NAPO) has begun construction of the fifth-generation multirole fighter. This work is being performed at Komsomol'sk-on-Amur together with Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association.
The enterprise's general director, Fedor Zhdanov reported during a visit to NAPO by Novosibirsk Oblast's governor Viktor Tolokonskiy on 6 March 2007. "Final assembly will take place at Komsomol'sk-on-Amur, and we will be carrying out assembly of the fore body of this airplane," Zhdanov specified. The fifth-generation fighter, which will replace the MiG-29 and Su-27 airplanes of the previous generation, was developed by the Sukhoi design bureau.
NAPO Chkalov is one of the country's largest airplane-building enterprises and is included in the Sukhoi Holding Company, ITAR-TASS notes on 8 August 2007, Russian Air Force Commander Alexander Zelin was quoted by Russian news agencies that the development stage of the PAK FA program is now complete and construction of the first aircraft for flight testing will now begin.
Maiden flight
It was announced on 5 May 2007 by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov that the first flight of the new aircraft was expected in late 2008, almost a year later than originally expected. Sukhoi CEO Mikhail Pogosyan stated at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) 2007 exhibition in Malaysia on December 6 that the prototype will not fly until 2009. On 28 of February 2009 Mikhail Pogosyan announced that the airframe for the aircraft was almost finished and that the first prototype should be ready by August 2009.
Derivative project with India, The Sukhoi/HAL FGFA
Russia and India agreed in early 2007 to jointly study and develop a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft Program, FGFA.[12][13] On October 27, 2007, Asia Times quoted Sukhoi's director, Mikhail Pogosyan, "We [India and Russia] will share the funding, engineering and intellectual property [of the new project] in a 50-50 proportion."[14] The Indian version, according to the deal, will be different from the Russian version and specific to Indian requirements[15].
While the Russian version will be a single-pilot fighter, the Indian variant will have a twin-seat configuration based on its operational doctrine which calls for greater radius of combat operations. The wings and control surfaces need to be reworked for the FGFA. Although, development work has yet to begin, the Russian side has expressed optimism that a test article will be ready for its maiden flight by 2012 induction into service by 2015.
Brazil in the project?
Brazil is officially out of project PAK-FA. The recent trip of Russian president Dmitri Medvedev to Brazil on November 25, 2008 did not result in the signature of any agreement related to the project. The Commander of the Brazilian Air Force, Juniti Saito, justified: "I do not want to blacken the image of Sukhoi, but the project did not fit into our necessities".
Russian sources allege the opposite, that the sales of the Su-35 fighters for Project FX-2 would not only result in technology transfer, as well as it would include Brazil in the development of project PAK-FA.
Design
Although there is no reliable information about the PAK FA's specifications yet, it is known from interviews with people in the Russian Air Force that it will be stealthy, have the ability to supercruise, be outfitted with the next generation of air-to-air, air-to-surface, and air-to-ship missiles, and incorporate an AESA radar.
The PAK FA will use on her first flights 2 Saturn 117S engines (about 14.5 ton thrust each). The 117S is an advanced version of the AL-31F, but built with the experience gained in the AL-41F program. The AL-41F powered the Mikoyan MFI fighter (Project/Article 1.44). Later versions of the PAK FA will use a completely new engine (17.5 ton thrust each), developed by NPO Saturn or FGUP MMPP Salyut.
MOSCOW, June 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Defense Ministry has received three strategic missiles, 20 combat aircraft, 20 tanks, three spacecraft and other military hardware since the beginning of the year under government defense contract, a senior military official said on Wednesday.
"Under government defense contracts, we have taken delivery of eight Su-27 Flanker fighters, 12 MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters, 12 anti-radar missiles, one Soyuz space rocket carrier, two spacecraft, three strategic missiles, 21 surface-to-air missiles, 20 tanks, over 100 armored vehicles and some 2,000 trucks, mainly KamAZ and Urals," said Vladimir Popovkin, a deputy defense minister and head of arms procurements.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said earlier this month that Russia's defense-related sectors increased production by 2.5% in the first quarter, year-on-year.
Ivanov, who oversees the defense industry as part of his Cabinet tasks, said that defense contracts in 2011-12 would be funded at the same level as in 2009, adding that by then Russia would be in a position to commence full-scale production of new weapons.
Some 1.3 trillion rubles ($41.7 billion) will be spent on arms production this year and a total of 4 trillion rubles ($128 billion) in the 2009-11 period.
A federal official said in late May that Russia's foreign defense orders totaled $35 billion.
Alexander Fomin, first deputy director of the Federal Service for Military Cooperation, which regulates Russia's cooperation in the military and technical sphere with other countries, said the Russian defense industry had effectively "reached its ceiling" and could not take on any more orders.
Fomin said contracts signed for some weapon systems, especially long-range air-defense systems, stretched years into the future.
Sergei Chemezov, head of the state-run Russian Technology Corporation, said in February that the orders would provide domestic defense industry firms with contracts to keep them going for the next four to five years.
Russia's defense industry currently employs 2.5-3 million workers, or 20% of manufacturing jobs.
