Russia's views about the new F-22 flying display

[tigershark]

Russia's views about the new F-22 flying display
By
Stephen Trimble
 on July 16, 2008 9:38 AM

Vladimir Karnozov, Flight's Moscow-based correspondent, got the Russian perspective on the F-22 flying display on Monday. Excerpted below are quotes from the article appearing in next week's magazine.


    Going back to the Raptor, [Su-30MKi/MKA/MKM project manager Aleksandr] Barkovsky said that generally speaking the Su-30MKI performance is largely similar, "but we did it ten years ago".

    The Su-35 with 16% more power and a bit less structural weight will perform somewhat better than the Raptor and the Su-30MKI. Touching on the Raptor's flat spin recovery maneuver, Barkovsky said the F-22A made only three-third of the 360-degree arc before attempting recovery with vectored thrust. "We demonstrated flat spin recovery after 2 - 3 circles. Besides, we used thrust vectoring to change direction of the spin rotation and then recovered. They are still to demonstrate that".

    Barkovsky also said that from his viewpoint the potential of the F-22A platform is not fully exploited yet, so that Lokcheed Martin has something to work on. Ultimately, the US maker shall be able to offer air show visitors  a more spectacular demonstration when the Raptor potential is fully exploited by its flight control system".

    The Russian fighters use round-shaped nozzles that are part of their engines, while on the Raptor's flat nozzles are a part of the airframe. "Their design solution give them more ability to fool infrared missiles", the Su-30MKI chief designer said.

    ...

    The Su-35 is classified as "transitional type" from fourth to fifth generation fighters, a bridge-gapping measure before Russia's  PAK FA fifth generation fighter becomes available. Russian air force commander Gen. Aleksandr Zelin expects its prototype to fly in 2009 and pass trials in 2013. Zelin came to Farnborough to watch performance of the Raptor in the company of Sukhoi general director Mikhail Pogosyan. Zelin told the media on the eve of the show that "from what we have seen", the F-22A does not exceed the Su-35 in maneuverable fight performance.

    In his turn Mikhail Pogosyan said the Su-35 is not a match for the F-22A, but the PAK FA shall match it. He added that the cycle of the fifth generation fighter development takes 7-10 years. "Not all of our customers will go for the fifth generation fighter due to its high complexity and costs. They may find the Su-35 meeting their needs". He predicts the market for more than 200 Su-35s in 2011-2020 time frame. He further said that production of the Su-35 can run in parallel with that of the PAK FA "for several years".


Source
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2008/07/russias-views-about-the-new-f2.html

[Gripen]

Lol, gotta love the Russians, "Its good, but we did it years ago" classic!

[tigershark]

My favorite part

Ultimately, the US maker shall be able to offer air show visitors  a more spectacular demonstration when the Raptor potential is fully exploited by its flight control system".

Who cares how air show demonstration look what does that have to do with real aircraft with real radar's, weapons systems, on them?  They can't even get to close the F-117 levels and he says "Lockheed Martin has something to work on" is he kidding?  For a country that produced less 40 new aircraft for itself in ten year and built five ships for it's own navy and the list goes on he does a lot of talking. 

[Webmaster]

Give the guy a break, he's talking for his company and its designs. There is probably more potential than it shows and FCS software upgrades on the way, so that comment is pretty safe. Concerning TVC, yeah, they have been showing it for years, and the guy did produce plenty of -MKI/MKA/MKM since, who cares what the RuAF bought from them, he has got plenty of backbone to make these comments. He's not some Russian pilot bragging about his plane. I think the comments are pretty honest, does it say anything about the Raptor or it's rivals... not at all.

Gen. Zelin says "from what we've seen", so he sure knows as well as there is more to this than shown at the air show flying programme. He's just making his politically correct press statement.

Pogosyan is just talking PR-talk about the PAK-FA and Su-35, can't blame him either. Boeing and LM have also been saying each of their planes is the best in the world, with no regard to each others designs.

No reason to feel offended, nonpilot, read a bit between the lines, they know they can't compete  But it's okay since there'll be an export ban on the thing, so they can make some compliments.

[valkyrian]

I agree with nonpilot. These are the most unlikely conditions those fighters they will ever fight under. If the russian spokesman finds his flanker better, in this subsonic low altitude airshow, i am sure he knows that the Flanker (even that with 16% more thrust) cannot much Raptor's supersonic/high altitude maneuvrability (after all the -22 was optimized to excel in that region, where as the Flanker is a subsonic medium to low height optimized design).

And i wouldn't be so happy if i was Lockheed Martin/USAF bcz after many years they have presented what the Flanker did a long time ago. That is , they did nothing new, they just followed.