Even if technology is advanced at one period, it’s only natural for the technology of others to catch up.
Hello everyone, Tomeko here, pondering about the severity of the rat race. How do you do?
As it says in the heading, we will be discussing the possible rival aircraft of the world’s greatest fighter, F-22 Raptor.
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Sukhoi T-50
Sukhoi is a Russian Aircraft Company,
having produced many great aircrafts such as the Su-25 Frogfoot, Su-27 Flanker, and Su-47 Berkut etc.
Like the F-22 and F-35 etc., this T-50 is a 5th Generation Fighter.
They are the current state of the arts Fighter group, purely pursuing the combat style of taking down the enemy before being sensed and reacted, by equipping high performance arms and stealth capabilities. At present, the only one that
is on full deployment is the F-22 of the US Air Force.
With that said...
At the moment, as of December 2010, there are no official information announced regarding the specifications of this T-50, and any information that are around are unofficial, and are based on speculation or
conjecture.
Anyway, the T-50 here.
It is true that it has the F-22 in mind, and the following points,
1) High stealth capabilities
2) Ability to super cruise (Supersonic Cruise) without an afterburner
3) Equipped with radar that enable acquisition of 32 airborne targets simultaneously, and also engage combat with 8 targets simultaneously
Etc. are the main rumored features.
Looks like the first and second points are same as the Raptor.
The stealth capabilities are affected by the shape of the aircraft, but the same special paint used on the Raptor may also be used here too. If so, that may take up quite some maintenance cost, but I guess that up to the Russian
government and their wallet...
(One of the reason for the production of F-22 having stopped is that there were financial difficulties and the high cost.)
As for the Super Cruise capabilities, the main merits would be the extension of range for the BVR Missiles* that are fired when entering the enemy air space.
When firing a missile while in Super Cruise,
the momentum of the aircraft is added, causing the kinetic energy of the missile to be increased, making its range longer.
*BVR Missile: abbreviation of Beyond Visible Range Missile. As the missile itself is equipped with radar, it has high homing capabilities, so the aircraft can withdraw right after firing. The AIM-120 of the US Army and the AAM-4 of
the ASDF are examples of these.
Now, the 3rd point basically says it can take on multiple enemies with one aircraft, but as the details of the specification of Raptor, the aircraft to compare with, (Sorry for my lack of knowledge) we can’t say which is better,
which is rather unfortunate.
Now, apparently they are aiming to officially deploy the T-50 in year 2015, but if the aircraft is put to use with the rumored specifications, it is likely to give the predominance of F-22 a large blow.
But gosh, as there are no information for the actual aircraft, the information of the kit is simply just one illustration, how sad.
So let me take this opportunity to discuss a super fishy information to finish up the article.
...
......
Have you heard of the word Plasma Stealth?
It may not be heard of very often, but it is a stealth technology of a sort...... or what may become one, anyway. Probably. May be... could be?
The reason this is uncertain is because there are no report of this actually being used in the western countries yet, to this date.
So honestly speaking, it’s the ideal new technology.
The basics of radars are to emit electromagnetic waves and detect the target by sensing the reflected wave to calculate their position.
And the stealth capabilities normally mean they either tamper with the angle or amount of reflection etc. to minimize the reflected electromagnetic wave, so that it can slip through the detection by the radar. But there is no technology
that has 100% stealth yet at present.
However, the logic of this Plasma Stealth is to wrap the surrounding of the aircraft with low temperature plasma gas, which will absorb the waves and prevent detection of the radar, so if this can absorb 100% of the electromagnetic
waves, this will be able to nullify the radar.
But,
As mentioned earlier, there are no reports of this barrier of plasma developed for actual use yet.
To add to that, the source itself is very fishy... (a certain Cho*un news... the fact that its not a media from within Russia is already dodgy...).
But it is a given that secret weapons always makes appearance suddenly, otherwise it won’t be so secret, and knowing that the Russian military technology is top class in the world, its not like the possibility is completely zero.
......so yeah.
The new fighter of many mysteries, which is rumored to have new technologies installed.
Having a model being developed even when the actual aircraft isn’t even deployed yet, I guess it’s only possible because Zvezda is a Russian manufacturer.
Zvezda has produced many military models kits of the former eastern bloc, expanding their lineup that the fans just loves.
Filled with deep attraction those are not seen in Japanese manufacturers, it’s very much recommended!
(personally the impression I got of them is a Russian version of Bronco Models)
So anyway,
I apologize for the article being filled with so much text, but that will be it for today!
Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
By Tomeko (a portion of the staff here are crazy with Monster Hunter...)
~Extra~
A thought just struck me, what about the weaponry armed on the T-50?
I would imagine they would at least have the R-77 Missile (Russian Ver. of AIM-120 like item), but I hear that although it is superior to the AIM-120, it’s a little large.
To maintain the stealth capabilities, the F-22 has the weapons stored in the weapon bay inside the aircraft.
The F-35 that’s under development is also the same.
If we assume that the T-50 will be of the same type, how much would they be able to load?
But we can’t deny possibilities that they are developing new missiles either.
Gosh, there is no end to the speculation and imagination, could go on for hours.