How many su 47

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Original Reporting. Privacy Policy Submissions. Connect with us. Hi, what are you looking for? Written By Mark Episkopos. Mark Episkopos is a National Security expert focusing on Russia. Slack July 29, at pm. Leave a Reply.

Recent Posts. Share Tweet. This was mostly to look at their future military applications. As such, they began to look, once again, at the possibility of forward swept wings for their future aircraft. In , a combined Sukhoi and Soviet Air Force team began working on what was only referred to as the Berkut program. Berkut is the Russian word for a golden eagle. Eventually, this aircraft was revealed to be the Su, before being redesignated as the Sukhoi Su Berkut as Sukhoi had revealed a new variant of the Su, which demanded it follow Russian designation protocol.

During WWII, the Germans in particular had made several working prototypes, many of which were confiscated by the Americans and Soviets alike. These aircraft were then studied to find potential military benefits. Many of the studies Soviet engineers had made regarding these aircraft were given to Sukhoi engineers. Due to several designs, and their subsequent redesigns, much of the aircraft had to be redesigned, including parts of the fuselage, nose and internal weapons bay.

Not to mention the wings! Due to the nature of the Su, there were naturally several designs issues with the aircraft, that had to account for both low speed and supersonic speeds. In the early days, the main issue was strength. As such, the Soviets needed to invent a substance that was lightweight, yet was stronger than the aluminum that was previously used. This led to the USSR developing several composite materials that were already available in the west.

Once that issue had been fixed, the Soviets had begun wind tunnel testing on it. As such, the Soviets had to develop canards at the front of the aircraft in order to give pilots more control over the aircraft as a whole.

The Soviets also gave the Su larger control surfaces to this end as well. During initial flight testing, Sukhoi test pilots realized that the Su landed too quickly and on smaller runways, would run out of runway causing crashes.

This led to all Su landings require the use of a parachute. This saw them cancel the project. However, Sukhoi saw the potential for the project and funded it themselves. This saw them use much of the money the new Russian government had given them, as well as sales for their Su family.

Once again, Sukhoi offered the Berkut to the now somewhat financially stable Russian Air Force, who accepted the offer. The Sukhoi Su Berkut first flew on September 25 , flying several missions until its retirement in However, this was soon not the case.

As such, it began to mostly serve as a testbed for new technologies currently used on modern Russian fighter jets. According to several mid-level officers in the Soviet Air Force at the time the general consensus was that at some point in the future, the Soviet Russian Air Force would begin using the Su on a larger scale.

Instead, it was mostly the fault of other projects the Soviets and Americans were developing at the same time…. Whilst radar-jamming yielded very few results, stealth technology yielded many practical uses. As such, both the Soviets and Americans began designing new aircraft based on those results.

These aircraft would go on to become aircraft like the Su, F and F among many others. However, due to the nature of forward-swept wings, the two technologies could not be integrated with one another. If familiar with it, you can skip to the "highlighted sections". As part of the programme equivalent to the U.

Initially running parallel to the U. By the time the Mikoyan MFI performed its first flight, the Su was already taking part in air shows while serving as a testbed for various technologies many of them finding their way to PAK FA.

This raises a number of questions, all relating to why the Su was not chosen, neither before the USSR collapsed, and secondly why it was not chosen in the 90s by Russia as it was clearly a design in a more mature stage. Were the problems facing this configuration, relating mainly to wing durability, still insurmountable? But a FSW design has a major drawback-the loads that accumulate on the wings during manoeuvring, are much greater than in a conventional wing, leading easier to deformation and structural failure.

The Su tackled this problem by making extensive use of composite materials for the wings which offer greater durability at less weight. After the USSR collapsed and Russia embarked on economic "reforms" its defence budget shrank dramatically for a decade and new procurement was very difficult. But after , gradually funding increased and when the need for a 5th gen aircraft became again apparent, the PAK FA Sukhoi T project began, around I usually do not like to speculate on "What if?

I do not have inside knowledge, but think it is easy to explain why the Su did not progress beyond the prototype stage:. I have to admit that when I first saw the Su, I was scratching my head and wondered what the Sukhoi engineers were thinking when they proposed this design. But I had similar reactions when the Boeing X was unveiled …. Now it seems the engineers at Sukhoi put what they learnt on the Berkut to good practice when designing the SR two-seat trainer ainonline.

The reason for the forward sweep is excellent handling at high angle of attack — however, this bleeds energy quickly and can only be used in few corner cases in air combat.

But it certainly helps for pilot training if the possible angle of attack regime is large. The Su was started as an advanced multi-role fighter, and first was designated S do not confuse for S u Its forward-swept wing design along with wide use of composite materials was selected in order to achieve better handling at low speeds and heights. The reason for it never adopted for service I see further modifications of Su K , as well as lack of aircraft carriers in Russia.

Also, development of Su with thrust vector control engine made possible to achieve supermaneuverability at low speeds for Su Also, PAK-FA is not going to replace Migs, since later are short-to-medium range interceptors, while Su is a multirole fighter with almost twice dry weight, range and payload. Third generation fighters had invested their entire design into a certain set of attributes, most notably high speed and a powerful radar.

The idea was that they would rush in, fire their missiles, and run away. Against a slower aircraft with a less powerful radar and shorter range missiles, they would be largely invulnerable. Unfortunately, plans last until they meet the enemy. In this case they met them over Vietnam, where they quickly learned that getting rid of all other performance niches was a very bad idea.

Although the MiG was by no means a very responsive aircraft, it still managed to outperform many US designs. Worse, given the weapons of the era, notably the AIM-7's relatively short range, meant that most engagements would end up in or near visual combat anyway.

The result were the fourth generation designs, which still mounted a powerful radar, but were now designed to be much more maneuverable as well. They had mission statements like "not a pound for air to ground", meaning the aircraft should be as light as possible in order to improve its maneuverability, and damn any other mission.

The result were designs like the F, F and Su, with considerable amount of wing area and powerful engines intended to push out the performance envelope. Technology changes. Through the s we saw the introduction of the AIM, which reliably pushed engagement range out well beyond visual range, and stealth concepts to reduce detection range. Later, we saw the introduction of GaAs TR modules that could be used to build a AESA radar that fit in a fighter, constantly shifting and spreading across frequencies so other aircraft didn't even know it was there.

And thus opened a new performance niche, the fifth generation. Such designs retain all the maneuverability of the fourth, but combine that with a radar and stealth that means they will always see the enemy before the enemy sees them.

Ideally, combat between an F and any other aircraft should result in the enemy only realizing they're being attacked when the AIM's seeker goes active seconds before impact likely not even long enough for the RWR to notice.