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India's First Stealth Fighter To Fly In 4 Months
xmpcray writes "Less than four months from now, India's first stealth fighter will fly for the first time. It is called the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft, or FGFA, and is being developed in Russia by Sukhoi. Several of the technologies being developed for the stealth fighter have evolved from those used in the Sukhoi 30 MKI. Considered the most maneuverable fighter in the world, the Sukhoi 30 MKI uses thrust vectored engines, which deflect the exhaust from its engines to extreme angles, enabling the jet to pull off violent maneuvers like a flat spin — where the jet literally spins around on its axis."
An F-16 pilot friend refers to this as "getting stuffed", and they train to counter the technique. It would be foolish to assume that it's like in "Top Gun" where "slamming on the brakes" totally surprises an opponent.
In air to air combat, killing your opponent before they get anywhere close to you is the goal. Aviation Week wrote years ago about the ratio of losses "at the merge" (i.e. when the two opposing forces actually pass each other and engage at close range). The goal of the F-22 is to end the battle before the merge. Launch radar guided missiles from well outside the opposing force's missile range, clean up the remnants with infrared missiles at closer range, and not need to deal with a messy knife-fight. All the while, your stealth prevents the opponent from getting a good missile shot.
The picture they're showing is of an Su-30MKI, which is the fighter India currently operates. The stealth fighter that Sukhoi is working on, though, is the PAK-FA (google it), and it seems that it is the only possible fighter they could be referring to. The article is absolutely awful is this is the case and they didn't even mention it by name.
Me, I've been hearing about the PAK-FA for years, and I had almost given up hope of ever seeing it fly.
Disclaimer: IANAL. This post is, however, legal advice, and creates an attorney-client relationship.
The F35 is a global project with several countries footing the development bill, and many US allies purchasing it for their own air forces...
I worked on a modern SAM site for a couple of years as an operator (the guy who actually tracks the targets and pushes the fire button), so hear this.
Most SAM systems use a different radar to "identify" that a target exists in their missile engagement zone (you can identify these by their constantly rotating nature) and a different radar to actually track & lock a target. The tracking radar does not spin but rather follows the locked target as the target flies. Depending on the SAM system and technology, you CAN use multiple tracking radars for better triangulation and/or to combat ECM or other anti-tracking technologies. You can even use multiple fire batteries if they are spread far enough for even better than better triangulation. The caveat is that of all the fire batteries interconnected, only the Master battery can do this, the slaves can't. Additionally, the slave fire batteries must not be currently tracking and/or engaging other targets for this to work.
The importance of stealth technology is to remain unseen by the radar that identifies a valid signature in the sky and then passes the target to the tracking radar. If you are identified as an aircraft but can't be tracked by the tracking radar, then usually the target is assigned to airborne forces to intercept or ground small arms (including stinger missiles and manual tracking flak cannons). Remaining completely undetected is what stealth technology is all about.