PARIS — United Aircraft Corp. plans to deliver three more prototypes of an advanced stealth fighter jet to the Russian military for testing as early as next year, a company official said.The president of the Moscow-based company, Yuri Slyusar, said three more of the T-50 PAK-FA, a fifth-generation stealth fighter made by United Aircraft subsidiary Sukhoi, will be transferred to the Russian air force in late 2016 or early 2016 as part of a test program.
| Stephen Green at VodkaPundit points out that the T-50 is quite the dog. |
That will bring the total number of T-50 prototypes to eight, according to a fact sheet distributed at the event. The PAK-FA first flew in 2011 and is designed to compete against such U.S. military aircraft as the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, both of which are made by Lockheed Martin Corp.
“Compared to the previous generation fighters, the PAK-FA combines the functions of a strike aircraft and a fighter, thus offering a number of unique capabilities,” the fact sheet states. “As the fifth-generation aircraft, it has an essentially new thoroughly integrated avionics package providing superior automatic control and intelligence support.”
| Great ad copy, Ivan... |
“The aircraft demonstrates all necessary and design characteristics, so we can say that there is no risk in the program moving it forward and the aircraft meets all the specifications that were initially planned,” he said. “There’s no risk in delays whatsoever.”
| No risks? The man could work for Lockheed... |
| Like for example, it shouldn't crash as often as a MiG-21... |