Advanced new Russian fighter makes first flight

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Russia test-flew a long-awaited new fighter plane on Friday, determined to challenge the United States for technical superiority in the skies and impress weapons buyers around the globe.

The "fifth-generation" stealth fighter -- Russia's first all-new warplane since the Soviet collapse plunged the defense industry into poverty and disarray -- flew for 47 minutes, planemaker Sukhoi said.

"The plane performed very well. All our expectations for this first flight were met," Sukhoi spokeswoman Olga Kayukova said on Rossiya 24 television. "The premiere was a success."

Russia's main networks led news programs with reports of the flight and showed footage of the needle-nosed, camouflage-painted jet taking off from a snow-lined airstrip at a Sukhoi factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia's Far East.

Foreign journalists were not invited.

Fifth-generation jets are invisible to radar, have advanced flight and weapons control systems and can cruise at supersonic speeds. The new jet is Moscow's answer to the U.S.-built F-22 Raptor stealth fighter -- the world's only fifth generation fighter yet in service -- which first flew in 1997.

Analysts have said it would probably be five to seven years before Russia's military gets to fly the new fighter. The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the first deliveries to Russia's air force were likely in 2015.

Successful development of the fighter, which Rossiya 24 said has been tentatively dubbed the T-50, is crucial to showing that Russia can challenge U.S. technology.

The 1991 Soviet collapse ushered in a cash-strapped time of troubles for Russia's military. Its aircraft makers have been building warplanes based on updated Soviet-era designs.

Defense spending increased in the oil-fulled period of economic growth during the 2000-2008 presidency of Vladimir Putin, who has encouraged pride in Russia's military might.

But the military has continued to suffer embarrassing and sometimes deadly setbacks since the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in 2000, killing all 118 seamen aboard.

Several failed tests of the submarine-launched Bulava (Mace), an intercontinental ballistic missile touted by the Putin as able to pierce any air defense, have troubled the Kremlin.

Interfax cited its source as saying that the new Russian plane had lowered and raised its landing gear twice during the flight and added that "the American F-35 fifth-generation jet couldn't do that (on its test flight)."

The new plane is important for future Russian arms sales.

In a statement on company website sukhoi.org, Sukhoi director Mikhail Pogosyan said the company plans to further develop its fifth-generation fighter program together with India, its biggest client for existing planes.

"I'm certain our joint project will surpass Western equivalents in terms of cost-effectiveness, and will not only strengthen the defense power of the Russian and Indian air forces but also take a respectable place on the world market," he said.

Sukhoi is Russia's largest exporter of military planes and accounts for about a quarter of the country's annual arms sales, which reached $7.4 billion last year.

Along with giants India and China, existing clients for Russia's weapons include U.S. foes such as Iran, Syria and Venezuela, and their purchase of an advanced new fighter could cause concern in the United States and its allies.

The U.S. Congress has banned export sales of the F-22.

Source: Bernama.
Link: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=472260.