Quote:Paris (AFP) Jan 27, 2010

France successfully test-fired on Wednesday its new M51 strategic missile from a nuclear submarine, the first test at sea after three land-based firings, the defence ministry said. France's newest strategic nuclear submarine "Le Terrible" launched the test at 9:25 am (0825 GMT) from the Audierne Bay in the Atlantic and "everything went as planned" said a statement from the defence ministry.



The M51 has a range of 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) and enjoys better accuracy than the current M45 ballistic missile carried by France's four nuclear-armed submarines.



The M51 Missile

Quote:28/01/2010





Russia exported $7.4 billion worth of military products last year, and expects to sell at least a similar amount in 2010, the head of the country's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Thursday.



Russia exported a record $8.35 billion worth of weapons in 2008.



"We do not expect arms deliveries abroad in 2010 to be lower than in 2009," Anatoly Isaikin said.



He said arms and hardware supplies for the Air Force accounted for half of all exports in 2009.



According to Isaikin, arms exports saw a steady growth in the past nine years, and increased more than 140% in the period from 2001 to 2009.



Russia's main customers for arms were India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria, Isaikin said.



He hinted that Russia could also sell its arms to Iraq and Afghanistan if the United States gives its approval.



"It's too early to say if any [arms] supplies will be made to Afghanistan and what arms could be supplied there... Military officials from Iraq and Afghanistan do approach us for various arms supplies. We are ready to deliver, provided there is a corresponding decision [on the part of the U.S. administration] and if funds are allocated," Isaikin said.



He said Rosoboronexport's contract portfolio for the next few years currently exceeded $34 billion.



MOSCOW, January 28 (RIA Novosti)

Quote:24.12.2009Russia will deliver 20 MiG-29 fighter jets to the Air Force of Myanmar (Burma). The deal is evaluated at nearly $600 million. Burma preferred Russia’s renowned jets to China, although its J-10 and FC-1 fighters are cheaper.



The deal became the largest contract to sell MiG-29 jets after Algeria terminated a similar contract with Russia in 2007. Russia has sold only six MiGs to Sri Lanka and gave away ten others to Lebanon since then.



As for Burma, China has been this nation’s major partner in commerce, including the defense industry, during the recent 20 years. The European Union and the United States have been practicing sanctions against Burma for decades. Burma is governed by a military junta, and nearly all opposition activists in the country are jailed.



It is China that eases the consequences of the political and economic blockade of Burma. It is worthy of note that the EU and the US are interested in Burma’s natural resources – its [url="http://english.pravda.ru/topic/oil_price-522/"]oil[/url], [url="http://english.pravda.ru/topic/natural_gas-533"]natural gas[/url] and non-ferrous metals.



Why did Burma offend its long-term and close partner, China? How will the West react to Burma’s choice of Russian arms?



“In spite of the scandal, which occurred in 2007 during the shipment of MiG jets to Algeria, the MiG-29 jet is much more reliable and efficient than what China offered to Burma. It’s not Russia’s first deal with Burma – we delivered 12 MiG-29 fighters to this country in 2001,” Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis told Pravda.Ru.



“It goes without saying that China is not going to be happy with such a turn of events. China gradually ousts Russia from the countries with which Russia traditionally has relations in the field of defense cooperation. However, I do not think that Russia has a good reason to celebrate. The situation in the Russian defense industry becomes worse, which affects the export of arms.



“The deal with Burma will definitely trigger a harsh reaction from the West, which does not recognize the Burmese regime,” the expert added.

Quote: 28.01.2010 Russian fifth generation aircraft prepares for its maiden flight. The test flight will reportedly take place on January 28 or January 29 at the air base in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Interfax news agency reports.





“A very important event in the history of the Russian aircraft-making is about to take place. First runs showed very good results. We decided to conduct the first flight here, not in Moscow,” Vyacheslav Shport, the governor of Russia’s Khabarovsk region said.



Only a few people – designers, engineers and test pilots - have seen the new Russian fighter so far. It was said, however, that the plane would develop the speed of 2,100 km/h and fly at the distance of up to 5,500 kilometers.



The first runs of the new fifth generation fighter jet took place in December of 2009 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.



The new plane, known as T-50 or PAK FA, was developed by Sukhoi design bureau. The date of the maiden flight has been changed several times. Vice Premier Sergey Ivanov said in December 2009 that the new jet would take off before the end of the year. Afterwards, it was said that the tests had been pushed back to early 2010, but the date had not been exposed, Itar-Tass said.



The current prototype is Sukhoi's T-50 is intended to replace the MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker in the Russian inventory. A fifth generation jet fighter, it is designed to directly compete with the American F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.



The new jet will be able to take off and land on short runways, 300-400 meters long. The fifth generation aircraft will fly at large distances with multiple refueling in the air.



The PAK FA will use on its first flights 2 Saturn 117S engines (about 14.5 tons of thrust each). The 117S is an advanced version of the AL-31F, but built with the experience gained in the AL-41F program. The Saturn AL-41F powered the Mikoyan MFI fighter (Project/Article 1.44). Later versions of the PAK FA will use a completely new engine (17.5 tons of thrust each), developed by NPO Saturn or FGUP MMPP Salyut.



Russia ’s Air Force will have the new fighter jet in 2015. [color="#0000ff"]India’s Defense Ministry already plans to purchase 250 such planes from Sukhoi[/color].

Quote:Posted by [url="http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/community/persona/index.jsp?newspaperUserId=152392&plckUserId=152392"]Bill Sweetman[/url] at 1/29/2010 10:07 AM CST [size="2"]



Well, this brings back the old days when Flug Revue would pop out some over-the-fence shots obtained from the Military Missions in East Germany, and the assembled reptiles at Flight would adjourn to our [url="http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/36/3605/Rose_and_Crown/Southwark"]secret analysis facility[/url] to figure out what it all meant.



[url="http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/15/11/bfd0a03b-0a94-49c8-9b83-524d951c7eab.Full.jpg"][/url]

First of all, for anyone contemplating the use of the word "Raptorski": don't. While this is an airplane that could have been the answer to the Advanced Tactical Fighter requirement, way back when, it's not an F-22 in many important ways.



In a lot of ways, the T-50 reflects the heritage of the T-10 Flanker series - it's much more like them than Sukhoi's last fighter prototype, the forward-swept-wing [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-47"]Su-47 Berkut,[/url] ever was. From the Flanker family, the T-50 gets the massive "centroplane" - a wide central body that blends the fuselage and inner wing - three-surface aerodynamic control and true three-dimensional thrust vectoring. The main weapons bay has been seen on a Flanker model, too.



Look at some of these in detail. The centroplane is huge, extending well outside the engines and terminating at the rear in a broad beaver-tail between the exhaust nozzles.

[/size]



[url="http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/12/a6b98c2c-1753-4836-9cda-490a9a0e2939.Full.jpg"][/url]



[size="2"]It accommodates a boatload of fuel on the Flanker and will do the same here. After the canard hokey-pokey in the T-10 family (in on the Su-30MK, out on the Su-35) the T-50 has something different: the forward part of the leading edge extension is movable. According to the usually well informed Flateric over at [url="http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,9186.0.html"]Secret Projects[/url], it is called the Povorotnaya Chast Naplyva (PChN) or movable LEX section.



3-D thrust vectoring is also used on the Su-35. The T-50 and the T-10 family are distinguished by widely separated engines, which is important because that's the only way to use vectored thrust in roll. What's new on the T-50 is that the designers have cashed in on TVC by shrinking the tail surfaces, saving on drag, weight and signature.



With separated engines and a wide body, the T-50 designers have been able to install dual front and rear weapon bays. Added to this are side bays outboard of the engines. Flateric reports that each bay is designed to hold "at least two" missiles and that the outer bays are designed for short-range AAMs. The centerline bays could each hold two large weapons (like R-33s) or three-to-four of the newly announced [url="http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/R77081309.xml"]RVV-MD[/url]. The latter has folding wings, as does the RVV-SD development of the R-73 (AA-11 Archer) family - the latter explaining why the underwing bays are small.



The big new feature of the T-50 is stealth. The aircraft that flew today is a prototype - and it does not show visible features like a frameless canopy and panel alignment that you'd expect on a production aircraft. Other not-very-stealthy-looking features include the gaps around the inlet (compare the YF-23) and a spherical infrared search and track housing in front of the windshield. And, of course, the nozzles are round. But it has a chined forebody, edge alignment and (probably) inlet line-of-sight blockage and internal weapons.



Apparently the designers and systems analysts have looked at the thorny question of "how much stealth do we want to pay for?" and have come up with a different answer than the F-22 designers. The fact that the armed forces of potential adversaries don't have S-300 and S-400 missiles may have something to do with that answer.



Supercruise? Definitely. The aircraft has a lot of power, and you would not go with that sharply swept delta wing if that wasn't the goal. [/size]



[url="http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/0/8/50b76d27-57ec-45fd-88e5-bf5dfe38ff61.Full.jpg"][/url]vidcap by Matej from Secret Projects



[size="2"]The big question is how long the aircraft will take to enter service, which is a product of three factors - how much money is available, how many resources industry can muster to get the job done, and where the design, technically, stands at this point.



The first question depends largely on the Russian economy, and on the priority which the military gives to the fighter. At the moment, the strategic rocket forces are the priority and are elbowing all others away from the trough; also, the military could decide that the Su-35 is a good upgrade route for now. The X-factor: whether and when India will join the program, and how much cash it will involve.



The second - industry's ability to execute the program - is hard to estimate. On the downside, Russia has not inducted a brand-new aircraft into service since the 1980s. However, there are signs of a new development strategy at work here: the T-50's engines are outgrowths of the Su-35's and are being test-flown on a T-10 airframe, and the flight control system and (very likely) cockpit and avionics may be similar.



How far along is the program? Russian practice historically has been to start development with a series of prototypes that successively conform more to the production design. That's followed by an early series of aircraft that are "pre-operational" - flown by service units. Today's T-50 is, in US terms, something between a technology demonstrator and a systems development and demonstration aircraft.



Upshot - I would expect to see quite a few Su-35S regiments operational before we see a combat-ready T-50 - but with the caveat [color="#ff0000"]that a lot of Indian money could change things.[/color][/size]

1. Two L-band AESA radar on the wing slats is less-use / useless because it will have no beam firming capability in elevation (vertical) plane. Such limited capabelity is of little use in a flighter while at the same time transmitting a Rf beams with no elevation control is inviting trouble in LO radar.
2. OTOH speculating Ka band and X-band AESA sensor below cockpit and wing tips is most like be a reality.
3. L-band (or even X-band) AESA sensor on tail fin is a more promising configuration for PAKFA.
4. 350 Km range BVR missile with multi-spectral sensor is quite feasible and will be a killer bee on PAKFA. Question is how will the pilot know what is out there at 350 km range that need to be taken down?
5. He is dead on supersonic speed cruise and afterburner.
6. The heavy missiles in front section of the internal bomb-bay seem unrealistic, because of flight and CG (Center of Gravity) considerations, unless there is plentiful CG management fuel tanks on the rear end of the wings to deal with CG issues. Better to place hem in the mid/rear section of bomb-bay.