First public flight of Indo-Russian fifth generation fighter in August

The T-50 fifth generation fighter ( Russian designated PAK-FA), being developed by Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation(UAC) with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited(HAL) as an active partner, is expected to make its first public flight at the Moscow Air Show (MAKS) in August 2011. However, the aircraft will not be available for closer examination in the static display area, Russian sources told Defensewold.net at the Paris Air Show here. The aircraft is meant to transform the Russian air force’s fighter fleet from a mix of third generation fighters such as the Su-27/Mig-29 to one multi-role fighter. The PAK-FA acronym in Russian means ‘Future Air System for Tactical Air Forces’. The single fighter will perform air superiority, ground attack and carrier-based roles, much like the American Joint Strike Fighter. The T-50 PAK-FA prototype flew for the first time in 2010 and two prototypes are flying to go through various phases of the flight test. The first public flight in September will be performed by one of the two prototypes. The two prototypes are meant to validate the flight characteristics and will not include the full complement of onboard electronics or some specialist electronics being developed for the PAK-FA. The Indian contribution to the PAK-FA will be in the form of the mission computer and certain other critical electronics, roughly working out to about 25% of the total project. HAL’s experience gained from the avionics suite and mission computer developed for India’s Su-30MKI has gone in favor of acquiring this crucial workshare. The T-50 PAK-FA will utilize a higher percentage of composites and radar evading stealth material than older Russian made fighters. In dimensions, the aircraft will be smaller than the Su-30 but significantly lighter enabling it to fly further and with a heavier weapons load than current generation fighters such as the Mig-29 and Su-30. The Initial batches of the T-50 prototypes will come equipped with a passive electronically scanned array radar while the later batches, closer to actual production are expected to have an active electronically scanned array radar. The partnership with India will allow Russia’s UAC access to much needed funds at the advanced development stage besides access to Indian avionics and software expertise.