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Light Frontline Aircraft
Lyogkiy Frontovoy Samolyot

As Russia struggled to recover from the economic ruins of the 1990’s, they began a new modernisation effort for the Air Force [VVS]. Hoping to compete with the NATO Joint Strike Fighter, the new aircraft was aimed to be a capable multirole design with moderate stealth characteristics. Preliminary work would begin in 1994, but it would take until 1999 for the program to officially start. The LFS would see entries from the same three companies that had participated in previous stillborn programs - MiG, Sukhoi, and Yakovlev. MiG and Yakovlev would only submit a single proposal, but Sukhoi would submit three full proposals, all with different layouts. The LFS program would be very brief - in 2001, the program was cancelled to free up funding for the more advanced PAK FA.

Yakovlev’s LFS would be the final development of their failed Yak-43 development. Further refining the stealth characteristics of the Yak-43, the LFS proposal would end up resembling the stealth projects of the west (particularly the ATF and JSF). STOVL operation was retained in the new design, but the lift jets system was modified. Supplementing the vertically-mounted lift-jets was to be a system bleeding air from the forward compressor stages of the engine. Unfortunately, the project would not progress far before the LFS was cancelled.

MiG’s I-2000 proposal was an entirely new design, notable for its massive circular inner wing section. The unusual wing planform was intended to improve control at high angles of attack - a feature that was to be supplemented by thrust-vectoring engine nozzles. Additionally, stealth elements were to be incorporated into the design, most notable being an internal weapons bay. Specially designed undercarriage and airbrakes were intended to improve short-field operations that were considered integral to VVS frontal aviation operations. Perhaps most important was the open architecture of the design, intended to improve export prospects by making the airframe adaptable to a variety of avionics and weapon systems. The I-2000 would never materialize due to the end of the LFS program, but MiG would sell the design to Iran, which was working on their own domestic fighter program.

The failure of MiG’s I-2000 would not be the end of the design. When the LFS program was cancelled, the I-2000 design work was sold to Iran, where it was used as the basis for a domestic fighter program. Working with MiG, Iran used the design as the basis for both a full-fledged combat aircraft known as the M-ATF Morghue Ashura Tactical Fighter and a less ambitious subsonic trainer - the Shafaq. It appears that the majority of the design - particularly the distinct circular inner wings - was preserved, while the outer wing sections were swept. The M-ATF was apparently cancelled before a prototype could materialize, with work instead focusing on the Shafaq.

The first Sukhoi proposal, the S-52, would build on their experience with the S-32 forward-swept wing fighter. More resembling the American X-29 than the domestic S-32, the S-52 was a small single-engined forward-swept wing aircraft with canards and small control surfaces on tails strakes. Compared to the S-32, it incorporated more stealth features, although weapons were to be carried in semi-recessed positions rather than a fully enclosed bay. While single-engined, the proposed Soyuz R179 powerplant was to allow the aircraft - which was larger than the S-32 - to supercruise at Mach 1.3. The project got as far as wind tunnel tests before Sukhoi decided to pursue more promising alternatives.

Sukhoi’s second LFS proposal, the S-55, was adapted from a parallel proposal for an advanced trainer for the VVS. Effectively resembling a single-engined Su-27, the proposal was to result in three separate designs - a trainer, land-based fighter, and naval fighter. A large nose would provide for a powerful radar, and control was to be achieved with a combination of canards and elevators. Because of the trainer requirements, the small aircraft was to have a crew of two. Proposed powerplants were the RD-33 (from the MiG-29) and the AL-31F. Unfortunately, Sukhoi’s focus on making a naval fighter that would be adapted to the other requirements was its downfall. The naval fighter would never materialize thanks to lack of funds, and the land-based variant would meet its end with the cancellation of the LFS. Its last hope of survival, the trainer competition, would prove a failure as well, as the S-55 was too complicated and expensive for the trainer role.

The S-56 was a further refinement of the S-55, dropping the trainer requirement to focus on the dual land/sea fighter design. The crew was reduced to one, and the aircraft was vastly refined, reducing empty weight. The “stingers” characteristic of Sukhoi fighters were added on either side of the tail nozzle, and a complex system of folding surfaces was intended to reduce the aircraft’s footprint on the carrier to just 3 meters wide by 3 meters tall. Power was to come from a single Al-31F engine, and a massive internal fuel capacity of 4500kg of fuel was to give a range of almost 4000km. Overall, performance projections (while likely ambitious) expected the S-56 to outpace the latest model F-16s and possibly compete with the JSF. Sukhoi would market the design not only domestically, but also to India (as part of their carrier fighter competition) and South Africa. Unfortunately, none of these options panned out, and, as money ran out, the S-56 had to be abandoned.