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Su-57 Felon
T-50 / Project 701 / PAK FA
[Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsyi]

The Sukhoi Su-57 is a Russian-made fifth-generation multirole fighter designated to destroy all types of air, ground and naval targets. The Su-57 fighter jet features stealth technology with the broad use of composite materials, is capable of developing a supersonic cruising speed, and is furnished with advanced onboard radio-electronic equipment, including a powerful onboard computer (the so-called electronic second pilot), the radar system spread across its body and some other innovations, in particular, armament placed inside its fuselage.

The Su-57 took to the skies for the first time on January 29, 2010. Compared to its predecessors, the Su-57 combines the functions of an attack plane and a fighter jet while the use of composite materials and innovation technologies and the fighter’s aerodynamic configuration ensure the low level of radar and infrared signature. The plane’s armament will include, in particular, hypersonic missiles. The fifth-generation fighter jet has been successfully tested in combat conditions in Syria.

The Russian Armed Forces received the first Su-57 fighter in 2020. Russia’s Aerospace Force will get 22 Su-57 fighters by late 2024, and their number in the Russian Armed Forces will grow to 76 by 2028.

Scramble Magazine reported 29 October 2019 that the name Frazor, assigned to the Russian 5th generation jet fighter was replaced within NATO. The Sukhoi Su-57 is now officially reported as "Felon". Frazor was used as a temporary working name for the PAK-FA and T-50 program, not for the production aircraft Su-57. Russia’s T-50 (PAK FA) fifth-generation fighter jet has received the serial index of Su-57, Aerospace Force Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Viktor Bondarev said in an interview with the website of Zvezda TV Channel on 11 August 2017. “The decision has been taken, the plane has been christened. Su-57 is what we are going to call it now”. The nomenclature follows the Su-27 Flanker , Su-37 "Super Flanker", Su-47 "Berkut" designation sequence.

The maiden flight of the T-50 / Project 701 / PAK FA, the first Russian fifth-generation fighter jet was completed successfully on Friday morning, 29 January 2010 at Komsomol'sk-na-Amur. This event was significant for several reasons.

1. The PAK FA is generally similar in appearance to the American F-22, though there are so many differences in detail that it is clearly an original design rather than a knock-off copy. A direct comparison with the F-22 is probably not meaningful on an unclassified basis, but Russian marketers will probably sell it as roughly equivalent in combat potential. While the F-35 is also a fifth generation stealth fighter, the low observable characteristics of this attack aircraft are said to be markedly inferior to the all-around stealth of the F-22 air supremacy fighter.
2. As of January 2010 a total production run of at least 150-200 aircraft for the Russian Air Force and 200 aircraft for the Indian Air Force was envisioned. If these production objectives are met, the United States might wind up with the world's third largest fleet of stealth fighters, after India and Russia.
3. In June 2001, India was offered 'joint development and production' of this new 5th generation fighter by Russia. Russia had been trying to sell this concept both to China and India for some time. It seems probable that China declined to participate in this project given a belief that Russia stood to gain more from Chinese participation than did China. That is, it would seem that China had determined that it could produce a superior product without Russian help. With the first flight of the Russian stealth fighter in 2010, an arguably superior Chinese stealth fighter might be expected to take to the skies not too long thereafter.
4. The prospect that a country like Iran might buy even a few dozen PAK FA aircraft from Russia may well awaken interest in the F-22 in Israel, if not Saudi Arabia. The emergence of a Chinese counterpart stealth fighter may also re-awaken Japanese interest in the F-22. Production of large numbers of PAK FA by India would place Pakistan in a rather difficult position, unless it purchased similar numbers of stealth fighters from China.

The first stealth fighter, the American F-117A, was designed in the 1970s using a novel mathematical theory for determining radar cross-sections of general three-dimensional bodies, and optimizing it subject to constraints. Ben Rich, chief of Lockheed's Advanced Development Projects division (the so-called `Skunk Works'), wrote that "the Rosetta Stone breakthrough for stealth [fighter] technology" was a new theory developed by Pyotr Ya. Ufimtsev, not a new development in engineering. Although the theory was conceived at the height of cold war tensions in the mid-1970's, it was instigated by a research paper published by this Soviet radar engineer.

Ufimtsev is known for his works in the theory of diffraction and propagation of electromagnetic and acoustic waves. Among his fundamental contributions were the the Physical Theory of Diffraction (PTD), and the discovery of new physical phenomena related to surface waves in absorbing layers. PTD is used worldwide in the design of microwave antennas and in calculations of radar cross-section of scattering objects. In particular, this theory was used in the design of American stealth aircraft nearly invisible to radar.

CIA Director William Casey, in a briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee in January 1986 stated, "We know that the Soviets are working to acquire the technology to develop aircraft and cruise missiles employing stealth features". Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger stated in Soviet Military Power 1987 that "evidence suggests the Soviets have made progress in developing aircraft that may have a low observable radar signature". The US Air Force started to address the needs of future fire control systems to handle the impact of Soviet stealth aircraft. In particular, contracts awarded by the US Air Force in August 1987 were to contain risk assessments addressing technology projection and Soviet airframe observability.

In early 2002 Sukhoi was chosen as prime contractor for the planned Russian fifth-generation fighter is called the PAK FA [ Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsyi - Future Air Complex for Tactical Air Forces]. This intermediate class twin-engine fighter was to be larger than a MiG-29 and smaller than a Su-27. The new fighter was said to be intended to be about the same size as the US F-35 JSF, with a primary air superiority mission and ground attack and reconnaissance being secondary missions.

The aircraft was to feature a long combat radius, supersonic cruise speed, low radar cross section, super-maneuverability, and the ability to make short takeoffs and landings. In accordance with the technical requirements, the PAK FA was to have a normal takeoff weight of 20 tons, which is close to the average normal takeoff weight of the two American airplanes, the F-35 JSF (17.2 tons) and the F-22 (24 tons). The new fighter (a medium version) was to have a traditional wing form, though the experience gathered as a result of Berkut's test flights will be taken in consideration when designing the fighter. It was supposed that it was to be created using the Stealth technology, and equipped with two AL-41F engines by the Saturn scientific and industrial enterprise, a radar system with an active phased array to be produced by the Fazatron-NIIR corporation, and high-precision weapons.

In addition, the T-50 is said to have quite advanced electronic devices equipped with active phased array radar system (AESA), which can scan hundreds of nautical miles all air and ground objects, and can simultaneously target and track multiple air targets. Installed in dozens of different parts of the body can not only monitor the environment sensor, the ground also can exchange real-time data. Its "electronic pilot" analysis system continue to make scenario analysis, to provide action plans to receive a large number of missions and combat all forms of data to help pilots relieve stress, simplify the operation process, it focused on the implementation of tactics.

The T-50 takeoff and landing distance is shortened, only about 330 meters to complete the landing runway, their weapons can all be mounted inside the fuselage bomb bay to meet stealth requirements. Reportedly, T-50 can carry eight R-77 air to air missiles.

India joined the T-50 development and initially allocated nearly $25 billion, which indicates the T-50 project promising to meet the highest standards requirements with a T-50 India-specific version. Russian experts said, T-50 will also be for export, but, the Russian T-50 will create special models. The Russian Air Force hoped to receive as soon as possible in 2013 the first production T-50 fighter aircraft, and planned to buy at least 10 of the fighter.

Carlo Kopp and Peter Goon wrote in 2010 that "... a mature production PAK-FA design has the potential to compete with the F-22A Raptor in VLO performance from key aspects, and will outperform the F-22A Raptor aerodynamically and kinematically. Therefore, from a technological strategy perspective, the PAK-FA renders all legacy US fighter aircraft, and the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, strategically irrelevant and non-viable after the PAK-FA achieves IOC in 2015. Detailed strategic analysis indicates that the only viable strategic survival strategy now remaining for the United States is to terminate the Joint Strike Fighter program immediately, redirect freed funding to further develop the F-22 Raptor, and employ variants of the F-22 aircraft as the primary fighter aircraft for all United States and Allied TACAIR needs."

On the morning of 24 December 2019, the latest fifth-generation Russian fighter Su-57, took off from the Dzemgi airfield (near Komsomolsk-on- Amur). The purpose of the flight was to test a new engine (it is called the "second stage engine" or "Product 30") and onboard control systems. There was a factory test pilot in the fighter. But about 40 minutes after takeoff, the pilot reported to the command post that the fighter was losing control, and all his attempts to correct the situation were unsuccessful. Su-57 was losing altitude, being at a safe distance from the city (100 km). At the very last moment, the pilot decided to eject. He (like dozens of other pilots who at different times found themselves in the same situation) was saved by the ejection seat K-36 of the legendary designer Guy Severin.