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SSJ100 launches operations PAK FA two prototypes flying already ...

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Sukhoi<br />

Sukhoi's test pilot Sergey Bogdan reports<br />

the results of the second T-50 prototype<br />

speed taxi tests, Komsomolsk-on-Amur,<br />

2 March 2011<br />

Andrey FOMIN<br />

military aviation | event<br />

of the fourth one are being manufactured.<br />

Thus, “we will have generated the core that<br />

will ensure a positive preliminary report”,<br />

said Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi Director<br />

General and UAC president. The third<br />

<strong>PAK</strong> <strong>FA</strong> <strong>flying</strong> prototype is supposed to<br />

be equipped with a prototype active electronically<br />

scanned array (AESA) radar that<br />

Tikhomirov-NIIP has been developing.<br />

The developer has made and conducted<br />

numerous tests of three AESA radars, with<br />

the third of them earmarked for fitting the<br />

<strong>PAK</strong> <strong>FA</strong> prototype.<br />

At the same time, the third and fourth aircraft<br />

will be furnished with a number of other<br />

avionics systems, which tests are not supposed<br />

to be carried out by the first and second<br />

<strong>prototypes</strong>. “We will use <strong>two</strong> more aircraft for<br />

the tests in 2012, as we planned”, Mikhail<br />

Pogosyan said during the Bangalore air show<br />

in February. Probably, he meant the fifth and<br />

sixth <strong>flying</strong> <strong>prototypes</strong> to be equipped with the<br />

complete avionics and weapons suites.<br />

As is known, Vladimir Putin set the task of<br />

having the early <strong>PAK</strong> <strong>FA</strong>s of the low-rate initial<br />

production (LRIP) batch delivered to the<br />

Russian Air Force centre in Lipetsk in 2013<br />

for their operation evaluation and launching<br />

deliveries of production-standard fighters to<br />

RusAF combat units in 2015. As the then<br />

Deputy Defence Minister and armed forces<br />

armament chief Vladimir Popovkin told the<br />

media during the <strong>PAK</strong> <strong>FA</strong>’s unveiling in<br />

Zhukovsky in June 2010, the draft governmental<br />

armament programme designed to<br />

cover throughout 2020 stipulated acquisition<br />

of “more than 50 fifth-generation fighters”<br />

from 2016.<br />

<strong>PAK</strong> <strong>FA</strong> <strong>flying</strong> prototype is slated for the<br />

public unveiling during the MAKS 2011 international<br />

air show in August this year.<br />

T50-2 landing after its maiden flight,<br />

3 March 2011<br />

www.take-off.ru take-off june 2011<br />

23<br />

Sukhoi

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