The Sukhoi Su-57 is a twin-engine stealth multirole fighter aircraft developed by Sukhoi. It is the product of the PAK FA (Russian: ПАК ФА, prospective aeronautical complex of front-line aviation) programme, which was initiated in 1999 as a more modern and affordable alternative to the MFI (Mikoyan Project 1.44/1.42). Sukhoi's internal designation for the aircraft is T-50. The Su-57 is the first aircraft in Russian military service designed with stealth technology and is intended to be the basis for a family of stealth combat aircraft.
A multirole fighter capable of aerial combat as well as ground and maritime strike, the Su-57 incorporates stealth, supermaneuverability, supercruise, integrated avionics and large payload capacity. The aircraft is expected to succeed the MiG-29 and Su-27 in the Russian military service and has also been marketed for export.
After repeated delays, the first Su-57 entered service with the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) in December 2020.
Origins
In 1979, the Soviet Union outlined a need for next-generation fighter aircraft intended to enter service in the 1990s. The programme became the I-90 (Russian: И-90, short for: Истребитель 1990–х годов, lit. 'Fighter of the 1990s') and required the fighter to be "multifunctional" (i.e. multirole) by having substantial ground attack capabilities, and would eventually replace the MiG-29 and Su-27 in frontline tactical aviation service.
Though not a participant in the MFI, Sukhoi started its own programme in 1983 to develop technologies for a next-generation fighter, eventually resulting in the forward-swept wing S-32 experimental aircraft, later redesignated S-37 and then Su-47.
Due to a lack of funds after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the MFI was repeatedly delayed and the first flight of the MiG 1.44/1.42 prototype did not occur until 2000, nine years behind schedule.
Because of Russia's financial difficulties, the programme aimed to rein in costs by producing a single multirole fifth-generation fighter that would replace both the Su-27 and the MiG-29. Further cost-saving measures include an intended size in between that of the Su-27 and the MiG-29 and normal takeoff weight considerably smaller than the MiG MFI's 28.6 tonnes (63,000 lb) and the Su-47's 26.8 tonnes (59,000 lb).
In April 2002, the Ministry of Defence selected Sukhoi over Mikoyan as the winner of the PAK FA competition and the lead design bureau of the new aircraft. In addition to the merits of the proposal, Sukhoi's experience in the 1990s was taken into account, with the successful development of various Su-27 derivatives and numerous exports ensuring its financial stability.
Design
The Su-57 is a fifth-generation multirole fighter aircraft and the first operational stealth aircraft for the Russian armed forces. In addition to stealth, the fighter emphasizes supermaneuverability in all aircraft axes, capacious internal payload bays for multirole versatility, and advanced sensor systems such as active phased-array radar as well as the integration of these systems to achieve high levels of automation
The aircraft has a wide blended wing body fuselage with two widely spaced engines and has all-moving horizontal and vertical stabilisers, with the vertical stabilisers canted for stealth; the trapezoid wings have leading edge flaps, ailerons, and flaperons. The aircraft incorporates thrust vectoring and large leading edge root extensions that shift the aerodynamic center forward, increasing static instability and maneuverability.
Designed from the outset as a multirole aircraft, the Su-57 has substantial internal payload capacity that allows the carriage of multiple large air-to-surface ordnance. Weapons are housed in two tandem main weapons bays in the large ventral volume between the widely spaced engine nacelles and smaller side bays with bulged triangular-section fairings near the wing root.
The first aircraft in Russian military service to emphasize stealth, the Su-57 employs a variety of methods to reduce its radar signature. Similar to other stealth fighters such as the F-22, the aircraft aligns the planform edges to reduce its radar cross-section (RCS); the leading and trailing edges of the wings and control surfaces and the serrated edges of skin panels are carefully angled to reduce the number of directions the radar waves can be reflected. Weapons are carried internally in weapons bays within the airframe and antennas are recessed from the surface of the skin to preserve the aircraft's stealthy shape, while radar absorbent material (RAM) coatings absorb radar emissions and reduce the reflection back to the source.
As with other stealth fighters, the Su-57's low observability measures are chiefly effective against super-high-frequency (between 3 and 30 GHz) radars, usually found on other aircraft. The effects of Rayleigh scattering and resonance mean that low-frequency radars, employed by weather radars and early-warning radars are more likely to detect the Su-57 due to its size.
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Wait so we're currently living in the Handmaid's Tale under Biden? And voting for another Democrat is going to fix this?
They're just powerless little smol beans.
Idfk how they, like, rationalize their powerlessness. Or, rather, the pretended powerlessness of their leadership.
The Handmaid's Tale. Why is it so popular with Libs? I remember seeing a few episodes and it was ok.
Actually, potentially for similar reasons 1984 is popular. A lot of schools do "dystopian fiction" as a section in high school english, and usually students get to choose which book they read in that section. A lot of boys choose 1984, a lot of girls choose Handmaid's Tale. Honestly those two might be among the most widely read books in the anglosphere.
I didn't know the book was popular, tbh. I thought the author was a terf and that the book had a strange backstory, something like the Soviets were funding groups to make the right in the US more traditionalist and rabid, but I guess I confused it with another book lol.
oh no, Margaret Atwood is a TERF??? 😞 say it isn't so
I don't think she is a terf. I guess she is just a lib that supports Ukraine.
Oryx and Crake trilogy was so much better
I read it, and it's good, but it was such a relentlessly... idk what to call it, the best I can come up with is capitalist realism. There was no off ramp, no suggestion that anything else was possible, and I really felt like the author was saying that the world of hyper-bazinga techbro misogynists was the only future that could exist. The feeling I had coming out of it was like "Is the author telling me to just lay down and die because imagining a better future is pointless?"
It didn't feel like a cautionary tale. It felt like a noogie while the author kept yelling "Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that?"
It's been a real long time since I've reas them but well, there is a part of me thst is deeply misanthropic on just an ecological level. Not eco fash, I'm a human and therefore gotts mitigate damage and try to build a better future for human. Buuuuut we've been extinction machines for tens of thousands of years, it didn't take industrialisation for us to be just like...way worse than outdoor cats and then we made outdoor cats. I'm not gonna do anything to act on it and will even work against it, but deep down I really wish certain apes had never left the trees and the human race not being around is essential to complex life on earth continuing. I like animals too much to not just kinda resent the entire human race for ever existing
Part of what keeps me going is knowing that, if anything survives, then Evolution never gives up. We've caused a horrific ongoing extinction, but at the same time evolution and speciation is still happening. If we kill the occupants of an ecological niche other animals will evolve to fill that niche.
It's kind of "This is not the end of history" for biological evolution. Like, as our cities expand and expand, raccoons and coyotes are adapting to them and there's evidence raccoons are getting smarter as they encounter more complex puzzle solving challenges like opening trash cans and hotwiring cars. We keep finding weird new bacteria with amazing properties in the most polluted places on earth.
It doesn't excuse or minimize what we've done, but I find it helpful to think that we're not the only force at work. Evolution is out there, working it's weird wonders, new species are evolving to fill new niches, life continues no matter what. It's not an excuse, but it is hope.
I never read 1984, but I read Animal Farm at a fairly young age.
At the time I couldn't connect it to the historical equivalents that it was trying to draw (and yet it was still clear it was some sort of metaphor). I remember thinking: "Okay, this 'communist' plan sounds pretty good. But those pigs clearly aren't communists!"
Then, as I learned more about the context of the metaphor, it seemed like a reductionist criticism. The idea of a captured government applies to all sorts of political frameworks. I've always been most immediately familiar with regulatory capture so that was always the inspiration for my perspective. Communist elites were far removed from my daily concerns about capitalist elites.
I watched a bit of Handmaid's Tale. The point of an authoritarian, patriarchal religious society seemed pretty obvious and immediate. But in terms of the specifics of the series' political reality, which quickly became the meat of the story, it didn't seem to be any sort of metaphor aside from drawing on historical inspiration, it was just speculative fiction driven by a cult of the protagonist. Hulu used what I call the "Netflix formula" or "Breaking Bad model" and did the Shounen manga treatment on a poignant premise.
I definitely could have missed some of the nuances of course. This is not a strongly held opinion. I only mention it because it seems to fall in line with critics' opinions.
1984 is somehow dumber
Great, I'll continue to avoid it lol
It's like, also just a shitty book on its own merit. He was kind of s bad writer
The female character in it felt like she served no purpose than to call women weak willed as well lol.
There's a lot wrong with that book. I did a kick ass high school essay like 15 years back about it the year before AP English thankfully was available. I think we had a selection of books to pick from, I chose Fahrenheit 451 which I still love but it turns out I had a kinda different take than the author and the audience he disagreed with, and did Brave New World (decent, worth a read but can still easily criticize) and 1984 which I thought was dreck as a 15 year old. I kinda forgot which book was assigned and just did a 3 boom comparison. Pretty sure I could have just drawn a picture of a duck and gotten an okay grade. The teacher knew I was way above the level of what was being taught. No false modesty I was better than most 15 year Olds at books
I remember thinking Animal Farm felt juvenile and heavy-handed even as a youth so that doesn't surprise me.
1984 might have sort of a good bad movie for leftists thing going for it. I'd have to re-read, but from what I recall it might be a fun dunk tank book club thing for us to do here.
That explains a lot about the difference in political memes I see between men and women
Famous "Voting your way out of fascism works" author Margaret Atwood.
Oh my god 💀💀😭😭