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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  • 2Password2Remember [he/him]
    ·
    25 days ago

    help me compile a list of ways in which american "democracy" is not actually democratic. obviously we all know that bourgeois democracy is not democracy and that's that on the matter, but i want a lib-friendly list of examples i can use to explain why i don't vote, rather than a soundbite of theory they will just dismiss. what i've got so far, in no particular order:

    • most americans support ending daylight savings time, but congress refuses to pass it. same for universal healthcare (i'd love some polling sources on both of these, as well as similar issues like abortion)

    • the electoral college is anti-democratic because it creates swing states, meaning most votes don't matter

    • the senate is anti-democratic because it gives disproportionate weight to the votes of people in "small" states, and states are not people

    • felons can't vote

    • gerrymandered districts create huge disparities between the number of votes a party receives in a given state and the number of representatives it sends to congress

    • election day isn't a holiday, meaning that people who can't afford to take off work and/or stand in line for hours can't vote (less of an issue now with early voting but still)

    • campaigns are financed privately, which creates an incentive for candidates to enact policy that favors their donors once they're in office. if campaigns were funded 100% by taxpayer dollars it would not only put all candidates on a more even playing field but also eliminate this perverse incentive

    • something about the two-party system. i don't know enough about the rules of voteball to know why, from a lib point of view, the two parties dominate, but the impossibility of a third party gaining prominence is obviously anti-democratic. is first past the post voting a cause of this?

    • lobbying exists and is just the name we give to corruption when it's legal

    • term limits arbitrarily prevent people from continuing to vote for candidates they like. it assumes that corruption is a part of the system and address a possible symptom rather than the cause

    • the results of the election are drip fed through the media rather than announced all at once at the end, potentially influencing the decision to vote or not vote for people who would be voting later in the day

    Death to America

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      27 days ago

      The scotus exists entirely to subvert democracy.

      The dems and gop are legally entrenched and control many aspects of voting

      Dems and gop are private clubs where leaders are chosen in smoke filled back rooms with no democratic process