Those Good Ol' Systems.

Some people are in distress over yet another, how to put it politely, less than satisfactory performance by Israeli weapon systems. 

MOSCOW (AP) — Syria's air defense forces shot down seven out of eight missiles launched by Israeli warplanes during a raid that targeted the Syrian province of Aleppo, the Russian military said Tuesday. Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit, the head of the Russian military's Reconciliation Center in Syria, said that four Israeli F-16 fighter jets targeted facilities southeast of Aleppo in Monday's strike. Kulit said seven of eight missiles launched by the Israeli fighter jets were downed by Syrian air defense units that used Russia-supplied air defense systems Pantsyr-S and Buk-M2. One missile damaged the building of a scientific research center in Safira, he said. A Syrian military official previously said in remarks carried by the state news agency SANA that Israel carried out an aerial attack in the Aleppo province late Monday. He said that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles in the attack that occurred just before midnight.

By now it became a routine, really. Israel gets its combat aircraft into the international air space and launches missiles at allegedly Iranian assets in Syria. Syrians, most likely, get early warning from Russians and then shoot down most of the missiles by S1s and Buks. Give Syrians Air Defense a due credit--they are getting really good at it. Obviously such numbers are very disturbing for the Israeli and the United States Air Forces which get a bit of a taste of what even fairly straight-forward and not newest, to say the least, Air Defense can do. Now, even when linearly extrapolated on Russian Air Defense, one gets a very good feel about "leakage" rates and survivability of attacking aircraft in case of real shooting war. A very low probability of such a survival. 

While the whole world discusses new Russian fighter whose first flight is scheduled in 2023 (in Russian), and, as it turned out, what is being shown to public IS NOT a static mock up but an actual aircraft which will take to the skies in 2023. I can hear cries from pain (you know, butt-hurt) from many quarters and I can hear Almaz-Antey laughing all the way to the bank. Now, about this 7.5 ton payload--rumor has it that this number is ONLY for the internal bays. If true (will know soon)--it is an amazing aircraft. Kyle Mizokami, being an ignorant journo that he is, tries, however, to put a good face on:

Could Checkmate indeed, uh, checkmate the F-35? It’s way too early to tell. But if UAC can keep costs down and stick to its development schedule, it could hurt the F-35 in the foreign sales market. The F-35 is the equivalent of a Mercedes Benz, but there are plenty of countries that would be perfectly happy to have a Hyundai.

For Myzokami:

The US Air Force Quietly Admits the F-35 Is a Failure

To call this barely flying POS a "high end" and compare it to Mercedes is an insult to good engineering and combat experience. On the other hand, Mercedes, together with most German cars, consistently takes the lead as one of the least reliable and monstrously expensive vehicles to fix. Alleged Mercedes' advantages over "competitors" (Toyota laughs at such statements), it's dick enlargement factor and "luxury" to feed the ego of wealthy has zero real value, and since Mizokami mentioned Hyundai I saw a new Sonata two days ago on the parking lot of our local Safeway--it is a gorgeous car for a fraction of price and has it all. At least Mercedes, when it drives, can drive fast, "high end" F-35 cannot even fucking fly supersonic:

The F-35 Has a Problem With Going Supersonic, But the DoD Does Not Want to Fix it

Let alone have super-maneuverability and super-cruise, which new Sukhoi "Checkmate" has. But sure...  

To understand the level of butt-hurt, stupidity and delusion of these people, enough to listen to America's foremost "patriot" and "expert" John Bolton, who with a straight face delivered this few days ago. 

Former national security adviser John Bolton insisted on Friday that the United States had not lost the war in Afghanistan while criticizing President Joe Biden’s order for a full military withdrawal from the country. Bolton — who served as a high-ranking State Department official under former President George W. Bush at the time of the initial U.S. military invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 — maintained that America’s armed forces did not lose the two-decade conflict, but had simply “walked away from it.” “We weren’t defeated,” Bolton told CNN in an interview. “You have to be defeated to lose a war. We’ve given up because we’ve lost patience. That’s a sad commentary about the current administration, but it’s not a defeat for the United States.”

Yes, of course, if F-35 is a "high end" and a Mercedes of the combat aircraft, then who can forget a brilliant "victory" in Vietnam and surely "not being defeated" in Afghanistan.The level of a butt-hurt is off the scale.

It Does Look Great...

And while Slyusar speaks about few particulars which were already more or less known or anticipated (in Russian).  

The most important part, apart from a killer price and impressive performance, is this, captured in this photo, feature of ease of maintenance in severe (a euphemism) environment. That is huge and Soviet/Russian combat aircraft were never known to be "hangar queens".

 

This "checkmate" or, if you wish, Su-75 is not a hangar queen and is designed for battle and, in the end, it is Su-57 Lite and a platform (I stress it--platform) which gives birth to very many other variants of this aircraft. Do not also forget, that Su-57 will also be offered for export. 

 

UPDATE: full presentation and yes, it has it all: supercruise, super-maneuverability, AESA, AI elements, full netcentricity, drones' control, etc. (in Russian). All included. 

 

 And in English (thank you Miguelouuu). 

This is an awesome machine. Here is full Rostec (UAC) video (in Russian). 

They also answer questions.

Two Things To Remember Before...

...arguably the most important event in combat aerospace this year. I am talking, of course, about the unveiling of this Russia's "mysterious" single-engine fighter which is few hours away. Since this (or parallel) question popped up on this blog, when I was reacting to the article in Drive, I need to make some clarification.    

1. Whatever the aircraft will be unveiled tomorrow (for some--today) at MAKS-2021, this aircraft will be primarily the result of a very long discussion in Russia re: single-engine fighter. Russians always admired USAF F-16 which is still in service, albeit is nearing obsolescence. Russia's last single-engine fighter was MiG-23 Flogger which got a bad rap in the West but was loved by Soviet pilots. "Checkmate" moniker refers primarily to F-35 and not to some "future" aircraft from South Korea, China or Turkey. South Korean and Turkish aircraft cannot be "responded to" because they do not exists as viable aircraft yet. China has a single-engine aircraft but it is not a "fifth generation" fighter. The new Russian aircraft will be eventually driven by brand-new Item (Izdelie) 30 engine which will increase its performance and the Checkmate in this case is addressed to the USAF F-35 namely in combat performance. Especially, since rumor has it, it is a platform which has a lot in common with SU-57 and thus is easier manufactured in large numbers. 

2. Russia seldom creates something special purely for export, those are always degraded (aka monkey models) variants of Russia's technology for domestic use, but better performance (almost guaranteed) by this fighter, with dramatically lower price (100% so) and no strings attached (146%) when compared with F-35, definitely creates a new reality for F-35 as an export item. So, that means that the aircraft we may see tomorrow will be primarily for Russia's VKS, with its "simplified" version for export. 

There WILL BE a copious amount of butt-hurt tomorrow, but that is expected. It is something like John Kirby's response to the issue of Russia's yet another successful test of 3M22 Zircon yesterday. As Kirby stated at Pentagon's briefing, it is a threat because Russians can stick a nuclear warhead on Zircon, while the United States doesn't develop such systems. There is a lot to be said about it, but, hey, that's your media (a euphemism for BS) battlefront today. Admiral Gorshkov however, successfully launched one and couple-three minutes later it struck the target 350+ kilometers away, averaging M=7 during the flight. 

State test (which are final acceptance tests) for 3M22 are planned for August. So, tick-tock, tick-tock.... 

I Used to Like JetBlue.

WTF, man, WTF!! I never gave a shit that some male flight attendants serving with JetBlue are obviously gay. I don't give a shit about what they do behind closed doors. But, no! The second biggest American export, after inflation and instability, the virtue signalling just now went to 11. 

Apparently passengers are pissed off, and between this and the BLM nonsense at JFK, pilots are ready for a job action.

The destruction of the society and its moral norms proceeds apace in the United States. Propaganda of deviancy of any kind hits overdrive, how can you explain THAT to a child of a tender age flying JetBlue. That it is "normal" for a man to be a weirdo?  

This is what I wrote in a conclusion to my last book:

If not, the America as we knew it, even 15 years ago, is over, and its fate will be sealed. The nightmarish playground for every human sin, perversion and anomaly will be opened up until it inevitably disintegrates, through violence and bloodshed, into a barren land of proto-state entities held together by well-organized militias whose legitimacy will be ensured by the paramilitary organizations and, yet again, violence.  

Some people might say that there is supposed to a plan for that, the method to this absolute madness, but I think the situation is much-much worse--we have on our hand an emerging dictatorship of "true believers" most of who are not just radicals, they are down right insane and act on their "free will". This is not going to end well one way or another.  In related news: 

"Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, herzlich willkommen an Bord" and its English translation, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome on board," will soon be things of the past on Lufthansa flights. The German flag carrier plans to use gender-neutral language. The change would apply to all airlines operated by the Lufthansa Group, including Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Eurowings. Diversity isn't just an empty phrase, but is a reality for Lufthansa, Anja Stenger, the company's spokeswoman, told DW. "Starting now, we also want to express this attitude in our language," she said. 

I used to like Lufthansa too. The combined West is lost and it is not coming back in any normal way--its decline is irreversible and only accelerates. As Paul Craig Roberts notes:

The movie “Escape from New York” is going to resonate in every Blue City. America, once a proud nation, now a crime-ridden, perverted Tower of Babel, is experiencing the simultaneous rise in crime and perversion. Beastiality advocates are the latest “marginalized” group to demand their rights. Zoophiles, as they call themselves, demand to join the LGTBQ+ movement and become a member of Pride. 

Institutionalizing pedophilia is next. Do not expect American "conservatives" to fight this--their "conservatism" manifests itself only in fighting taxes on rich and promoting laissez-faire dystopia for their own benefit. In general, there is no coherent and smart genuine conservative force out there which can identify main reasons for them being increasingly marginalized. I read their "intellectuals"--most of it is a pseudo-scholastic BS. As I stated not for once--the best test to know if you have a real conservative in a front of you is to ask the question: what is the foundation of the American nation. See for yourself how they will avoid the answer by spiting boilerplate BS about "liberty" and Jesus Christ. When you have primarily, not exclusively, neocons representing America's "right"--expect to end up dead politically. 

In UNrealted news: It is a single engine aircraft, and that means mass-production for both domestic and export needs. 

UAC's CEO Yuri Slyusar', speaking to Vladimir Putin yesterday, confirmed (in Russian) that SU-57 and its numerous iterations (Ha!!!) will be ordered in hundreds and the process is ongoing. Initial contract for SU-57 is 76 aircraft and SU-57 is already in serial production. Will we see STOVL variant? Something tells me we will. Do not forget, Russian Navy Day is coming and who knows what will be announced as a present to the Russian Navy during the celebration.

A Mystery Aircraft.

Russia's tech giant Rostec decided to spice up and add the intrigue to the upcoming MAKS-2021 and announced (in Russian) that UAC (United Aircraft Corporation) will present at this salon an absolutely new combat aircraft. They even started the countdown to this presentation and stated that the 30-second video gives some clues about this mysterious aircraft. Judging by the name of the web-site by UAC--and it is titled Checkmate--it is designed not only for Russia's VKS but for export too. From a shadow of this aircraft on the water one can conclude that it is something of MiG-35--SU-57 variety, but I also saw two booms in the back of this shadow. Could it be 21st century STOVL related heir to Yak-141? Possible. Russia never denied that she works on such an aircraft. 

Here is MAKS-2021 official promo but it doesn't disclose anything re: this brand new aircraft. 

Are we into some stunning aerospace revelation? Possible. Only 7 days and 2 hours 40 minutes left to wait. Exactly three years ago Borisov announced that Russia works on a brand new STOVL aircraft (in Russian) and that such aircraft can start flying in 7-10 years. Well, it is Russia, alright. Russians love to confuse enemies. Can this explain a "sudden" increase in displacement of the brand new Russian LHDs of project 23900 from 25 to 40,000 tons? I am speculating but I always liked the concept of USS America (LHA-6) which is a sensible compromise between mastodon CVNs and LHDs. The golden middle, if you ask me, but only when one has a good STOVL aircraft. F-35B is NOT a good STOVL aircraft. UAC suggests that 30-second video also gives a hint on this new mysterious aircraft's capabilities. Symptomatically, the shadow of this machine is revealed over the ocean. OK, I am officially into insomnia and counting days, hours and minutes before I can see if this is what I was writing about for so many years--that for aircraft carrier to survive as a viable system it should "shrink" and go for a STOVL air wing with aircarft which will give any CATOBAR carrier combat aircraft a run for their money. Will see...

 

UPDATE: those who have difficulties with the UAC site, here is YouTube, same video. 

Enjoy.