Oh No! Coping Hard.

Before I say anything, get a load of the background of the author))

Harrison Kass is a Senior Defense Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, he joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison has degrees from Lake Forest College, the University of Oregon School of Law, and New York University’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. He lives in Oregon and regularly listens to Dokken.

And so, the guy with degree in ... Law and with the record of listening to Dokken (not that I have anything against George Lynch) and who wouldn't understand the first thing about radar, reduction of physical fields--yes, this is what "stealth" is, in reality it is LO--Low Observable, but fanboys use "stealth" moniker long ago completely discredited in form it was sold by the US military pornography industry to gamers. So, Harrison Kass unloads his technological expertise on us.

Key Points and Summary – The Su-57 Felon was meant to anchor Russia’s fifth-generation air power and compete with America’s F-22 and F-35 and China’s J-20. -Instead, it has become a symbol of Russia’s industrial limits. Fewer than 20 serial jets exist, production crawls at two to four per year, and its long-promised Izdeliye-30 engines remain delayed, leaving the Su-57 reliant on upgraded fourth-generation powerplants.

The "opening salvo" of this "analysis" reveals immediately the level of "expertise" of this media resource and its contributors. I have news for the crowd of hard-copers at this resource. 

1. By different estimates, Russian Air Force operates around two regiments (40+) combat SU-57s, I stress--not prototypes, but fully combat ready serially-produced aircraft. Production continues.

2. J-20 is not even the fifth-generation fighter, because it runs on good ol' SU-27 powerplant which is nowhere near the powerplant of SU-35/SU-57, is incapable of supercruise but AL-41 F1 is. 

3. There is another bummer for this amateur--SU-75 Checkmate is getting ready for tests and that means only one thing--AL-51 powerplant is also getting ready. 

4. In conclusion--comparing the advanced netcentric LO technology of SU-57 which boasts an unrivaled combat record in highly hostile environment compared to obsolete F-22 (Combat score--one Chinese air balloon) and a lame duck of overpriced piece of junk such as F-35--that's coping. Hard one. 

But in the end, it is impossible to explain to a listener of Dokken (he considers putting this on his CV as a merit, Good Lord, what am I going to do--put Alan Holdsworth on mine?) and ambitious nobody that the secret in any modern combat aircraft is in fact that it is a WEAPON SYSTEM and its weapons suite is what defines it, together with other tactical-technical characteristics. Here, where the USAF is left to merely observe--it doesn't have anything comparable to combat performed AAM R-37 missile (with a range of up to 400 kilometers) and upcoming new generation of AAM with the range of 500+ kilometers. Both missiles being genuinely hypersonic. But what do I know. Evidently lack of any military and engineering background of Mr. Kuss is considered to be proper qualifications in parroting butt-hurt propaganda. He should cope harder. Or watch Top Gun: Maverick. 

Very Significant.

Thanks to our very own BAROTIKI for pointing this news out. This is very significant because it is one of those cases when the plans are not shifted "to the right"--a euphemism for a delay--but "to the left", meaning meeting deadlines earlier.

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has advanced deliveries of MC-21 and SJ-100 aircraft to Aeroflot airlines from 2025 to 2024 having completed the process of replacing western components with domestically-made ones. Sergei Chemezov, CEO of Rostec Corp., the holding of company of UAC has been quoted as saying today on the UAC’s Telegram channel. “More than 10 aircraft - MC-21 and SJ-100 - are already being built for Aeroflot, some aircraft are at a high degree of readiness. The timing of bringing new models of domestic aircraft to the market has shifted ‘to the left’ by a year. If we initially aimed for 2025, now large-scale deliveries should start in 2024.” Financial lease agreements for 18 MC-21-310 aircraft and 34 SJ-100 aircraft were signed between the leasing company Aviacapital-Service of the Rostec State Corporation and Aeroflot. These agreements were inked during the Eastern Economic Forum. Chemezov highlighted the significance of these agreements and the Russian government support that has made the prices of these domestically-produced aircraft considerably lower than comparable Boeing and Airbus models.

And here is the MAIN issue which I point out non-stop. These aircraft are fully Russian-built from engines, to systems, to avionics, to what have you. Unlike it is the case with Chinese COMAC 919 which is in reality not Chinese at all but 90% Europe and US built aircraft. COMAC 919 exports can always be immediately stopped by the US or EU in case China decides to promote this plane on Asian and African markets. This, however, cannot be done to MS-21 and SJ-100. All of these aircraft are well over 90% domestic built (at 10% of import parts the aircraft export can be blocked), and that opens vast Asian and African markets, especially with B737 reaching its modernization limits some time two decades ago. 

In related news, BTW, do you know that more than 20 serial SU-57s have been already produced and that starting from 2025 around 30 of them will be produced annually? So, count yourself how plans on initially planned 72 SU-57s by the year 2030 now look like. More like around 200 give and take. You see, this is what Russia's real economy and Pentagon's ignorance are. And yes, be them MC-21, SJ-100, SU-57 or SU-35 they still cost less than anything produced in the West and that doesn't show well in Wall Street "statistics" and fake GDP numbers, but it sure as hell gives massive competitive advantages, not to speak of a highest quality of a product.

Larch Defines Moral Point, Larry's Friend Defines Strategy.

Our very own Larchmonter445 captured the moral essence of SMO for Russians in his excellent post which I bring here. Speaking of Medvedev he notes:

He knows the existential threat is real. This isn't transitory. It's for all the marbles. This is why he classifies the 'soft' as 'traitors'. You can't have a middle position when the enemy is coming to exterminate you and your nation. When guys like DM and Naryshkin sound strident, then you know all of Moscow, all of Mother Russia is aware of the dire threat. The people swiftly understood when the videos of the shooting and throat-cutting of captured Russian boys went viral. The red line had been crossed. Ukraine and NATO have to be defeated. Victory has been defined.

In the same time, Larry's friend Helmholtz Smith delivers an excellent strategic argument:

A 2019 RAND study (Overextending and Unbalancing Russia), like most Western plans erected on the whim that Russia’s economy “is comparatively small and highly dependent on energy exports”, saw Ukraine as “[Russia’s] greatest point of external vulnerability”. That assumption is now being tested and it doesn’t look as if it’s Russia that has been sucked into the Ukrainian quagmire. After 100 days of war Russia controls, to quote Ukrainian President Zelensky, about 20% of Ukraine’s territory and is inflicting 500-600 casualties per day. The Russians are methodically grinding the Ukraine Armed Forces out of existence. And it’s unlikely that they are suffering many casualties – for them the shells are going out, for the Ukrainians the shells are coming in.

Read the whole thing (superb, I may add) at Larry's blog. I will try to make a video tomorrow on the issue of both losses and operations of 4 SU-57 which have confirmed by Ria as fully netcentric (in Russian), and effective against Ukie Air Defense.

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.