Next-Gen Russian Aircraft: Post-Soviet Prototypes | Full Documentary

meet what was to be the Russian answer to the F-22 Raptor being able to carry more missiles and even shoot backwards this jet was to be the pride of the new Russian Air Force but instead it turned out to be the downfall of the famous MC Bureau today we'll be exploring the last big project of the Soviet aviation industry the curse of 9s Russia and how sooy ended up taking over the Russian fifth jet program this is the Mig [Music] mfi our story actually begins in the early 80s Russia was becoming aware that the capitalist Americans were building a successor to the F-15 to not be caught with their pants down they commissioned their own equal project to replace the sahy su27 and was looking to recreate the success of the famous Mig 25 foxbat and it successor the Mig 31 the main requirements tasked to the various Aerospace bureaus all over the USSR were as follows super maneuverability multi roll ability supersonic Cruise Speed without the use of afterburners and a low radar cross-section the development of the new fighter started slowly and two main competitors came out of the pack and his forever rival sooy when the Soviets found out that the ATF program had selected the loed y22 as the next US Air dominance Fighter the government set the highest priority for the mfi and lfi programs to counter this new threat and the mfi was to be the new heavy multi-roll fighter and the lfi stood for light one Mig had the big brain move to design both aircraft to utilize as many components as possible and keep cost down winning the contract but this win would also seal its tragic fate the new aircraft series mfi got the designation I90 meaning fighter 90 or Fighter for the 90s requirements stay pretty much the same and after testing various models in the wind tunnels of TS AGI the final design was chosen the mfi had a pretty standard Delta wi configuration but with some interesting details that make it a pretty unique plane just like the Rafa or the Euro Fighter the front of the aircraft had canards because delta wing designs are known to be less stable without them due to the lack of horizontal stabilizers large variable intake ramps similar to the ighter would allow a steady flow of air during even the high angle Maneuvers and s-shaped Ducks would hide the compressor blades ticking both of the first two requirements engines powering the aircraft were satin al41 fs and they should not be confused with the AL 41s used on the Sue 35 and Sue 57 because these engines were completely different the only reason that they weren't used on the Su 57 is that they were simply too large mfi engines also had thrust vectoring nozzles along with ceramic plates on the inside of the nozzles to lower the IR signature even though the flying prototype didn't have a weapons Bay the 1.42 prototype one made for static and ground testing had it and could fit an impressive 12 missiles this would allow for a large amount of Weaponry in a full stealth configuration if they only use the internal Bay but when they decided to use the external hard points as well they would be able to sport large air to ground missiles like the hard 29 31 and 55 and others make making it a truly multi-roll fighter ticking the last requirement another novelty with this aircraft was the ability to launch missiles towards the back shooting down any enemy planes during a dog fight if the situation was Dire for the pilot this ability was being developed namely for the r60 and r73 missiles large canards in the front had also a dog tooth or a small extension which would help install resistance and with maneuverability in conclusion all the designed choices were made in compliance with the requirements set and promised a very serious competitor to the Raptor in the future but alas in our story very soon everything went wrong to say that the '90s changed everything would be an understatement with the dissolution of the USSR many projects came to a full or partial stop due to lack of funding but with this program it was a different story entirely the mfi and lfi programs along with the T10 V which would end up as the s34 were top priority programs and would still receive funding from the new government by 1994 the semi-completed Prototype was transferred to zosi airport to perform ground testing and high-speed ground tests alas a lack of progress and the government breathing down their necks the program would come to a full stop there was simply not enough money the Engineers didn't even have enough to buy wiring to complete the prototype in an effort to get back on track Mig decided to scrap their lfi development plans to try and secure funding for the mfi but this wasn't enough the bureau even begged the military and government officials to let them show the aircraft to the world with a hope that with its performance at an international Air Show possible foreign investors like India or Arab countries would jump in to fix the funding shortfall but they were refused time and time again after waiting 3 years with no money and no support the government finally canell the production of the fighter in 1997 but surprisingly this was not the end of the program you see it would actually be their rival sooy who would come to the rescue in a roundabout way they had their own jet fighter canceled many years ago but decided to stick it to the new government and build it anyway sooy would surprise everybody with their Sue 47 reveal in 1997 a jet that they financed themselves and built it despite the government shutdown so now mck was animate to continue at all costs no matter the expense and not let this project fail or be a loser to sooy after finally admitting that the project existed in 1998 and many changes in the actual management of the Mig Bureau the development continued well sort of by the year 2000 the is daia 144 or better known as the Mig 144 finally took to the skies with the hero of Russia test pilot Vladimir gorov behind the controls in his words the aircraft performed very well in the second longer flight soon followed so there was still hope for this program uh it except that there wasn't for you see the whole thing was too late there are a couple of reasons behind the complete failure of the mfi program and the Mig 144 as the aircraft the first was very simple the first flight occurred 10 years after its counterpart by the time Raptors were in operational service the Mig was just testing basic flight performance they were looking at another 10 or so years to put this aircraft into operational service and by then it'd be completely obsolete the second reason was the obvious one money but not just the lack of funding but also the unit cost Mig projected that the unit cost for this jet was be around $70 million us compared to around 71 million for the F22 at the time this was a completely unacceptable embarrassment for the fragile Russian economy it led to an easy choice to cancel the project after all nobody can buy it if they can't afford it the third and final fact was that the Mig Bureau was going through a very rough phase many corruption scandals slow International sales and not enough work from the Russian Air Force and even the legendary test pilot left the company and he was to be the lead pilot for the program it seemed like Mig sacrificed everything to build this 144 and it was an empty Shell by the end of it in the end a new program was opened called the Paka and the sooy was chosen without any competition as a bureau to work on the project because of its Financial stability great sales performance and successful development of the flanker family everything the Mig Bureau wasn't also the s47 was developed completely on their own budget and without government funds and was far more successful than the ill-fated Mig 144 this was also the moment which marked the start of the anable end for the legendary Mikan and GIC Bureau which merged with a few other Russian bureaus into the UAC or United aircraft Corporation in 2006 new programs like the Mig 41 which you can check out here on the channel leave some light at the end of the tunnel for the company but just as we' seen recently the final end to the LMR first project and the birth of yet another sooy the Sue 75 Checkmate this is doubtful for a long time the only flying prototype of the Mig 144 was rotting on the tarmac of the jakovsky airport but it was refurbished and displayed at the max air show in 2015 with a hope for a future in the museum because it is undoubtedly a big part of the rich Soviet and Russian aviation history hope you enjoyed this video and please check check out my channel for many other Russian projects from the '90s linked to this one like the su47 or the upcoming video about a naval version of this jet the mysterious s22 see you soon in 1997 a revolutionary aircraft took to the skies above Russia and its wings were the wrong way around now forward swep Wing design wasn't something new but this might have been the first time that it actually worked so ho envisioned this to be the future of the Russian Air Force and more importantly beat their Rivals Mig in the race for the fifth gen jet today we're going to explore the story The hardship and the engineer Vision behind the jet of Tomorrow the super [Music] 47 during the80s the Soviet navy had Big Dreams to conquer the Seas defend the vast Russian coast and to arrival the American Navy power but to do that they needed a new state-of-the-art jet so Hoy developed a new aircraft named the s22 and actually dubbed it the su27 km to confuse the West it would be Russia's fifth generation air dominance Fighter for the Navy to accompany the yak 141 aely vetto capable aircraft and you bet there's a future video coming for that as well up until recently not much was known about the project but there was actually a mockup made at the time including a very interesting flat exhaust nozzle design choice but then change had come for the USSR before sooy could build a prototype and there were no more fat paychecks to spend on crazy projects however sooi Bureau started seeing potential and saved this design and thought that it could be their opportunity to finally beat their rival Mig and Reserve their spot in the fifth gen race but ironically the Tale As Old As Time doesn't actually start with Russia the story behind the s47 and the forward swept Wing design leads back like nearly all Aerospace projects to the Third Reich in 1944 the Nazis built a new jet bomber which could outrun enemy Fighters at the time hoping to somehow change the tide of War it was called the yunkers U 287 the main issue was the amount of stress that was put on the wings both in terms of bending and twisting during flight with our composite materials that we have today the project was doomed from the start and other advantages of this Wing design like reduced drag and increased maximum speed couldn't be utilized but the Allies including the Russians took notice and once an idea is created it's hard to shake and it would be the Americans who would finally get this experimental design to work in 1984 gram started an ambitious project on an aircraft called the x29 and it was a Joint Nasa and US Air Force project to test the capabilities of forward swept Wing designs for future fighter jets this time they would use Composite Materials like carbon fiber that would be light enough and strong enough to finally allow a real full W swep Wing design to be built the Russians had been working on a design like this for a very long time longer than you might think since World War II with the DBK but finally there was a solution available around the same time of the gram experimental aircraft in the late 80s the Soviets started two very ambitious programs called the mfi and the lfi their task was to create a new multi-roll fighter and a light fighter to counter the US's ATF and future jtf programs which by this point I've covered pretty well on the channel the famous Mig Bureau won the contract to create a multi-roll fighter prototype which then turned out as the Mig 144 but the sooy had an ace up their sleeve and a vision to follow and they were not going to give up that contract that easy they said if you won't fund the forward swept Wing Jet we'll do it ourselves the leadership of the sooy bureau decided that they would fund their project internally and beat Mig at its own game letting the more Superior jet aircraft do the talking now this would be a huge gamble on the future of the company not seen in aviation since Boeing gambled with the creation of the 707 and like Americans they would build a full prototype first the aircraft was redesignated as the s37 and they got to work by 1997 it was ready to take to the skies so now let's talk about the most futuristic and most powerful jet the Russians might have ever created and boy the engineers went crazy with this aircraft just like Homer Simpson when he designed his own car like the x29 the floor of the forward Wings was solved with the use of carbon fiber and composite materials the wings of the Sue 47 were around 90% made out of composite materials and allowed the aircraft to have a fighter performance with better fuel consumption because of the lower drag large canards were mounted in the front of the Wings to help the pilot steer and maneuver the aircraft and unlike the x29 the su47 was a powerful bird with two solo VI D30 F6 engines providing 93.1 kons of thrust each with either two or 3D thrust vectoring nozzles the same engines that were used for the Mig 31 and we know how fast that thing was this would allow for a max speed of over ma 2.2 and give the plane the same maneuverability as the S35 or F22 pulling more than 9gs without structural damage the weapons Bay was also interesting unlike the f 22 or F35 or even its successor the Sue 57 the one of the Sue 47 had a rotating launcher with new r77 missiles similar to how cruise missiles are carried on bombers it would be able to carry additional fuel tanks or go air to ground Weaponry on a minimum of two hard points on the wings it would also have a 30 mm cannon that would complement the other Weaponry to make it the ultimate air superiority machine air Ducks were s-shaped to further decrease radar signature and although we couldn't say that it would be as stealthy as the Raptor for sure it would have had a slightly decreased RCS compared to fourth gen aircraft the two tail booms bring up the rear of the aircraft that housed ECM equipment because it couldn't be located on the tips of the Wings as traditionally on Modern flankers some parts like the landing gear was actually borrowed from the su27 family to cut down production costs cuz remember they were paying for this themselves but it featured a glass cockpit and steering controls were on the sides like with the s37 which is actually quite uncommon for the Russian aircraft so in 1997 with this incredible machine built the golden eagle performed its first flight if it was so Superior why didn't the Russians use it the jet first went on display to the public public at the max air show in 1999 supersonic tests were completed during the year 2000 and the plane became a test bed for all the new technologies that were developed for a new age of Russian Fighters initially it was limited to Mac 1.6 but some sources say that speeds over Mac 2 were achieved with the jet however issues with the wings started to plague the aircraft at such speeds and it was yet another problem to solve with a very limited budget at had and in 2001 it was finally redesignated from the s37 to the Sue 47 barut by 2002 over 150 test flights had been carried out to complete various tasks and gather other data and by this time all the effort that the bureau had put into the project had finally paid off after many delays and problems the Mig 144 was cancelled along with the MF I and lfi programs back in the year 2000 and a new program called the Packa was started with sooy being chosen as the contractor because of the success further developments of the Sue 27 Financial stability and exports but the critical Factor was the success with the development of the experimental platform such as the Sue 47 but as we know today the pakfar program didn't actually choose the su47 why the government decided to further push the development of the S35 based on the Sue 37's experiences and make it Russia's New 4++ Gen air superiority fighter as they were working on a new stealth aircraft to enter service and there were also some budget cuts prolonged by the development of the pfar over many years the beot actually flew for a couple more years being a test bed for many different Technologies avionics Radars ew systems Etc and by the time the sooy finally got the funding and green light from the government for the pakfar program the design was already outdated and Obsolete and they needed to base their new fifth gen fighter around something more familiar and future proof this led to the Sue 57 with a more traditional stealth design inspired by the yf-23 and F22 Raptor but it was the Sue 47 that made it possible for this aircraft to enter serial production and become the first Russian operational stealth fighter in history in 2009 the legendary Sue 47 was finally displayed to the public again now being a legacy and a testament to The Willpower of the engineers and test Pilots working for sooy during the '90s and pushing through all the hardships to beat Mig and write the modern history of the Russian Air Force and there you have it maybe it was too complicated and maybe it could never work but we can definitely say that this one was a win at least for sooy and many of us Aviation enthusiasts this was always that design that we would go back to to admire and even fear because of its Sleek but dangerous look thanks for watching and do V this is one of the most controversial jets ever built not only is it the result of more than a decade of development and the successor to the legendary flanker but the West already claim it's just a copycat it's a fifth generation state-of-the-art Russian stealth jet that apparently isn't stealth and it's the future of the Russian Air Force but they haven't managed to build more than two dozen controversial indeed but it's possible that this aircraft is more than just a fluke is it just all Western propaganda or is it really a future dangerous underestimation of an adversary today let's explore the history the myths and the truth behind the future of the Russian Air Force and their attempt at a stealth fighter the Felon from the East the Sue 57 in the 1980s there was one type of new aircraft that was hot hot hot and that was a stealth plane the Americans took this in their stride and developed the ATF program that led to what we know today as the F22 Raptor but what if I told you that the F22 Raptor isn't actually a stealth jet contrary to popular belief stealth doesn't mean invisible to the radar it means that the enemy Rader either an aircraft or on the ground won't be able to detect and achieve a lock on the Target in time and this is the key word the B2 was designed as a bomber that would be able to slip between Soviet air defenses limiting their range and the F22 Raptor was designed as a first strike air dominance fighter that could secure the airspace before the enemy could get missile lock but the Russians when encountering this technology had other things in mind they believed that the aircraft should have a higher performance first and stealth second this led to their fifth gen jet program called the mfi which was aimed at a high performance aircraft with some degree of radar cross-section minimization it eventually gave birth to the Mig 144 which failed miserably due to Russia as a whole failing miserably in the '90s but the rejection in the mfi program led the sooy bureau to put their money where their mouth was and make their own futuristic fighter caught the s37 buru this self-funded aircraft aimed to become a tech te logical demonstrator for the ideal future of the Russian Air Force and show the powers in charge what they could do you know the famous forward swept Wing design we all flew in Ace Combat and this inspired the nation to try again the Russian government after the failure of the mfi program in the early 2000s started a new program called the pack far or prospective Air Force complex of fighter Aviation yes it's a very weird name I know sooy was chosen without competition because they had the experience proved to be able to develop a prototype with their own funding due to good export performance in the '90s and 2000s end well that the mig's future wasn't really that bright and sooy saying all the drama around the F22 being a stealth fighter wanted to give it a good hot crack and this is where the story of the Sue 57 begins [Music] for years the new Russian fifth gen fighter was under the veil of secrecy and the main topic of discussion on forms military blogs and in the news but in 2010 we finally saw the first pictures and the First videos of this new fighter called the t50 taking off from the Airfield and Performing its first flight the media went crazy saying it's just an F22 copycat that it's so bad it's good but the truth is that it was somewhere in between so I'm going to show you exactly why the Sue 57 was a beast of its own and let's start with the obvious comparison the Sue 57 does follow the wing design of the American fifth gen Fighters but this is where the similarities actually stop unlike the F22 or F35 the Sue 57 follows the similar design of flankers with enges located in gondolas and a tunnel between them to increase the maneuverability and lift performance the vertical stabilizers of the Sue 57 are caned which is the main requirement of any stealth aircraft to minimize its radar return but they're also used as a whole as a control surface similar to the YF 23 design yes that's right the rejected YF 23 that the Americans didn't Cho sh when they were looking at the F22 program and it's this jet that the suit 57 is actually much more inspired by then the Raptor the no section closely resembles not just the YF 23 but much more the natf 23 concept which was based off the wf23 Prototype and we've done a whole video on the channel about this crazy navy variant the s57 kept the horizontal stabilizers and added lerx control surfaces or Leading Edge route extensions which can be used as sort of canards in flight again with maneuverability top of mind but this is where it gets a little weird from the first prototype onwards one notable design Choice was the regular thrust vectoring nozzles and exposed titanium of its al41 engines but I'll get back to why that's weird later another problem with the engine placement is the not fully hidden compressor blades inside the S ducts even though the Sue 47 had them hidden speculations about the actual stealth performance of the Su 57 started to flare up right away with some people questioning that this design was even remotely comparable to the F35 or the F22 when it came to stealth so let's squash that bug right now [Music] the kind people at aircraft 101 did an amazing work to settle the question of stealth once and for all they created some highly detailed 3D models of some famous modern aircraft and then used mathematical model and radar scattering simulations to get the data of radar cross-sections over the wide range of frequencies meanwhile a leag document for the Sue 57 stealth design patent actually stated that it has an RCs of 0.1 to 1 M squared this is much much more than the f-35's 0.005 or the f-22's 0.001 M squar meaning that the Russian jet has the stealth characteristics of a brick wall these numbers proved correct however there was a caveat and trust me we're about to get really technical but it's the devil in the details if we were to examine the results from the aircraft 101 which does not include the effect of RA materials which can't be calculated with Precision the s57 has a median radar cross-section of 0.48 M squared in a frontal 120° this concidence diagram it shows a very slight angle of which the f-35's radar cross-section drops to -35 or 0.00001 M squ but that's the minimal RCS not the overall frontal RCS of the aircraft so if you take into account the addition of RA materials and this paper on Raam material simulations can decrease the radar cross-section up to 90% when the whole object is covered in these materials but here's the thing the F35 or any other jet is not covered in these materials they only use it on the hatches or important sections where the radar waves might scatter back to the source so a decrease in the median RCS can go anywhere between 20 to 90% but not the 200 or 1,000% that people have claimed the bottom line is that there's no chance that the s57 can match the stealth characteristics of the f35s or f-22s but it's not as far for them as the media wants you to believe any modern radar would have trouble detecting and tracking a sub 1 M squared Target so in the eyes of the Russians it's stealthy enough although I do want to just draw back to those strangely exposed engines on the side or back section of the Sue 57 the radar cross-section is probably much higher than its American counterparts because of those engine issues and then of course we have the famous exposed screws with the s57 but this is not a key factor because well as you could see both the F35 and F22 also have exposed screws and they are both still extremely stealy aircraft but it's the stealth that isn't the biggest issue with the Sue 57 it's actually those engines the Russians made the same mistake that put to trash so many projects throughout the Cold War they started development of this jet without its new engines now that's not really a bad idea per se I mean the rafhael and the Sue 27 and many other successful Jets flew their first flight without engines designed for them but that was a floor that was quickly fixed the Su 57 on the other hand still doesn't have its proper engines the development of e daia 30 is a long and still not concluded story in the serial production of the soue 57s fly with Al 41 F1 engines similar to the ones used on the sou 35 and these are great engines don't get me wrong however even though they're designed as super Cruise capable engines for the mfi program the ones inside the original s57 are not based on the original al41 FS because they were too large for the Felon and instead they're based on the older Al 31s meaning the Sue 57 might not be able to achieve super Cruise in a full combat load as the Sue 35 can only achieve it in a light configuration yikes now the cool thing is about these L 47s is that they have 3D thust vectoring giving the Sue 57 amazing maneuverability as well as the thrust to weight ratio over one with combat load making it a beast for dog fighting but this isn't the error of dog fighting and this scenario is highly unlikely in Modern Combat sorry Tom Cruz the newer daia 30 or Al 51 engines are supposed to have the super Cruise ability at Mac 1.5 serrated nozzles like the f135 engine on the F35 and the ability to eliminate the exposed tit tanium area and maybe even more flat more stealthy design as seen on the S70 drone but when exactly that's going to happen remains to be seen oh you didn't know this aircraft comes with its own drones this is where it gets really cool what could really give the edge to the Sue 57 is the use of a wingman style drones such as the S70 and unlike the Sue 57 with all of its issues the S70 is much more designed with stealth in mind and its size gives it the ability to carry some serious ornaments paired with the Su 57 it could be the perfect protection or attacking force with a s57 or an awax aircraft could spot the targets for the drones and let them go forward so they can gauge with the Enemy completely unseen along with these drones and their Sue 57 Russia is also developing some something called the ozod a new data link system the equivalent to the link 16 in NATO that would allow for such military drone operations the S70 has already performed several test flights and is deep in the development phase so it's not a paper project but the war in Ukraine and the state of the Russian Armed Forces afterwards begs the question where exactly are they going to find the money to fund all of these prospective but farfetch projects so it's taken me 13 minutes into today's video to get to the real issue with this project money originally India partnered up with Russia in 2007 to help Finance the development of the new fighter in return to get their own two seater variant and the license to build this new jet at home the development of the t50 prototype in the pfar program as a suffered numerous delays and issues due to the engine and the completely new avionics with the radar sensors Etc That was supposed to go into this aircraft and so the Indians rightly so got fed up with it in 2018 they exited the project with the option to buy a finished aircraft in future if Russia ever got around to mass producing it and it entered service within the Russian Air Force but this is where it gets dicey Russia dropped their initial plan of 200 of these Fighters all the way just to one Squadron of 12 talk about a decrease but this was soon changed with the first contract for 76 aircraft being signed in 2017 but this delivery has been extremely slow and so far only around 10 plus airframes are in operational service the Su 57 was allegedly used both in Syria for testing and in the waren Ukraine in an air-to-air battle and even apparently scored a kill against the Ukrainian through 27 but all of that is in the realm or might or might have not and because this war is a fully-fledged battle of propaganda from day one spinning a yarn that the suit 57 was an amazing aircraft in the heat of battle would be an incredibly successful image for Russian customers so again that's me telling you to take this all with a grain of salt now to answer the very big question that's on your mind what would exactly happen if the Sue 57 went toe-to-toe with America's best the F22 Raptor or perhaps the F35 well I hope you're strapped in because we're going to go into the real nitty and gritty detail and we'll start with its electronics and weaponry the Sue 57 is equipped with the new aesa radar called the n36 Bela which is actually made up of five different antennas the main antenna operates in the xand and is used to lock onto enemy targets and engage as well as detect enemies on long distances there are two side antennas that also operate in the xand but with a shorter range giving the aircraft much better coverage around 270° and there's another two antennas on the wings that are operating in the lower L band frequency and they're used as part of the electronic warfare system yes that's right this aircraft is digital at the front of the canopy is a system called the irst which allows for detection of thermal signatures of enemy aircraft and the use of ir guided missiles without using the radar it's the same as the one of the eots functions on the F35 and something that the f 22 Raptor lacks but it might get it in an upgrade soon now the s57 does have Sensor Fusion and a computer working on all of the collected data to give situational awareness to the pilot similar to the Dazz on the F35 but it is certainly inferior to the unparalleled situational awareness that the F35 pilot has with that amazing helmet and Dez system one being issue of the Sue 57 is the lack of an interrogated targeting pod like the F35 the F-35 on the other hand can use its internal systems for targeting groundbased targets so it Still Remains stealthy to sum it all up the s57 is quite capable platform with some issues which place it behind its Western counterparts in some aspects but it is Way Beyond any fourth or fourth plus plus gen aircraft in the market and any fifth gen fighter development as well so it's true something to be reckoned with but what about the future of this program as we explained in the video the Sue 57 although not perfect it still has a very powerful radar in avionics decent stealth capability and great engines well sometime soon if they come along the planned Sue 57m update will feature them at least because drones and other stuff is still in the Sci-Fi domain to be honest but NE neither of these Western jets would be able to detect the Sue 57 in time if they're in combat because it's also capable of carrying the r 37m long range missiles and firing them from at least 200 km away Russia plans to use a su 57 as a team leader of several Jets to provide surveillance and support in combat although all of this is very nice in theory the issue is there is only about 10 to 15 s 57s built even with that whole first batch of 76 delivered that's not enough to counter even the single F-22 Fleet and definitely not the 1,000 strong F35 Fleet in both the US and NATO ironically all of this discussion about who would win makes me think that we're looking in the wrong direction the Chinese j20 is a way bigger threat to the US because it is actually in serial production unlike the s57 and given the state of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine right now time will tell for all we know that this is one hell of a good-looking bird and that its claim of being a stealth aircraft is as real as those engines and even though some people say that it's obsolete I think that this aircraft along with the F-22 design will shape many future aircraft and maybe even whole generations to come I hope you guys and that one girl enjoyed this video and I hope to see you soon in the next episode of found and explained meet the new jet that has America very afraid able to fly further than the F-35 reach Mac 1.8 without afterburners and can even be remotely controlled by an AI pilot on paper this this New Concept stealth jet is deliciously impressive on paper that is as many might know the journey from concept to creation is filled with turbulence is this jet the future of Russia's Air Force ready to go toe-to-toe with the best of the USA or an experimental dead end it's time to reset the board as the su75 has made it checkmate [Music] the Cold War of the 20th century between the United States and the then Soviet Union might be over but a 21st Century Arms race continues at Full Speed Ahead between the United States and the Russian Federation the latter now depleted of all its former Soviet republics continues to be a thorn in the side of America's military aviation industry and its allies it's not by chance that Russia continues to use its famous Mayday celebrations to show off its military might and Hardware such as the Soviets did back during the USSR days like any military power Russia makes big song and dance of the unveiling of any new aircraft such was the case with its new fighter jet that many Aviation experts believe will be a direct competitor to the US's f 35 superiority Fighter the plane comes with not one but two catchy nicknames namely the Sako LTS screamer or the LTS Sako Checkmate the Russians rather Wy refer to it simply as the Checkmate let's not forget that Russians are Chess Masters Bar None So a plane dubbed that does command some of my attention let's get the obvious out of the way first many have noted how the Sako LTS Checkmate looks a lot like the loid Martin made F35 stealth fighter similarities between Russia's Checkmate and America's F35 are particularly Stark design wise for example like the F35 the Russian Checkmate includes widely sped split angle Tails a narrow fuselage that houses a single engine and large wings that are somewhat diamond shaped however rather than being a case of Checkmate being a copy of the F35 these similarities shouldn't be too surprising after all any stealth aircraft is fundamentally constrained by the aerodynamic limitations imposed by having stealth features one can only defy physics so much further designed features of the Checkmate include its cropped delta wing and movable fence that act as rotovators which provide control on both the pitch and your axes sharp dyed analysts felt its most striking feature is its intake designed as a chin Inlet slung under and wrapped around the lower fuselage but with a still flat Underside the size of its wings suggest that the plane could climb to 40,000 ft or higher but of course being a secret project we don't know yet for sure weapons based for two short range air-to-air missiles are found on either side of the fusel and a capacity for three longer range weapons carried in the lower Bay as well as an internal gun the Checkmate can also carry weapons on the external pylons for Missions not requiring stealth with the Eternal weapons Bay is designed to carry both air to a and air to ground ordinance including both infrared radar guided air to a air to ground and anti- ship missiles guided and unguided bombs and unguided Rockets So it's pretty easy to say that this aircraft has weapons to spare in terms of weight the plane's maximum combat load is 7.4 tons which includes a range of air to surface Weaponry with a maximum takeoff weight or mtoe of approximately 18 tons as for Speed there are claims that the plane can reach Mac 1.8 and fly supersonically without the use of an after burner with an 8G maneuvering rate its power plant would probably be the same engine used to power the Su 57 twinjet other features of the plane Herald by the builders rosch include that it will feature artificial intelligence or AI in some capacity although to what extent and to what end that II will be used in the aircraft remains for now unknown however AI will no doubt be used for the planes voice control technology speaking of AI a spokesperson has also said that both a twin seat Mann version and an unmanned version of the Checkmate are being considered for development leaving us to wonder if the future of Russia's Air Force will be metal Pilots it's being commentated that the launch of the new Sako LTS Checkmate was probably the loudest way to announce a new stealth aircraft every year Russia hosts what is called the makak show standing for the international Aviation and space show which is an air show held at the zosi International Airport various tupv ilishan and other planes both Military and Commercial have been tested at the airport and its place in the sauted history of Russian Aviation and space exploration makes it an ideal venue for this event in attendance at the 2021 show were 831 companies from 56 countries so what I'm getting at is that this is the show for Russian Aviation and it was at this event on July 20th 2021 that the new Russian jet was unveiled with much prompt and very loud music the plane is designed by rosc a defense giant that is the subsidiary of the Russian conglomerate United aircraft Corporation according to the Associated Press rosc boasted about its new aircraft prior to the July 20th launch as being a fun fundamentally new military aircraft and further stated how it been produced in what they call one of the few countries in the world with a full cycle capacity for producing Advanced aircraft systems as well as recognized Trend Setter in the creation of combat aircraft as an interesting sign note this same company did also announce hydrogen powerered engines for both Aviation and ground applications which I think we can agree needs its own video yet while it might be easy to show off a new fighter jet concept can Russia actually afford this new creation it's worth noting that jets with twin engines such as America's F22 or Russia's Su 57 may allow for greater speed and reliability but they're also much more expensive and heavier which in turn means that they're more thirsty for fuel twin engine fighter jets also tend to be more complex and thus expensive in terms of Maintenance so a single engine jet such as the Checkmate should be less expensive in terms of purchase Fuel and maintenance costs nevertheless it doesn't mean that Checkmate is a cheap plane according to the CEO of the project a Checkmate will set back a buyer around 25 to 30 million however and this is of critical importance in the global Aviation Stakes the Checkmate is a lot cheaper than the F-35 which was s around 78 million a jet as of 2020 far more countries worldwide will be able to spend around 30 million for a fighter jet than the mere handful that can afford to Fork out the 78 million per F-35 bought from America so you can start to see that the economics make sense it is known that should the Checkmate be produced the Russians will be depending heavily on foreign sales to make the plane financially viable and that brings us back to the launch party and explains why they had such a flashy big event and had a video released on YouTube to promote the checkm prior to its launch featuring pilots from the air forces of potential client countries such as the United Arab Emirates India Vietnam and Argentina those are the types of countries that the Russians will be betting will want to buy their own Sako LTS Checkmate for their Air Force collections a further boost to the sales of the check mate could be that the new plane has a planned combat radius of 930 Mi or 1,496 km which is about 250 M or 42 km farther than the F35 can travel at its least heavy weight it's true that external fuel tanks can increase the range of the F35 but that makes the plane less stealthy and that in ter means that the Checkmate would essentially be in a class of its own when it comes to stealth fighter jets so perhaps cost will be the ultimate Checkmate move of the Sako LTS not surprisingly many Western Aviation pundits were quick to point out that the Sako LTS is only a prototype potentially far from being mass-produced fighter jet ready for international sales experts at the show noted a lack of wiring and hydraulic Lines within the visible parts of the main landing gear and other telltale signs that indicated what was being launched was only a mockup rather than an actual flight ready aircraft however it's worth mentioning that rosc themselves have confidently claimed that the Checkmate will be ready soon for test flights whether that was actually true or merely Wishful Thinking by the Russian Aviation company company is yet to be known rostech remains confident that the Chet makes first flight is scheduled for 2023 with deliveries earmarked to clients by 2027 but some critics have been quick to mention that the F35 itself took nearly two decades between its concept and production but using the F35 as a yard stick is just about the worst analogy possible given that aircraft's fful history in fact for the sake of context let's take a quick step back in time to look at the F35 project the Pentagon had decided to replace the very successful yet aging F-16 fighter of which 4,600 had then been built by General Dynamic since the mid 1970s and the F16 was a great jet it was super easy to operate easy to maintain and could fly at twice the speed of sound carrying 15 different bombs including two nuclear weapons it could do even more shoot down enemy aircraft with five different varieties of air-to-air missiles and wipe out ground targets with four different air to ground missiles it was a super versatile allout killing machine and then came along or rather blundered in is the F35 the F35 cannot fly at twice the speed of sound in fact its supersonic flight mode on the control panel carries an onymous warning for emergency use only the F35 designers also opted for a touchscreen switches rather than the usual toggles or rocker switches that Pilots usually use a very well and modern dandy except that touchscreen switches don't function 20% of the time which is somewhat problematic for fighter pilots in the middle of a dog fight the list of flaws on the F35 goes on and on including the heat coating on its engine rotor blades failing so often that literally 5 to 6% of the entire worldwide F-35 Fleet is grounded due to safety concerns at any one time even more scary is the bubble Shield of the fighter jet that starts to delaminate in mid-flight which is beyond dangerous the development of the F3 5 has been an unmitigated disaster which is why even a prototype Russian stealth fighter jet even if far from being ready for production is still a big worry to the big wigs at the Pentagon as noted rosch has set itself the deadline of 2023 for the first test flight and 2027 for roll out of the Sako LTS Checkmate any Aviation expert will tell you that these are highly ambitious Target dates for a plane of this magnitude and cost however there is no denying that the Russian plane has some strong selling points most notably It's relatively low cost as a stealth fighter jet whether the suco LTS would achieve a check mate in its Aviation class is yet to be seen this is the ultimate attack helicopter a true masterpiece well it was supposed to be with double the rotors and Firepower to match this aircraft is considered among many to be the final evolution of the perfect modern day Cavalry built as the answer to the legendary Apache it promised so much for the Soviet Air Force and allowed kov to finally prove itself as the true Innovation giant of the Soviet aircraft industry despite rival Mill stabbing them in the back [Music] however while the k 52 ended up doing exactly what it was made for fighting americanmade armor its very high loss rate in Ukraine operational problems and ridicu in the media have made it anything but this is the most controversial helicopter flying today and Engineering Miracle of flight desperately holding on to its crown [Music] it's the early 80s music is still great Indiana Jones is in the cinemas and on the tarmac of the kov bureau's test facility A New Concept helicopter is taking to the skies for the first time the main Soviet attack helicopter during the' 70s was the M24 also known as the crocodile but it was not a dedicated attack helicopter rather a transport attack helicopter a hybrid and when Hughes unveiled their ah64 in 1975 A specialized anti- Armour helicopter the Soviets realized that they had some work to do you see the Americans had gone in a completely different Direction with the ah64 design radically different from the Cobra that had come before it was powered with two engines to increase power and survivability and they were positioned on each side of the fuselage the Russians M20 for on the other hand although a twin engine helicopter much the same had its engines positioned next to each other on top of the cargo compartment and hitting one in combat meant that the other one was likely to be damaged as well thus the desperate Soviets started a new attack heli program in the early '70s but it was dormant until the new threat was revealed from the West The Usual Suspects kov and the M design bureaus started to work on an answer to to the American Apache Mill with a pedigree and several very successful projects so far under their belt had the upper hand and went with a very similar design to the Apache a twin seater with separate engines and anti-tank Weaponry but caramo have realized that their only chance of winning the contract would be to come up with something completely different they started by pulling out their already developed coaxial rotor design designs for their Navy helicopters like the car 27 and proposed something similar now you're probably wondering what exactly is so special about a co-axial rotor anyway well in a traditional design as the rotor spins on a helicopter and creates lift a counterforce pushes the whole fuselage in the other direction and that's why a tail rotor is introduced as a means to counter that force in the opposite movement and stabilize the aircraft as the lift is G generated the engines provide further thrust to move the aircraft in any direction so now you understand that if the tail rotor is damaged helicopters generally enter an uncontrollable Spin and is doomed to crash now the twin main rotor or the co-axial rotor design has its rotors spinning in opposite directions eliminating the counter force that pushes the fuselage also eliminated the need for a tail rotor and in case of even losing the hold tail surface a helicopter can still land safely something that is going to come back in a big way by the end of the video but apart from that the twin rotors also create more lift and allow for much better maneuverability in flight but kov didn't stop there this was supposed to be the ultimate attack helicopter after all in the words of chief designer sirge MV the most expensive part of the helicopter is well the pilot therefore the new v80 only had one pilot because they needed to spare on experience but exactly this choice will come back to haunt this project some 15 years later and almost cancel the whole design however not only did they try to minimize the casualties in case of losing a helicopter it was also equipped with an ejection seat which was a novelty in the helicopter World although a standard in the world of Aviation by that point it was one of the other rare Soviet projects where everything was survivability and pilot oriented this new helicopter was invisioned not only as an attack helicopter but also as a portable anti-air system because it was equipped with short range anti-air missiles and was to provide support against enemy helicopters and low flying planes on the battlefield which if you think about is totally insane to see a helicopter go up against Jets but this actually makes sense in a away because a helicopter would be very hard for enemy Jets to Target on longer distances but with time the design changed and the focus was moved towards a classic attack helicopter role with a specialization in anti-armour tactics new Hellfire missiles developed in the mid 80s pushed the Soviets towards development of a similar weapon too and thus in 1990 kov was greenlighted by the government and the first batch of helicopters was being built but in most of our stories that take place in this era this little key event happened in 1991 that's right the collapse of the USSR picking up from the ashes in 1992 the Now new Russia presented the new attack helicopter to the world at an air show in England officially called the K 50 this new aircraft soon got a nickname the black shark for its looks and black paint job it presented itself as the next generation of attack helicopters with extreme maneuverability and survivability overshadowing a fancy piece of Weaponry which was also critical for this program to succeed called the 9k 121 viure missiles and boy I have to tell you just how great these lier guided missiles were they had a range up to 12 km and paired with the new automated targeting system they would be a perfect weapon against armor these missiles were also part of the sue 25t a tank killer upgrade which we mentioned before in our Sue 25 video after the pilot finds a Target they would just have to mark it with their eyesight and launch a missile targeting guiding and everything else was automated and require no further input from the pilot this would mean that both the su25t and the car 50 would be a single seater and still not have to have another pilot this devel M was so good that just one year later the m28 was cancelled by the Russian government because it was deemed inferior to the k50 as well as lacking the radar and ability to fly missions during the night and in bad weather conditions it seemed for kov and the car 50 it was well on its way to Glory during the testing phase some issues with the design started to pop up especially with the decision to have only one pilot during one of the tests the pilot was tasked with finding and destroying 25 hidden Targets on the Range whilst flying low and evading enemy air defenses the m28 scored 24 out of 25 hits but the K 50 only scored one the pilot could not operate both the aircraft and the Precision Weaponry at the same time while performing lowlevel flight and spent most of its time trying to invade the AA and not crash and it couldn't even even spot the targets during the Chetan Wars the K 50 had its first combat deployment fast maneuverable and with a state-of-the-art Weaponry it performed well but it was still extremely hard to operate for the pilots and it flew missions along with car 29s because it failed to reach the mission goals by itself something that didn't go unnoticed by Mill they decided to take their previous design the mi-28 and thoroughly updated to the mi-28n variant which was presented to the Russian military again now with radar updated opdo electronics and new weaponry and soon after the war the Russian government decided to scrap the K 50 program and instead by this new m28 version for the Air Force a shocking betrayal that put kov on the back step but they had one more Ace up their sleeve back during the Prototype phase another two- CER variant was being developed for Recon purposes and to act as the command helicopter on the field supplying data and targeting information to other helicopters and this is exactly what the new car 52 would be based off apart from its tail rotorless design the k 52 would have the new VK 2500 engines that had better p low capacity climbing speed overall speed and maneuverability than the American Apache unlike both the Apache and the car 50 with four underwing pylons for Weaponry this one would have six it was also equipped with a radar like the Apache D or the Longbow variant and the m28 and for terrain mapping and targeting it was also equipped with the vbis or president s missile defense system which has a 360° coverage detects and automatically launches flares against IR guided missiles but let's talk weapons and this is where it gets cool its main weapon would be those laser guided missiles and a massive targeting Recon turret below the no section that could shoot 360° but apart from that it also has a 30 mm Cannon and can also carry unguided missiles but that's pretty standard stuff so why has 25% of the entire fleet already been destroyed let's dive in to the war in Ukraine and the role of the car 52 now this is where the discussion of the war in Ukraine gets a little bit controversial and I want to point out the Minefield that it is to talk about the performance of certain weapon systems so I don't really want to get into the politics of the the battle but I just want to talk about the actual statistics that we have about the car 52 specifically how it's performed in combat according to the OS int list which is obviously unfinished so far because the war is still ongoing it is stated that out of 220 confirmed helicopter kills 210 a car 52 if you take into consideration that not every missile launch or hit was published the actual number probably goes much higher for comparison the US sources state that the Apaches had some 500 kills during the Gulf War and that's without photo or video evidence but in total over 270 helicopters were performing combat flights compared to a total of 120 cars 52s in service which are probably less than 100 performing actual combat missions this gives a combat performance at very comparable levels to the Apache but the huge difference is in the number of helicopters lost so let's also talk about the elephant in the room out of PSAL 125 helicopters in the Ukraine theater 34 have been lost to ukrainians either in the air or on the ground that's the same amount of Apaches the US Army lost during the S years of war in Insurgency in Iraq from 2003 to 2010 and 15 of those were lost to hostile fire the high attrition rates are due to several factors first and foremost the Russians were performing extremely poorly in the first phase of the Ukrainian War the car 52 the most sophisticated and expensive helicopter in the Russian Air Force was flying missions in the contested airspace with unguided rocket pods Simply Stupid the Americans learned this the hard way during the Gulf War where during one of the attacks out of 33 attacking Apaches one was shot down and 30 returned with heavy damage the Americans realized that these helicopters needed to be used much more carefully relying on Hellfire missiles and Superior mid-range attacks it took the Russians almost a year to learn this but let's go back to the purpose of this helicopter its specialized anti-armour platform with a role of commanding helicopter transferring data and Recon info to other units in the field during the Ukrainian counter offensive the performance of the car 52s was put to the test with long range shots up to 9 km away putting them out of the range of the Ukrainian anti-air systems and being suppressed near the front lines so the K 52s can operate at any time the k 52 is used exactly as was en visions and now the losses are minimal in the past 2 months its defense systems are also being used to defend against rockets extremely well but it also has some problems take take a look at this video from [Music] Syria the system is informing the pilot that has been painted by geopard and Roland AA systems neither of which are an operation in Syria and there are videos where it successfully defends itself from even two missiles but when the flares run out the car 52 is a sitting dark especially where there are dozens of man pads everywhere at any one time another issue with the car 52 is the strong vibrations It suffers when carrying heavy payloads therefore restricting the amount of weapons it can carry in a single Mission this might be due to bad maintenance wear and tear or simply design issues that were never fixed but last and not least unlike Hellfire missiles or the new Russian LMS its current missiles are not fire and forget weapons and the helicopter either has to maintain position position or very slowly move whilst the missiles are being guided this has led to ukrainians shooting down car 52s with stuger pgms which is something you would only imagine happening in a video game on the other hand ejection seats have saved pilots on several occasions doing their job and saving them from almost certain death recently we got real proof of the missing tail survivability Theory one helicopter was damaged and lost its almost whole tail section and managed to land safely going into the future Russia has started to upgrade the k 52 with something called the car 52m this modernized version will have new Imaging and targeting modules under the nose paired with a now modern AA radar the LM or is daia 30 or five missiles that we mentioned which are currently only available for the mi-28 will be included for the k 52 as well they are true fire and forget missiles that are either passive or active guidance to the Target this new M variant is also getting new sensors and updated missile defense based off experiences during the war and we can assume that something will be done about those vibration issues to sum it all up the car 52 weapons platform is by no means a bad helicopter the M variant will solve a couple of problems and make it even deadlier with new weapon options but unfortunately we all know how it's going to be used used and on that unfortunate depressing note I want to thank you for watching today's video of found and explained I hope that you found this video the history and the analysis interesting and despite all the political issues I hope we can appreciate the hard work that the engineers made to make such an incredible flying machine a beautiful helicopter that has an awful purpose [Music] flying at the edge of space at four times the speed of sound is a new Russian Interceptor and it is perhaps the last chance for the legendary Miku gulich Bureau to survive since the late 50s Soviets and Russians have been developing Interceptor aircraft to cover their vast territory and respond to any threats to their almost 60,000 th km long border interceptors have always had a special status within the Soviet and Russian Air Forces with the legendary Mig 25 and a successor the Mig 31 being always somewhat of a mystery and a serious threat to the west but now the time has come for the next generation of interceptors a new jet projected to surpass in speed and maximum altitude of even that of the legendary SR71 this is the story of the new Russian Thunder screaming Across The Horizon the pack [Music] DP Russia is big and a big country has big borders and during the Cold War the Soviet Union found it challenging to defend and control their airspace at any one time the US knew this defense was like twis cheese and developed spy planes like the U2 and SR71 flying missions way Behind Enemy Lines getting all the information and tactical Advantage they needed in the Cold War so the Soviets needed a solution the Mig 25 was developed as an answer to the threat of us supersonic bombers and extremely high altitude flying spy planes like the U2 but after the defection of Victor Baleno in 1976 the US dissected and analyzed everything they wanted from the Mig 25 the Soviet Union was left holding the bag and was forced to develop a new Interceptor thus the Mig 31 was born and became the main Interceptor of the Union armed with long range r33 and then at the time state-of-the-art r37 missiles another innovation of the Mig 31 was the huge zaslon radar which was the first ever PESA radar mounted on a fighter jet with its 400 km range and having missiles that could hit targets up to 300 km away a maximum speed of Mark 2.8 and a server ceiling of 25 km up in the sky the Mig 31 was the perfect killing machine against any large Target either super or subsonic trying to invade the Russian airspace but this would be the last grand Ovation for the firm in recent years the Mig Bureau has been experiencing failure after failure on the international market almost stopping their aircraft production they've had some small orders of modernized MiG 29s here and there and a limited run of MiG 35 orders for the Russian Air Force while focusing on modernization and maintenance of current aircraft but all of that may change in the future and the Glorious Days May yet to come for this historic firm during the late 80s the Mig design Bureau decided that something had to be done and actually started working on a new Interceptor project plan to replace the legendary Mig 31 at the beginning of the 21st century back then it was known simply as iselia 7.01 and would be the Russian jet of the future the design was abandoned in 1991 due to a lack of funds and instead they opted for several modifications of the Mig 31 platform throughout the years but the engineers there at the Mig Bureau couldn't shake the idea that it was time for a new jet aircraft during the mid 2010s rumors had started to swirl around about a new design but nothing was solidly revealed until 2018 when we got the first official information about a new Interceptor under development it's officially known under the fancy name of the pack DP or prospective Aviation complex for long range interception or internally simply known as the iselia 41 where the supposed Mig 41 designation comes from however take this all with a grain of salt because official designations are only ever given when the aircraft actually enters active service with the Russian Air Force and this coing card was given by the media said that this plane will conceptually be based on the Mig 31 however some of the specs are completely Bonkers and questionable one of them being a max speed up to 4.3 for comparison the SR71 Blackbird the fastest military jet in history had a maximum speed of Mac 3.3 and the engineers had to overcome huge problems with materials Heating and aircraft construction to achieve that other sources however put the maximum speed at around Mac 3.5 for this new Russian jet which is more reasonable but should still present a serious challenge for the engineers it's planned to have a slightly smaller radar cross-section than the current aircraft or in simple words some stealth capabilities which will most likely make sense only from a frontal sphere of the aircraft because the enormous engines needed to power this Beast will surely make the engineers do all kinds of sacrifices to to the design in order to accommodate them and radar signature from the back or side will definitely be much larger everything else at this point is pure speculation but what we can assume that it will either match or surpass the characteristics of the Mig 31 with range and service ceiling which are 3,000 km and 25,000 M respectively but what isn't so far-fetched is the weapons and boy do we have something to discuss here pack DP will most likely carry new long range r37 missiles along with the new king jha Hypersonic missile which Mig 31s are also equipped with now the interesting part here are the so-called satellite killer missiles which should be also implemented with the new Interceptor Russia has been developing ASAT missiles for a long time with the latest being the a235 no which successfully shot down an old Soviet made satellite Cosmos 1408 in 2021 this system is made to work with the famous Don 2N radar and will be able to intercept and Destroy Hypersonic and Ballistic nuclear missiles along with the satellites n all however is a huge missile launched from the ground and Russians are developing it primary for the defense of the Moscow area but we can say with Fair certainly that the pack DP will be able to carry ASAP missiles having in mind that recently Mig 31s were spotted carrying absolutely massive new missiles called B vesnik possible further development of the 79 M6 contact missile it's rumored to be an ASAT weapon working in conjunction with the satellites of the same name which are all covered with a veil of secrecy and rarely mentioned in Russian media and that was obviously a lot of complex Russian word so let me know down in the description how I went or if I should really go back to grade school other than that Russians are also looking into laser Weaponry for this new Interceptor made either as missile defense or for blinding the enemy senses and Optics a new Airborne laser called sore Echelon based on the bere 860 has been used recently for different applications of high energy beams and for sure both Russia and Western countries will make use of this kind of weapons into the future also did you know that during the Cold War the Russians were working on an actual laser tank that's right and it's definitely something I want to cover in the future here on the channel so if you like the content so far then consider subscribing it's fair to say that the pack DP would be a serious threat in the air both in a defensive and offensive role and with the Sue 57 and pack da it would be the backbone of the new Russian Air Force only time will actually show us how accurate some of these claims are if this aircraft really is faster than the SR71 but it's great to see that no matter the reason that Aircraft engineers are really pushing the envelope for creating some of the mightiest birds in the sky something new is flying in the cold skies above the Arctic Circle a stealthy flying wing armed with 12 Hypersonic cruise missiles moving unnoticed towards its Target but it's not a us- made B2 nor the new B21 prototype rather it has red stars on its wings strategic bomber Aviation has been a longtime Pride of the Soviet and Russian Air Force and now the time has come for it to enter the new era of warfare one where it's all about preemptive strikes stealthy aircraft and hit and run Doctrine this is the story of the First new Russian bomber after 40 Years of Silence a new Cutting Edge design or just another expensive project with no future let's dive into the secrecy behind the Paka or as the Russians call it the messenger [Music] the United States has been downsizing their bomber Fleet in the recent years with the total coming very close to the number of active bombers in the Russian Air Force for a long time there was a wish in both the US and Russia to move on from the workhorses like the B-52 and 295 two of the longest serving bombers to this day however instead of retiring both undergoing or have undergone upgrades to push their lifespan to Beyond 2030 when it comes to stealth technology though the USA generally Takes the Cake everything from the original stealth f17 Nighthawk to the upcoming B21 radar all of which you put the country on the map or rather off it when it comes to clandestine missions across the world that however might be about to change as Russia gears up to start flight testing its new top secret bomber project now fair warning before we get into it it can be a little bit hard to discern between fact and ambitious propaganda so until this plane is cruising in the skies its specifications might be rather up in the clouds so to speak dubb the Packa it's a Next Generation strategic bomber under development at the legendary tubev design Bureau pakar itself stands for perspective Aviation complex for long range aviation in Long Range it will be with 12,000 km operational range it will have the ability to fly from Moscow to any city in North America Rio in Brazil and even Darwin in Australia good day mate it doesn't have to worry about refueling as it can fly its four crew members subsonically for up to 30 hours to Circle targets or to be hidden deep in the clouds until needed these engines are so powerful that they can work in - 60 to + 50° centigrade and survive the effects of even a nuclear explosion with its 30ton weapon capacity it will be able to carry everything from conventional bombs nuclear missiles and in the future Hypersonic weapons so where is this miracle new plane to understand where we are now we have to go back to where it all began the tev 260 the supersonic strategic bomber has been a staple of the Russian Air Force for decades ever since it first rolled out in 1981 however for those viewers who might not have been born in 1981 this is a long time ago despite being the fastest heaviest and largest supersonic bomber still in use today among many other records its technology is based on what was available back in the 1980s Warfare has changed since then and new strategic bombers are more often doing the role of a cruise missile carrier rather than a regular bombing missions with guided or unguided bombs Russians know this and saw how the US used their bombers in recent conflicts and have started learning from their experiences while there have been rumors of this project back in the 1990s the first concrete effort to create a new bomber project was in 2007 when the Russian Air Force gave the first set of Technical and tactical requirements for the new bomber the main idea was to create a new aircraft that would be able to match or surpass all the current characteristics of the 260 with the exception of the supersonic speed which is sacrificed for stealth and maximum load capacity a number of the 2160s were lost during the dissolution of the USSR with them being stationed in Ukraine at the time and the Russian bomber fleet has been lacking in that segment which led to both the need for the pacta and for a modernization and renewal of the 2160 production line but I'll get back to that in a bit in 2013 the development was confirmed to have a subsonic flying wing design with an emphasis on stealth technology over speed K Nel of design Bureau was awarded the contract to develop the new engines named nk65 based on the nk32 engines currently used by the 2160 by 2019 it was confirmed that prototyping was in full swing at the Kazan Aviation plant and it's expected to have ground testing sometime in 2022 with a possible first flight between 2023 and 2024 but let's dig a bit deeper into what actually is the combat purpose and the future of this aircraft and is the message from the Russian messenger actually getting through for the first time in their operational history Russian bombers have had the opportunity to perform combat roles during 2015 and 16 the 295 222 M and 2160 have flown multiple missions in Syria in various roles the two 160s performed attacks with the new K 101 cruise missiles while the 222 M and 295s perform sorties with both cruise missiles and bombs testing out the new SVP 24 hastus targeting system which basically turns dumb bombs into at least a semi-guided munition similar to the US's jdam but still lacking in Precision this is important to understand the future of both the 2160 and the pactor in 2015 it was announced that the production of the 2160 would be renewed with all the current aircraft to be modernized and new ones to be built with the designation to 160 M2 having a new modernized engines avionics comps glass cockpit Etc a total of 50 new airf frames a plant with two already delivered so what does that mean for the packar first of all Focus will be on missiles as the main Weaponry Hypersonic missiles like the king Xiao and the new ha 92 will be featured for sure along with the stealthy har 101 and 102 cruise missiles as we already mentioned stealth has been chosen over speed with extremely long range and great payload capacity this all leads to be the idea of Russia actually creating a capable preemptive strike aircraft which can hit anywhere in the world with the US and Russia relations getting worse in recent years this might be a clear sign that Russia wants to be in the same position as the US with its first strike capabilities and use this to either further escalate or deescalate the current situation only time will tell it's also worth mentioning mentioning that this aircraft design isn't actually the only stealth strategic bomber under development there is also the Chinese Gian H20 a first for the nation and will look a lot like the B2 flying wing bomber little is known about this project only that it will have an estimated range of at least 8,500 km and will allow China to reliably reach targets as far away as Hawaii from the mainland with its 10 tons of conventional nuclear weapons but just like the packar the xan H20 is more of a paper project than a reality and timelines are ever evolving as production and testing continues and it remains to be seen if the world will watch and learn hey it's future Nick here I thought I would just do a quick little thing about the actual 3D model and the 3D design that we used in this video today just to sort of point out some of the little flaws that uh some of the viewers have noticed and to just get it sort of out of the way a lot of people have said that it's it wouldn't exactly be a stealth uh bomber if it's got these exposed sort of see these exposed uh jet engines here like that doesn't make a lot of sense for a stealth bomber to have this in fact we don't even know how many engines this new aircraft will have so just take that with a little bit of grain of salt and then of course it's not really a flying wing considering that that it's got this middle fuselage part here and then two obvious Wings on the side so flying wing design is a little bit sort of vague in this this case of course we also have these wingets here that will help with the range but that's actually not going to help its stealth characteristics so yeah take it with a little grain of salt and just think about a little bit Hollywood movie Magic rather than actual aircraft design but if you yourself wants to get ahead of the game just like Russia in the development of their new aircraft then why don't you become a patreon as a patreon you get to see videos early make suggestions and even talk with me direct we also have channel members as well if you prefer to stay on YouTube so to keep this video short thank you so much for watching

Channel: Found And Explained

Views: 102,523

Keywords: aviation, news, documentry, history channel, flying, engineering, history, discovery, real engineering, mustard, wendover, airforce, soviet, usa military, cold war, ww2, world war 2 documentry

Id: ZOIgKnRjFwE

Length: 95min 14sec (5714 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 13 2024