While the T-50 first flew in 2010, the latest version of the plane, known as T-50–5, has been upgraded with a new paint design, antennas fitted into the leading-edge root extension and a partially integrated distributed aperture system, a source wrote in an e-mail to Military.com. The latter is Russia’s attempt to answer the F-35’s DAS technology.
Made by Northrop Grumman Corp., the AN/AAQ-37 is the “only 360-degree, spherical situational awareness system,” designed to warn pilots of incoming aircraft and missile threats, and to provide them with day– and night-vision, fire-control and precision-tracking of friendly aircraft, according to the Falls Church, Va.-based company.
It wasn’t immediately clear what kind of testing the latest version of the jet will undergo. Russia has reportedly delayed the start of operational flights of the T-50 by a year to 2016.
Russia didn’t bring any of the new fighters to the Paris Air Show in June, opting instead to show off the aircraft at its own event in Zhukovsky in August. (Though the country still stole headlines in Paris with aerial demonstrations of its Su-35 fighter and the Ka-52 attack helicopter, among other aircraft.)
While the T-50 first flew in 2010, the latest version of the plane, known as T-50–5, has been upgraded with a new paint design, antennas fitted into the leading-edge root extension and a partially integrated distributed aperture system, a source wrote in an e-mail to Military.com. The latter is Russia’s attempt to answer the F-35’s DAS technology.
Made by Northrop Grumman Corp., the AN/AAQ-37 is the “only 360-degree, spherical situational awareness system,” designed to warn pilots of incoming aircraft and missile threats, and to provide them with day– and night-vision, fire-control and precision-tracking of friendly aircraft, according to the Falls Church, Va.-based company.
It wasn’t immediately clear what kind of testing the latest version of the jet will undergo. Russia has reportedly delayed the start of operational flights of the T-50 by a year to 2016.
Russia didn’t bring any of the new fighters to the Paris Air Show in June, opting instead to show off the aircraft at its own event in Zhukovsky in August. (Though the country still stole headlines in Paris with aerial demonstrations of its Su-35 fighter and the Ka-52 attack helicopter, among other aircraft.)
http://defensetech.org/2013/11/20/russias-newest-fighter-lands-at-test-base/#more-21833http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWktdzOhrMw
