The next combat plane that Russia will display on the opening day of the MAKS-2021 aerospace exhibition will compete with the US fifth-generation F-35, according to Oleg Panteleyev, Executive Director of Aviaport Aviation News Agency.
“The teasers in English and the regions shown by the pilots in a film published by Rostec [state tech firm] indicate that the local light fighter will compete with the US F-35 aircraft on global markets.” I am confident that the fighter demonstration at MAKS-2021 will be awe-inspiring.
“It’s not by chance that [Russia’s state arms exporter] Rosoboronexport has invited over 120 representatives from 65 nations to the aerospace exhibition,” he added.
According to the expert, nothing is known about the plane’s performance characteristics thus far. According to available data, the newest fighter has low radar signatures in many bands, a high thrust-to-weight ratio, a big weapon payload, and sophisticated air-launched weapons, according to the expert.
“There is no question that Russia will be able to reestablish the duo of breakthrough aircraft platforms: the heavy Su-57 [fifth-generation fighter] and a new light jet intended to deal with tactical missions” in this decade, according to the expert.
The Rostec press office stated earlier on Tuesday that Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, a subsidiary of Rostec) will showcase a fundamentally new military jet on the first day of the MAKS-2021 international aerospace exhibition in Zhukovsky, near Moscow. The project’s official website was also revealed, complete with a midnight countdown to the plane’s debut on July 20.
According to a source in the domestic aircraft-building industry, the Sukhoi Aircraft Company (part of the United Aircraft Corporation) is developing the first Russian single-engine light tactical fighter with supersonic speed capability and a low radar signature, as reported by TASS in the spring of this year.
