A Radar would not be needed, since an uncontained Plasma ball can be seen with the naked eye hundreds of Km’s away. It’s called lighting.
Depending on the energy level of the plasma, it might be hot enough to melt the aircraft it is around. Aircraft and lightening are not a good mix.
So you have an aircraft that can be seen from hundreds of Km’s away that melts while flying thru the air.
Who needs radar?
The Plasma stealth thingie was Soviet Propaganda. The Soviet Union did one thing well and that was propaganda. A big part of why the Soviet Union collapsed was they started believing their own propaganda.

thanx.

The F-22 is an extremely advanced aircraft. And American “advanced” usually stands for “overpriced” and “fiddly”. Not to say that the Raptor is not a premier fighter aircraft. It is a great achievement. It’s that just American defense industry is notorious for its ability to waste taxpayer dollars. The Russian military-industrial complex would certainly like to catch up to their American colleagues in that department. Luckily, they don’t have that much money to waste.

As far as political will goes, that can change very quickly. I actually doubt that China will become an operator of the T-50. They have a competing project and, unless something goes terribly wrong, they will probably decide to stick with it. But there are plenty of other countries that, in 5-10 years, will be looking to upgrade their park of fighters and will find few alternatives to the T-50. Political will has an interesting way of conforming to financial reality. Ten years is a very long time in international politics. A lot can change.

What countries do you believe would be willing and able to aquire such an expensive and sophisticated 5th generation multirole aircraft?

We know that India will probably want 200 or so double-seater variants. I suspect that the Chinese would also be interested. But I don’t really see who else could have a) the political freedom to do so b) the financial means and c) an air force sophisticated enough to integrate such a complex machine.

Do you?

Cheers,

VS

The T-50 has been built specifically as the answer to the F-22. However, an “answer” doesn’t mean a “mirror image”. The T-50 is quite different, but, based on the few hard facts that we have, it is design to meet or exceed F-22′s capabilities.

Just because today the USAF is the only one operating the F-22, it does not have to stay this way. There are several countries out there interested in buy it (Australia for one). The Americans just wouldn’t sell. They rather halt the production they cannot afford than share the technology. But this can change with a single political decision and the F-22s – simplified and less expensive – will start spreading around the world.

Could have the Russians made a cheaper fighter? We know they could. But they are also interested in the marketing potential of the PAKFA. They don’t want it to have to compete on the overcrowded generation 4+ market of fighter aircraft. They want it to be in the exclusive group of products with only two items on the shelf, one of which isn’t even for sale.

I do understand that the PAKFA and the F-22 are very different creatures, created in very different countries and designed for different missions. What I wonder about is the following: when the Russians designed the PAKFA, did they design it to be capable of accomplishing its mission in an environment with hostile F-22s out there or not? In other words, since there is only one country which has the F-22 (the USA) and since that is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, Russian force planners have to make a fundamental decision: should the PAKFA be designed for either a) all forseeable scenarii *including* a Russia-USA conflict in mind or b) all other conflicts *except* a Russia-USA one in mind?

If the Russians specifically excluded the possibility of a conflict with hostile F-22s would that not make the PAKFA a lot cheaper? But if they did go the “extra mile” (financially and from a design point of view) of being able to operate with hostile F-22s out there, would that not tell us that they are still considering a Russia-US war possible and worth preparing for?

Keeping all this in mind – does the PAKFA look to you like the kind of aircraft which is designed to be able to accomplish its mission(s) in an environment with hostile F-22 attempting to destroy it?