PAK FA Moves Ahead, 3rd Prototype Flies

The third prototype of Sukhoi’s T-50 joined the Russian 5th generation PAK FA fighter test programme, flying for the first time on Nov 22 for a little more than an hour over Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Eastern Russia. In October this year, the IAF revealed that it intended to order 214 of the aircraft — 166 single-seaters and 48 twin-seaters and hoped make its first inductions in 2017.


23 thoughts on “PAK FA Moves Ahead, 3rd Prototype Flies”

  1. In what way an Indian should be proud in this achievement.

    I am still not sure if we ever get this plane. Given the fact that India and Russia not yet completely agreed to PAKFA deal.

    Last I heard was that if India wants 50-50% partnership a lot of money has to be supplied.

  2. wow things seems to be in place now…lets hope the work on FGFA is also progressing well in parallel..dunno about the status though

  3. Now let us see what JSF Bandar promo gang has to say now. Go BS planes to hell who is not even appreciated by own air forces sell junks to paks.

  4. You heard what it said. There is no 'co-development' going on. India is nothing more than a customer for PAK-FA. The FGFA will be no more than an MKI version of PAK-FA with maybe 5-10% Indian input and IAF will only buy a measly 44 against 166 100% Russian PAK-FAs.

    We may as well buy the F-35 as well, because they're both the same: Foreign-designed aircraft that are being exported to us with little or no Indian input. No difference.

    Read this article for more details. The Russians have already done most of the development without us: India is a 'partner' only in name.
    idrw.org/?p=5289

  5. 166 single-seaters and 48 twin-seaters.

    It can't be true, FGFA is going to be twin seater and for obvious reasons will be ordered more in number than single seater (original PAK-FA with selected Indian and IAF mandated sub-systems).

  6. @Rahul,
    Recently IAF decided to get more of single seater because of probable delay by HAL.

    @Shiv,
    Whats about DRDO AWE&C, IDRW.ORG published something on that. Did you missed that? Hope to get more feeds from you on that. Also the same site talked about "smart bomb". Can you get us some insight on that.

    Thanks,

  7. I think HAL will be a partner in the development of the twin seat fighter.. A considerable amount of work will be done by HAL for the development of the twin seat fighter.. Generally IAF prefer more twin seat versions comparing with that of the single seat version (in Su30mki) but in case of PAKFA it is reversed, what is the reason??? could anyone have the answer? By the by, a good news from Russian Side…

  8. The change in numbers for PAK-FA, FGFA will change the nature of the original plan. Is it worth going through the elaborate redesign process for the lower numbers. As usual DRDO/HAL will be the suckers.

  9. India is one of the producers partially financing a film called"FGFA" !!! Sukhoi design bureau is the director,story,screen play…etc…plus producer. Russian govt under putin will be buying the rights to distribute it!!! whether this FGFA(two heroes) and PAK-FA(single hero)will be screened in India depends on our equations with Russia in the coming 5-10 years!!!

  10. @1:07 AM do you know the story of SU-30 MKI… in 1992 The Visionary… PV Narasimha Rao… just like that with out any thing on paper… handed over 1000 crores in hard currency… dollars to russia… not the russia we know today… the non existant russia… under the drunkard… boris yelstin… with not even the design was put to paper… where would have IAF… and for that matter India… versus the dragon if we didn't invest in MKI… commies was against the payment… nobody remebers that today… they are the greaest chinese threat… that is from within the country… Do take some time and… remeber the often forgotten Rao…

  11. to the idiot who posted @10:41 AM…
    48… is for the strategic forces… air borne wing… now the role played by…. mirage 2k… upgraded to 2k-5 till 2017… when pak-fa materialises… 166 for strike… air dominanace… air defence… etc… and i don't think indians… kite flying hobby… IAF will pick up… and for that they will… be buying lightening II…

  12. India will get a lot of TOT in this joint development. NO country will allow India to all the key and fifth generation technologies as such as Russia. Russia offers its best to India, it may be nuclear reactors or submarines or aircrafts. It will be a very useful partnership to India. HAL will learn a lot of new things.

  13. I think a lot of the commentators here are suffering from reading disorders. It clearly says 166 TWIN seaters and 48 SINGLE seaters. WHy is everyone arguing the other way around? So, stop making up imaginary issues in your heads and bash IAF or HAL or MoD. We are going to have 166 FGFAs and 48 Su-50s. These buggers can't even solve a 4th order diff-eq and they come out bashing our engineers and scientists for incompetence. It is frustrating to watch this tamasha. Urrrgh!

  14. Good progress of T-50 Sukhoi/FGFA, uncharacteristic of the Russian public sector. Obviously it is being chased by F-35 and J-20.Lol…

    Single seaters with as high as 166 Nos can be purchased only if the time of production gaps between one and two seaters is quite high. I do not think that presently there can be any such case.

  15. our homnegrown late combat aircraft tejas is slowed by 2 more years and we are celebrating russian achievements we keep importing engines radars missile and even tires in this way indian scientist will remain backward for ever

  16. Reddy bhai,

    It's because Shiv Aroor has made a mistake. The Indian Defence Review and other defence sources have confirmed it's 166 single-seaters and 48 twin-seaters.

  17. Shiv………..do correct the error……..166 Single seat plus 48 twin seat……….also, the photo NOT of the T-50-3…..it does not have pitot…..

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