Russian airframe life is much lower than American

Typically, a fighter aircraft is designed with a standard service life of about 20 years before it must be retired.

As is known, currently a fighter jet serving in the US Air Force such as the F-15, F-16, even the fifth generation stealth fighters F-35A and F-22A has a fuselage that can last 6,000 flight hours. After every 3,000 hours, they will be upgraded mid-life to ensure the remaining hours are used according to the design.

Calculating the total of 6,000 flight hours for a 20-year service period, that is, each year an American pilot will accumulate an additional 300 flight hours. If deployed for combat operations, the number of flight hours will increase, equivalent to a decrease in the aircraft's service period.

However, in reality, after the 6,000 reserve flight hours are up, the above fighters can easily increase their service life to 8,000 hours, or most recently Lockheed Martin even announced that the F-16 is capable of reaching the 12,000 hour limit (up to 16,000 hours maximum).

US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon light fighter

Meanwhile, according to the announcement of the Sukhoi Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation - Russia, the number of flight hours on the popular fighter jets they produce is much lower than that of American fighters. Specifically, the Su-22, Su-24 and Su-27 have a fuselage life of only 2,000 flight hours, while the Su-30 is slightly better, reaching 3,000 hours.

The Su-22/27's service life is expected to increase by 1,000 hours over a 20-year period.

Thus, with a standard service life of 20 years, while the "F" series gives pilots 300 hours of annual operation, the Su-27 is only 100 hours, and the Su-30 is 150 hours.

Su-30SM heavy fighter of the Russian Air Force.

It is clear after looking at the above parameters that Russian pilots are at a disadvantage compared to their colleagues across the ocean.

If Russia wants its pilots to have the same number of flight hours as the world's military powers, it will have to accept that a fighter jet produced will only serve for about 10 years, or even less.

According to Baodatviet