Comparing the American F-22 with the Russian Su-57
As the world's first stealth fighters, the F-22 and Su-57 each have their own strengths that make them formidable opponents.
According to the National Interest, to compare the fifth-generation fighters of the two countries, one must first understand their design goals. The Su-57 fighter is mainly used for defensive missions, while the F-22 has very strong offensive characteristics.
The birth of the Su-57 is considered a criterion for the comprehensive revival of the Russian military industry. It has a decisive significance in breaking the US monopoly on fifth-generation fighters, dealing with the air force dominated by the US.
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| Su-57 fighter. |
The Su-57 is called “the crystallization of all the best of the Russian aviation industry”. Compared to the fifth-generation American F-22 and F-35 fighters, the Russian stealth fighter has both advantages and disadvantages.
The Su-57 fighter has good maneuverability. Russia has an advantage over the US in researching thrust vector technology, so the Su-57 will use high-thrust engines with thrust vector control technology, and 3D nozzles with good performance characteristics.
To enhance maneuverability, the Su-57's aerodynamic design has made two major innovations: The first is the "unified canard" (small forward wings, canards, canards). This improves lift control without sacrificing stealth.
The fighter is designed with a tilting tail that can turn in all directions. The Su-57's tilting and flat tails are both very small, showing that Russia's thrust-direction capability has reached a relatively high level.
The Su-57 continues to adopt the ventral air intake layout, coupled with the lower wing pressure than the F-22, making the Su-57 relatively stable and controllable at high angles of attack, and its maneuverability can be superior to the F-22. Because the engine generates strong thrust, the take-off/landing distance is short and the ammunition load is large.
The Russian stealth fighter can take off/land within a distance of 400 m, the F-22's distance is 450-916 m. The Su-57's ammunition load is larger than the F-22's, the combat load can be up to 6 tons, there are 3 weapon bays inside, the ammunition bay takes up 1/3 of the entire aircraft, the outside of the fuselage can also carry weapons.
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| F-22 fighter |
It can launch and launch missiles in a hypersonic state, while the US fifth-generation fighter needs to slow down before launching missiles again. The big advantage of the Su-57 is its relatively low cost. The expected cost of mass-producing the Su-57 in the future is about 80-100 million USD, equal to 60% of the cost of manufacturing the F-22.
In addition, the Su-57 also has a unique design in the cockpit. Through the equipment of a new type of oxygen supply system and ejection seat, the impact of high gravity on the pilot has been reduced, which can greatly increase the comfort and ease for the pilot, allowing them to concentrate on performing tactical tasks.
Although the Su-57 was researched, manufactured and tested later than the US fifth-generation fighter, giving it a certain "late-born advantage", in many ways the Su-57 is still behind the US fifth-generation fighter.
First, it is inferior in terms of avionics. The Su-57 uses an advanced radar system that can detect targets beyond 400 km, can simultaneously track 60 airborne targets and attack 16 of them.
The aircraft is equipped with a new type of radio reconnaissance and countermeasures system that can detect enemies and jam them without revealing itself. The pilot's command and control of the aircraft has also been completely digitized.
But the Su-57 lacks the highly intelligent integrated information system, automatic anti-jamming equipment, and automatic control system required for a fifth-generation fighter. Compared with the US “multi-functional integrated RF system,” the Su-57 lacks full-band self-defense capabilities.
Invisible ability is not enough. The Su-57 fighter adopts plasma stealth technology, the nose, cabin, wings and intake duct of the aircraft have all adopted unique shape design, the weapon bay also adopts internal installation method, making the radar cross section only 0.5 m2, but its stealth ability is still clearly inferior to the F-22.
With the same radar set, the Su-57's detection range is twice that of the F-22. Therefore, although the Su-57 fighter can surpass the F-22 in some features, in terms of overall performance, it is very difficult to be superior to the US military's fifth-generation fighter.
