The Su-57 Shares ONE Thing with the Raptor - Round Pegs in Square Holes - Part 6

  • 2 months ago
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Transcript
00:00If you are a military aircraft fan, you may already know an interesting fact.
00:05Fins of the AMRAAM have been clipped to fit into the base of the F-22.
00:12Amateurs!
00:18The Su-57 is, in many aspects, a quantum leap for Russian aerospace,
00:24and weaponry is no exception.
00:26What is going to fit in the Su-57 base is something new and bespoke.
00:32But it was a long road to get there.
00:33For example, the first payload separation tests happened only in 2016.
00:39In fact, bespoke ejectors had to be developed to eject bespoke weaponry.
00:44But I'm running ahead of me.
00:45The Su-57 has two large weapon bays in the center fuselage between the engine nacelles.
00:58Two small armpit bays are placed under the wing in the form of protruding fairings.
01:07The Russians call them quick launch bays.
01:09The two ventral bays contain the main armament,
01:12while the two armpit bays contain one single weapon, the Dimple R-74M2.
01:25To obtain clean separation, three models of bespoke ejectors had to be developed.
01:30The UKVU-50U is for loads up to 700 kilos,
01:34while the smaller UKVU-50L is for smaller loads up to 300 kilos.
01:40They are interchangeable and they can be installed in the main weapon bays as required.
01:45The VPU-50 is a small retractable device to launch the R-74M2 from the armpit bay.
01:54And when stealth is not a concern, the Su-57 has four on the wing station,
01:59plus two pylons under the engine nacelles.
02:03And the armament computer...
02:05Well, that one is unknown.
02:08We know nothing about the electronics controlling the weapons.
02:20The Su-57 features a cannon.
02:22It uses the MMPU-50 mount containing the classic GSH-301 single barrel 30mm cannon.
02:32It has a relatively modest 150 rounds available and it is located at the root of the right wing.
02:40All considered is a pretty traditional installation.
02:44More interesting is the fact that since Russian weapons tend to be a bit bulkier
02:49than the Western equivalents, some bespoke weapons had to be developed for the Su-57.
02:55The already mentioned R-74M2 is an improvement of the R-74 already in service with the Russian Air Force,
03:04which in turn is a development of the R-73.
03:08The weapon is considered to be an excellent short-range air-to-air missile
03:13with an off-boresight angle of about 75 degrees.
03:17The M2 version has a reduced cross-section to fit into the base,
03:21but also has an improved engine and a two-way data link,
03:25meaning that the missile can be launched in lock-on after launch mode.
03:31Actually, it was the perfect opportunity to evolve the weapon.
03:36The R-77 was considered to be the equivalent of the American AMRAAM
03:43and since the appearance of the AMRAAM-D version, it was a bit lagging behind.
03:51Actually, the air-breathing R-77PD could have been a game-changer in the same way the Meteor is,
03:59but we have lost the tracks.
04:02We don't know if it is still being developed,
04:04we don't know if there is any plan to actually produce it serially.
04:08Visually, the R-77M looks different than the R-77
04:12because it has abandoned the distinctive grid fins.
04:17They have been replaced by conventional aerodynamic surfaces,
04:21apparently the reason being to reduce the radar signature.
04:26Apart from this, the weapon has been vastly improved.
04:29The Sikher is completely new,
04:31is now an AESA radar with all the advantages that come with this type of radar.
04:35Since the more modern electronics require the less room inside the fuselage of the missile,
04:41the fuel fraction has been increased.
04:43The propulsion is a modern dual-pulse engine,
04:47but with an interesting feature.
04:49The interval between the launch impulse and the sustain impulse
04:54is variable and programmable at launch.
04:58In this way, the weapon energy management is much more versatile,
05:03and it should translate in a much better terminal energy.
05:06In July 2017, Wimpel started the firing test of the Izdeliye 810,
05:13a very long-range air-to-air missile
05:16designed explicitly to fit inside the base of the Sukhoi 57.
05:22Very little is known about this weapon.
05:24It seems to be the last derivative of a family of heavy air-to-air weapons,
05:34starting with the R-33, evolving in the R-37 and R-37M.
05:41These are powerful weapons with ranges up to 300 km in ideal conditions,
05:46and with large dual-mode seekers.
05:50The Izdeliye 810 is expected to be an even improved version of these weapons.
05:57We can only wait and see.
06:05The same problem that air-to-air missiles had was even more relevant for air-to-ground weapons.
06:10To fit into the base, they have to be shorter than 4.2 meters.
06:15The section may be inside a square or 40 by 40 centimeters.
06:20The main weapon seems to be a missile known as KH-69,
06:26and very little is known about it.
06:29We know that it has a square fuselage,
06:31and two weapons can fit snugly inside each bay.
06:35It is a medium-range cruise missile, roughly equivalent to the European Storm Shadow,
06:41designed to attack high-paying targets at known coordinates.
06:46A KH-59M2 exists and seems to be the export version of the KH-69,
06:54and it is already available on the market.
06:56However, it is not clear which of the two has been really developed before.
07:02Another bespoke design is the Raduga KH-58U SHK,
07:09which is again a bespoke version of the already existing Raduga KH-58U.
07:17The KH-58U has been modified with foldable fins to fit into the base,
07:22and the opportunity has been seized to actually improve, as usual, the seeker and the engine.
07:27And with the new engine, the missile can reach a remarkable Mach 3.6.
07:33While obviously there are also standard production weapons that fit into the base,
07:39the KH-38M is part of a family of new air-to-ground missiles
07:45designed to replace the historic KH-25 family.
07:50The KH-38M is a family of medium-short-range weapons,
07:56available with different seekers, as the Russians are used to do.
08:00The range varies a lot with the launch speed and height,
08:04but roughly we are talking about weapons in the class of 50 km range,
08:10even if exists a Grom version of the weapon with two foldable wings
08:17that turn it into a small cruise missile.
08:21The Grom maximum range is estimated to be about 120 km.
08:26A very new family of bombs are the KAB-250L,
08:30apparently developed as a reply to the American small-diameter bomb.
08:35As usual, we have one body with different seekers.
08:39In this case we have laser guidance and GLONASS GPS guidance.
08:45There is a larger version, the KAB-500, that doesn't fit into the base,
08:51but it can be transported on the external stations.
08:55And this reminds me to say that the Su-57 has been integrated
09:01with most of the weapons available in the Russian arsenal.
09:06Obviously no weapon is of any use if the aircraft doesn't have the sensors
09:13required to acquire the target and calculate the firing solution.
09:16And if you want to know more about how the Su-57 does this,
09:20please click on the video that is going to appear beside me.
09:23Thank you very much for watching and see you there!

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