Russia successfully tested a prototype of its fifth-generation stealth fighter jet after a delay, 13 years after the first flight of its US rival, Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-22 Raptor.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the first PAK FA warplanes should be delivered to an air force facility in Lipetsk, central Russia, so that pilots can begin training in the plane starting in 2013.
Mass production should begin in 2015, Putin said during a government meeting in Moscow on Friday.
“That the plane’s in the air is already a big step forward,” Putin said, adding that “much remains to be done” to complete development of the plane’s engines and weapons.
The plane’s maiden flight had been planned for last year.
The 47-minute debut flight of the aircraft comes as Russia plans to modernize its armed forces, with the bulk of arms procurement set for next year through 2020.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the overhaul after a war with neighboring Georgia in August 2008, including an upgrade of the country’s nuclear deterrent.
Russia plans to increase spending on military equipment by 8 percent to 1.17 trillion rubles (US$38.5 billion) this year, Putin said last month.
The successful flight follows a series of failed launches of Russia’s new submarine-based Bulava ballistic missile. The military may increase test flights of the Bulava this year after seven of 12 tests ended in failure, RIA Novosti reported earlier this month.
Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, was skeptical about the 2015 mass production target, describing it as “an exaggeration.”
“I think it will enter service no earlier than 2020,” the head of the Moscow-based defense research company said by telephone
Mikhail Pogosyan, chief executive officer of state-owned planemaker OAO Sukhoi Co, disagreed, saying he was “entirely satisfied” with the flight.
Speaking by telephone from Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia’s Far East, about 300km from the Chinese border, where the production plant is located, Pogosyan said he was confident the new fighter would be “competitive on the market.”
He declined to give a timeframe for delivery of the first plane. Friday’s flight was the start of “an extensive” testing program, the company said in an e- mailed statement.
Sukhoi is working on the fighter program “jointly with our Indian partners,” Pogosyan said. “As this project develops, the participation of the Indian side will increase in line with an intergovernmental agreement.”
Sukhoi plans to sell the new plane to both Russia and India, “and there will be demand from other customers who are already successfully flying Su and MiG aircraft,” Pogosyan said.
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