Article Posted on : - Aug 07, 2010

Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA during its maiden flight. Sukhoi Corporation press service Photo.

MOSCOW (BNS): The Russian fifth-generation fighter will be better and cheaper than foreign 5G fighters, a media report said.

"We are obliged to make the [fifth generation] airplane cheaper than analogous complexes abroad," Ria Novosti quoted Vice-Premier Sergei Ivanov as saying on Friday.

Russia's only known fifth-generation project is Sukhoi's PAK FA and the current prototype is the T-50. The aircraft is designed to compete with the US F-22 Raptor, so far the world's only fifth-generation fighter, and the F-35 Lightning II.

In June, Vladimir Putin along with Vladimir Popovkin observed the test flight of the prototype fighter. It was said to be the 16th test flight of the aircraft.

The supersonic fifth generation PAK-FA T-50 with a range of 5,500 km is scheduled to enter service with the Russian Air Force in 2015.

The PAK FA is to be armed with next-generation air-to-air, air-to-surface, and air-to-ship missiles, and has two 30-mm cannons, the report said.