38 F L I G H T J O U R N A L

Su-35 703—the third prototype—rolls inverted and exhibits its telltale canards andexotic, nonfunctional splinter camouflage (photo by Katsuhiko Tokunaga).

THE ULTIMATE BAD GUY?

Sitting on the tarmac at the Zhukovsky flight-test center about 30

miles southeast of Moscow, the Sukhoi Design Bureau’s most power-

ful and capable fighter, the stunning Su-35, gives every impression

of a coiled cobra. Prepared to strike at the slightest warning, it hun-

kers down, nose low, poised on its rough-field landing gear, peering

forward through the single, offset eye of its infrared search-and-track ball.

Currently viewed as the most potent threat to Western military air forces, there

is little question that the Su-35 is a superb air-combat platform. Typical of its

parent design bureau’s products, it mixes modern technique and technology with

a strong dose of Russian mechanical pragmatism.

Su-35Su-35

by Jay Miller

SUKHOI’s

Super FlankerSuper Flanker

Sukhoi and the Russian government promote the Su-35 asthe chosen standard-bearer fighter of non-western air forces.They explore export opportunities around every internation-al corner. To date, however, no foreign air force has boughta single one.

The reasons are simple: the Su-35 istoo big, too expensive and too complex(and it’s backed by the questionablegoodwill of an unstable, undependablegovernment). Without significantfinancial and trade offsets—somethingunlikely to happen—it has little chanceof realizing any legitimate internationalmilitary sales. In a market glutted withAmerican F-16 wannabes, it is sitting atthe bottom of a very large pile. It isRussia’s extremely capable—but totallyunknown—contender.

During a recent trip to Russia, I wasprivileged to spend three days with theSukhoi Design Bureau at its ramshackleZhukovsky flight-test facility on themassive base’s northeast side. Withhundreds of out-of-service MiGs,

Tupolevs, Antonovs, Mils, Ilyushins and Myasishevs provid-ing a varied backdrop, I observed the awesome Su-35 inaction firsthand. While contemplating the big fighter at restand in the air, it became apparent that I was watching what

was conceivably the last of a very longline of highly strung Russian aircraft.Sleek and strong, it represents every-thing a fighter should be—and every-thing a fighter pilot would like to flyinto combat.

Sukhoi has built fewer than a dozenSu-35s to date. None represent fullyoperational or production-standardhardware. Rather, each of the proto-types serves as a system, structural, orperformance-envelope test bed; andtypical of a prototype program, eachhas been continuously modified sincethe first Su-35 (initially referred to inprototype form as the T10M, and later,as the Su-27M) arrived at Zhukovsky in 1988.

Cockpit configurations representsome of the most noticeable differences.

The infrared search-and-track ball is mountedjust ahead and to the right of the Su-35’s single-piece windscreen (photo by KatsuhikoTokunaga).

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For instance, four monochromatic (Russia lags behind theWest in color-video technology), multifunctional displayscreens present flight- and weapons-system informationto the pilot (virtually standardized in arrangement andpresentation symbology in the West) and have beeninstalled in a somewhat random order from aircraft to air-craft. This apparently has been to accommodate ever-changing Russian combat requirements and ill-definedergonomic specifications.

The Su-35 has a “digital quadruplex fly-by-wire flight-control system” that makes it comparable, in manyrespects, to the latest Western standard. This sophisticatedapproach to flight control permits the pilot—via a com-plex system of super-high-speed mini-computers—to flythe aircraft at the ragged edge of stability. The computerscombine flight-data input from many static pitot sensors,various attitude references and pilot flight-control sys-tems feedback; they then output control-systems actuatordata to the horizontal tail surfaces, the ailerons, the rud-ders and the hyperactive canards. The latter play a keyrole in virtually all pitch-related maneuvers and can beseen moving almost constantly while the big fighter is inflight. Otherwise, the Su-35 is an amalgam of miscella-neous stock components and materials that can trace

SPECIFICATIONS

Length72 ft., 6 in.

Wingspan48 ft., 3 in.

Wing leading-edge sweep42 degrees

Height20 ft., 9 in.

Empty weight40,565 lb.

Normal takeoffweight

56,659 lb.

Max. speedMach 2.31(1,550mph)

Service ceiling60,000 ft.

Max. range (internal fuel)2,485 miles

Two of the preproduction seriesSu-35s, armed to the gills withdummy weapons (photo byKatsuhiko Tokunaga). Right: the Su-35’s instrument panelappears to be state of the art.Multifunction displays, however,are mixed with conventional analog instrumentation (photo by Jay Miller).

Like most contemporary Russian high-performancecombat aircraft, the Su-35 is equipped with a K-36DM rocket-propelled ejection seat (photos by Jay Miller).

their origins back to the 1960s. Itis, in many respects, a technologi-cal anachronism.

Incorporating older, proventechnologies and materials, however, is not a serious flawbut rather an exercise in common sense. For Russian design-ers, the pragmatics of design far outweigh the Westernpropensity for state-of-the-art sophistication and complexityat every opportunity.

Arguably one of the finest-looking fighters of the post-WW II era, the Su-35 actually represents little in the way ofadvanced aerodynamic thinking. It is, however, highlymaneuverable and surprisingly agile—particularly for an air-

craft that has a gross takeoff weightapproaching 35 tons. Roll, pitch and instan-taneous turn rates throughout most of its 9Genvelope are comparable to Western fight-ers, though it reportedly requires exceptionalphysical exertion on the part of the pilot tomaneuver through an extensive aerobaticrepertoire.

The Su-35’s air-to-air Phazotron NIIP N-011 multi-mode, look-down/shoot-downradar (which also has an air-to-ground capa-bility out to a range of 124 miles) is sophisti-cated but not up to state-of-the-art Westernstandards. Typical of Russian radars, itdepends more on its enormous power thanon sophistication to accomplish search-and-track tasks and overcome countermeasures.Regardless, Sukhoi claims the unit can trackup to 15 targets simultaneously while itengages any six at ranges of up to 249 miles.Few Russian aircraft observers truly believethe latter, but military strategists often use itanyway for threat analysis purposes.

Interestingly, Sukhoi’s chief during Su-35development, Mikhail Simonov, has alludedto a small Zhuk-Ph aft-facing radar with arange of up to 2.5 miles mounted in the rearend of the fuselage, but no such system hasbeen seen on any of the flightworthy Su-35scurrently being tested. Aft-facing radar couldserve any of several purposes, including earlywarning of rear attack or active guidance foraft-facing air-to-air weapons (which the Su-35 purportedly is designed to carry).

The Su-35’s external finish, which Ireviewed in great detail during my visit, isnot up to Western standards. Close scrutinyshows it to be very rough, and in someplaces, downright crude. Panels don’t fitprecisely, and many are dented as a result ofmishandling (and deliberately left thatway); most have apparently been abused atone time or another by maintenance per-sonnel. Many parts, such as the massiveglass-fiber nose radome, simply appear tobe poorly made.

These parts, however, do work! And theyare easier and less expensive to manufacturethan their more refined Western counter-parts. While the finish on the Su-35 is not

up to Westernstandards, suchrefinement makesvery little differ-ence operationally.Construction lati-tude simplifies theproduction processand lessens theburden of fieldrepairs during battle.

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The famous Cobramaneuver is a slam-dunkfor the Su-35 (photo byKatsuhiko Tokunaga).

Left: the Su-35 is equipped with canards that are interfaced with its sophisticated fly-by-wire flight-control system. Right: the Su-35 is designed to carry virtually everything in the Russian fighter weaponinventory, including laser-guided bombs such as this crude-looking 500-pounder (photos by Jay Miller).

The high thrust-to-weight ratio of the Su-35 gives it extraordinarymaneuvering performance. The third prototype, 703‚ is shown(photo by Katsuhiko Tokunaga).

Russian designs for military hardwarehave historically been influenced by thelessons learned during WW II, whichthe Russians invariably refer to as“The Great Pa t r io t i c War .”Equipment must be able to functionin extraordinarily harsh climacticand field conditions.

The Su-35 is no exception to this. It isdesigned to operate from virtually anyimaginable unprepared surface, includ-ing hard dirt, mud, snow and ice. High-flotation tires, extremely rugged land-

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Su-35 709 does a loop over Zhukovsky. Evenwhen fully loaded with armament, the aircraft isexceptionally nimble (photo by KatsuhikoTokunaga).

The extreme movement of the canards, which play a critical role in the aircraft’s maneuverability, isreadily discernible in maneuvering flight (photo by Katsuhiko Tokunaga).

ing-gear struts, mud guards on thenosewheels, independent self-con-tained main-gear disc-brake coolingfans and nosewheel brakes representweight and system complexities that would be unaccept-able in Western countries.

As one might expect of such a largefighter, the Su-35 can carry an extraor-dinary complement of weapons andstores. In addition to an internallymounted conventional GSh-30-130mm cannon, it can also transport alarge assortment of air-to-air missiles(R-37, R-33, R-77), air-to-surface mis-siles (Kh-31, Kh-59), anti-ship missiles,air-to-surface rockets, conventionaliron bombs, laser-guided bombs, a“buddy” pod for in-flight refuelingand, most likely, tactical nuclearweapons—all mounted externally onat least a dozen wing and fuselagepylons. Maximum external weaponsload is 17,634 pounds.

This diversity of weapons, thoughimpressive, represents as much a bur-den as a blessing. Each bomb, rocket,or missile requires a different set ofaiming equations (and, sometimes,hardware swaps), a different set oflaunch parameters, special mountingequipment and, for the pilot, a differ-ent set of performance concerns. Lessdirectly, each weapon also requires aseparate and totally independent pro-duction line, and invariably, an inde-pendent, logistical support system.

The Su-35 is powered by two largeNPO Saturn AL-31FM turbofanengines, each rated at over 29,000pounds of thrust in afterburner.

SU-35 SUPER FLANKER

Surprisingly, these exceptionally pow-erful propulsion units appear to bequite miserly when it comes to fuelconsumption. Most important, theyprovide the more than ample muscleneeded to shove the Su-35 out to near-ly two and a half times the speed ofsound. All missions are flown withinternal fuel only, as the Su-35 is notknown to be capable of carrying orusing external fuel tanks. Ferry range isin excess of 2,500 miles, and the air-craft is in-flight refuelable beyond that.

Victor Pugachev, Sukhoi’s chief testpilot during the course of our visit toZhukovsky, flew the Su-35 six timesover three days specifically for us. Iwitnessed each takeoff and landingand also reviewed nearly seven hoursof high-end tape shot by our team’s air-to-air photo-grapher, Katsuhiko Tokunaga. I alsowatched Pugachev fly several complexdemonstration routines, including onethat lasted nearly an hour.

The Su-35 has an extraordinary rateof roll and can perform vertical andhorizontal maneuvers and virtually allthe rest of its aerobatic routine wellwithin the confines of the Zhukovskyairfield boundaries. And like its predecessor, the exception-ally capable Sukhoi Su-27, it, too, canperform the famous “Cobra” pitch-upmaneuver (made famous by VictorPugachev during the 1991 ParisAirshow) in very capable fashion.

Few Western observers—includingthis author—question the impressiveperformance of what some of us con-sider to be the last great Russian fight-er. Whether it will ever become athreat to Western combat aircraft hasyet to be seen. Obviously, if the typewere to become the West’s main com-petition, nothing would make Sukhoiand its engineering staff happier! �