Russian President Vladimir Putin showed off Su-57 to Turkish President Erdogan on Tuesday.
This comes after Turkey was blocked from F-35 sales due to its purchase of the Russian S-400
air defense system.
Russian and Turkish news outlets reported that Mr. Putin led Erdogan to Su-57 which
is developed by Sukhoi, at the annual MAKS-2019 air show at Zhukovsky International Airport
outside Moscow.
According to the Associated Press, Erdogan looked into the cockpit of the Su-57 and asked
whether it was available for sale.
Mr. Putin is said to have smiled and said, "Yes, you can buy it”
Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported that Erdogan and Putin also had a private conversation
for oven an hour.
In this video Defense Updates analyses, Russian offer of Sukhoi Su 57 to Turkey after America
removed it from F 35 program because of S 400 purchase.
Let’s get into the details.
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S 400 Triumph is an anti-aircraft weapon system developed by Russia’s Almaz Central Design
Bureau in the 1990s as an upgrade of the S 300 family.
it has been in service with the Russian armed forces since 2007.
It is designed to defend against aircraft including 5th generation stealth fighters,
bombers, AWACS, cruise missiles, and ballistic missile.
It is considered to be one of the most powerful air defense system in the world.
Russian S 400 air defense is a package consisting of Radar, Command & Control center and Interceptor
missiles
S 400 can track hundreds of target at a time, engage up to 36 targets in parallel and simultaneously
launch 72 missiles.
S 400 uses multiple radars depending on threat perception.
The primary one is either the 91N6E Big Bird Acquisition and Battle Management Radar or
92N6E Grave Stone Multimode Engagement Radar.
These have a range of around 600 km or around 370 miles.
The main radar is complimented by target acquisition radars like 67N6 Gamma De and 9N6 Protivnik
Ge radars in L band, Nebo SVU in the Very High-Frequency band and Nebo M & Zebu M in
multiband.
Nebo SVU & Zebu M is touted to have the ability to detect stealth aircraft.
S 400 deploys multiple missiles to cover its strike envelope and can hit targets at a max
range of 400 km or around 250 miles.
Turkey had more than 100 F 35s on order.
It has already received two F 35s.
Not only this, being one of the major partners it is s responsible for the production of
certain components of F 35 and would have provided maintenance support to other European
customers of the jet.
Turkish companies are responsible for 937 parts used to build the F-35 and 400 of these
are solely sourced from Turkish firms.
It is to be noted that Turkey is not only an important player in the F 35 program, but
is it also an important NATO member.
NATO is a block formed mainly to defend against the Soviet Union.
Keeping this aspect into consideration, there were 3 main reasons for the opposition S 400
1.
NATO as an organization like to have interoperability.
So, the Russian system will be out of place and reduce tactical flexibility.
2.
When Turkey operates the jets in the airspace which is monitored by S 400, S 400 will be
able to gather technical data such as radar signature of F 35s.
This could potentially pass onto Russian hands and could undercut the main advantage of F35s
that’s ‘stealth'.
3.
S 400 will be hooked to Turkish air defense as part of integrated air defense setup.
This could be major security breach as having the S-400 linked into Turkish defense networks
could potentially give Russian analysts access to sensitive information that passes through
the cloud-based, multi-national Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) system
of F 35s.
ALIS has critical mission data and flight routes.
Important people like US Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the head of US forces in Europe
and NATO Allied Air Commander Gen. Tod Wolters voiced their opinion that Turkey should not
be provided with F 35s if it acquired S 400.
It is to be noted that Turkey had repeatedly asked for Patriot Air defense System from
the U.S but was rejected by Obama administration.
The Patriot PAC 3 was offered to it by the Trump administration, but Turkey is no longer
wanted it.
Erdogan was quoted by NTV as saying: "One S-400 is worth three Patriots.
If the conditions are even equal to the S-400 (deal), we would buy Patriots, but if they
are not, then we have to think of our interests”
The U.S insisted that Turkey pulled out of the deal but Erdogan struck to his stand.
On 12 July, S-400 started reaching Turkey and thereafter it was officially removed from
the F 35 program.
The Su-57 is the first operational aircraft in Russian Air Force service to use stealth
technology.
Similar to F-22 & F 35, the airframe incorporates design elements that reduce Radar Cross Section
(RCS) of the jet
Weapons are carried internally in weapons bays within the airframe and antennas are
recessed from the surface of the skin to preserve the aircraft’s stealthy shape.
Also, Radar Absorbent Material (RAM) has been used to reduce its radar returns.
Su 57 is designed to have extreme maneuverability at both supersonic and subsonic speeds, this
can provide it with a brutal advantage in dogfights & help it defeat missile with extreme
evasive maneuvers instead of entirely relying on stealth.
It is the first fighter jet to utilize 3D thrust vectoring.
This enables engine thrust to be pointed in different directions, providing increased
pitch, roll, and yaw control.
Supercruise is the ability to sustain supersonic flight without using fuel-inefficient afterburners.
Su 57 is thought to be capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 2 without an afterburner.
Su 57 has N036 Belka radar system that consists of a main nose-mounted X-band AESA radar,
two smaller X-band AESA radars mounted on the sides of the forward fuselage and 2 L-band
arrays on the wing’s leading edge extensions.
This provides Su 57 with 360-degree coverage.
With its onboard Belka radar station, the Su-57 is speculated to have the ability to
detect ‘stealth’ aircraft and track over 10 targets simultaneously.
It also houses an Infrared Search And Track (IRST) sensor at the base of its windscreen,
providing it with another option with which to detect enemy aircraft apart from Belka
radar system.
IRST sensors can track an aircraft by its Infrared signatures.
Viewers may note that the Su 57 program had the backing of India.
India was looking for a customized variant of Su 57 for its air force and had put in
significant funding.
India wanted to acquire around 150 jets.
But in April 2018, India pulled out of the project.
The main reasons were engine issue and unconvincing stealth characteristics.
Su 57 has a fair share of problems and it is no secret that Russia is trying to woo
back India as well as looking for new partners.
On May 15 Mr. Putin revealed that a procurement plan is being laid out for acquiring 76 Su-57
for the Russian Air Force and it is expected that these will be deployed by 2028.
This is a major delay as the Kremlin previously planned to have 150 of these aircraft in service
by 2020.
On the other hand, the F 35 program is moving much better with the unit price of the F-35A
moving below $80 million in a recent deal.
Also, it seems to be doing great tactically too, recently Israeli F 35I hit targets in
Iraq deceiving Russian S 300 & S 400 in Syria.
To know more viewers can check the video on the above card.
But the probable replacement of F 35 with Russian Su 57 is not just a military deal
but it has important political ramifications.
It is likely that a wedge will be drawn in NATO and Turkey may get aligned more towards Russia
It remains to be seen how things pan out going forward.