The tense relationship between Russia and Ukraine is raising questions regarding a confrontation between the two countries' air forces if the conflict escalate
Two main types of fighters, the Russian Su--35 and the Ukrainian Su-27, have been compared to evaluate the air potential of these two opponents
Ukraine's Su-27 fighter was commented that it was very difficult to resist the Russian Su-35 if a military conflict broke out
Ukraine's Su-27 fighter has hardly changed compared to the Soviet era, while the Russian Su-35 is the latest variant of the famous Flanker fighter family
The American magazine Military Watch has made a comparison of the advantage of the Russian Su-35 over the Ukrainian Su-27 in a simulated air battle
The American newspaper recalls that since 2014, Ukraine has made efforts to increase the number of fighters
But while their air force was once among the top five in the world, the Soviet legacy was squandered
If in the early 1990s, the size of Ukraine's fighter fleet consisted of more than 1,000 aircraft
now there are less than 100 aircraft, most of which have become obsolete
According to statistics, 14 of them are the old Su-24M attack variants with very limited air combat capabilities
while the rest are MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters and a few Su-25 low-altitude attack aircraft
The Su-27 was the most powerful Soviet fighter at the time of its disintegration
This is a heavy fighter with a very long range and large payload
However, Ukraine did not have the funds to modernize and refit it
In Russia, on that basis - the Su-35 fighter was developed - a deep modernization of the Su-27, which entered service in 2014
Despite the fact that the Su-35 is based on the same type of airframe but it has advantages in every way
The Su-35's lighter and stronger airframe is due to the use of more composite materials, which were almost never used on the original Su-27
This element reduces the radar cross section, while helping to carry more fuel, increasing the flight range
The AL-41F1S engine has strong thrust and vector control capabilities, the flight performance of the Su-35 is still much higher than that of the Su-27
The most significant advantage of the Su-35 over the Su-27 is the avionics system:
the old aircraft uses outdated radar, which is relatively easy to jam in modern combat conditions
The Su-35 uses an electronically scanned array Irbis-E
The detection range of targets with an effective scattering area of 3 square meters of the Su-27 is only 80 km, in this figure of the Irbis-E radar is 400 km
Su-35's OLS-35 infrared search and tracking system also has 180 percent the detection range of the Su-27’s OLS-27 at 90km as opposed to 50km
Thus it is no exaggeration to say that the Su-35 has superior situational awareness to a full half squadron of original Flankers
Improvements to avionics included a digital cockpit as opposed to the original Flanker’s analogue
as well as superior Khibny-M electronic warfare suite
the modern KSU-35 digital flight control system, and much more sophisticated data links and communications
In air combat, the Su-35 and Su-27 will rely mainly on R-77 and R-27 missiles, the R-77 type has active radar homing, while the older R-27 uses the semi-active type
The fact that the R-27 is produced in both Ukraine and Russia means that the Ukrainian industry is able to improve the design of the missile from the original
The most prominent air-to-air missile on the Su-35 is the R-37M
which also has active radar guidance and is significantly superior to the above missiles in terms of range, although maneuverability is not appreciated
Supplementing its thrust vectoring engines and superior flight performance
the K-74M2 infra red guided short range missiles provide the Su-35
with a very significant advantage in visual range engagements over the older R-60 and R-73 used by Ukrainian aircraft
In short, the Russian Su-35 is designed to counter fifth-generation fighters, which has a huge advantage over the Su-27
In addition, with a significant numerical superiority, it is difficult to lose in the air battle with Ukraine's Su-27 fighter, Military Watch concludes