Russia is close to defining its next-generation tactical fighter aircraft requirements, with final approval expected later this month, says air force commander Col Gen Anatoli Kornukov.
The new fighter "will be of medium weight", Kornukov told the Russian military news agency.
The aircraft, which will be designed and built by AVPK Sukhoi, is unlikely to enter the development phase until 2005, with entry into service planned for 2010-15.
While Sukhoi general director Mikhail Pogosyan refuses to elaborate on the specific characteristics of the aircraft, previous descriptions have alluded to a multi-role aircraft similar to the US Joint Strike Fighter programme.
Sukhoi proposed a lightweight single-engined advanced tactical fighter design in the 1980s, the S-37 (a designation confusingly reused for Sukhoi's forward-swept wing demonstrator aircraft), but the programme was cancelled.
The new tactical aircraft will be one of three new designs for the air force, alongside a light all-weather attack design to replace ageing Sukhoi Su-22 Fitters and Su-25 Frogfoots, and another type for long-range aviation. The latter may be the Sukhoi Su-27IB (also known as the Su-32FN), but could also be an as-yet unseen design based on the T-60 programme which is thought to have been suspended in the 1990s.
Source: Flight International
