Co Gen Deinekin (left) and Mikhail Simonov met this year to discuss the S-32
The latest design iteration of the S-32?
The above impression represents an early S-32 iteration
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOWDouglas Barrie/LONDON
Sukhoi is continuing to pursue research into advanced "fifth-generation" fighter designs despite the parlous state of Russia's defence budget.
The bureau has been looking at designs which could supplant the Su-27 Flanker as an air-superiority fighter, using the S-32 designation.
The most radical element of the airframe layout appears to be the preference for a forward-swept wing combined with a large foreplane. The forward-swept wing, coupled with thrust vectoring, is suited to post-stall manouevring.
The S-32 project is personally backed by Mikhail Simonov, chief designer at Sukhoi. Simonov and Col Gen Piotr Deinekin, the head of the air force, met earlier this year to discuss several programmes, including the Su-27M upgrade of the Su-27 Flanker, and the S-32.
Two configurations have so far been associated with the S-32 project, which is understood to have been initiated in the late 1980s. Sukhoi is reluctant to discuss fighter designs beyond the Flanker.
Whatever the status of the S-32 project, the Russian air force is in no position to provide any substantial funding for a fifth-generation fighter programme.
VPK MAPO's Mikoyan 1.42 fighter project for the air force is at a standstill, with no work being carried out on the existing prototypes. The first aircraft, however, could be prepared for flight within six to eight weeks if either MAPO or the air force believe that it would be "politically advantageous", say official sources.
The 1.42, as now configured, will never enter service with the Russian air force, say Moscow sources. The best that MAPO can hope for is that the aircraft is used as a systems testbed for avionics, radar and engine technologies. Some of these could be fed into its MiG-35 proposal for a further development of the MiG-29M.
The air force's priority in the short to medium term is unlikely to be for a fifth-generation fighter, but it requires a replacement interdictor-strike aircraft in the shape of the Su-27IB. Sukhoi is continuing test-flying of the Su-27M Advanced Flanker.
Source: Flight International
