Ruskies Unveil New Fighter
I briefly toyed with the headline "Ruskies Still Copying US, But Getting Slower." The Sukhoi design bureau unveiled their latest prototype of a Generation 5 fighter jet - the Su T-50, or "Pak FA" with what appeared to be a maiden test flight (video). Note that the gear is kept down for most of the flight, indicating that this was a test of the retraction capability. However, the designers claim that the aircraft has already sustained super-cruise.
The aircraft is a shared project with India - Russia bringing the metallurgical technology and ample supply of titanium to the deal. India brings their advanced understanding of composite technologies and billions of dollars of capital to the table. Together they will be able to have this fighter operational in about 10 years.
The bragging rights for Russia is that they'll finally have a plane to go against the American F-22. Not so fast professor - the F-22 is fully stealth. The Pak Fa is clearly - at face value - limited in its stealth. Clearly they've chose maneuverability over stealth (something the F-22 didn't have to do) by having fully gimballed exhaust ala the Mig 29 OVT. And by the time this thing gets into production, we'll be hammering on our prototype Generation 6 fighters.