Thus was conceived the JSF aeons ago,a smaller single-engined stealth bird,bird for all seasons,"jack of all trades",etc.,etc.To be built in huge qtys.,different less capable versions for allies (1st class,2nd.class,turd class,) depending upon who they were and how much moolah they contributed to the programme.The project has been so technologically ambitious and in retrospect fatally flawed in key areas of air combat,that it is 10+ years behind schedule,plagued with software related problems among others,that threaten to cripple both its capability and revised schedule of inductment.Moreover,one aircraft for 3 services actually has ended up into 3 very different variants of the same platform,again in retrospect far more expensive had 3 different and separate aircraft programmes been pursued.The JSF td. has the details of the sorry saga of the programme ,the world's most expensive fighter programme ever,with overall costs according to one estimate over $1 Tr.! What it will eventually cost and how much it will cost to support and maintain is still up in the air.
Anyway,regardless of their small orders of JSFs getting smaller,many US allies have for quite some time been toying with the idea of developing their own indigenous stealth platforms/indigenous fighters.The Japanese,SoKO and Turkey prime examples.The reasons are simple.They need insurance against the JSF becoming too expensive and problematic to acquire in large number and need large numbers to replace their US legacy fighters F-16s,F-18s and F-15s.There are 2/3 stealth prototypes flying which will mature by 2020 and considerably alter the global air dominance scenario.The Russian FGFA and the Chinese J-20 and its smaller counterpart.Given the increasing spats with China that the US's Far Eastern allies have,possession of a stealth fighter is imperative,why despite the JSF's floundering,SoKo's generals have decided to plump for it in ltd. qty.,even though it is 25% above their budgeted costs.Nevertheless,developing their own stealth bird /indogenous fighter options constantly being evaluated .
While the Chinese birds will never be available to them and the principal enemy combatant,the Russian FGFA/T-50 could be available to certain nations.The Russians have in the past dangled their Flankers at some US allies,who have had solid US pressure put upon them to resist the temptation.If the Indo-Russian JV succeeds in delivering into service the FGFA/T-50 by 2020,it will be arguably the best of the stealth birds flying,equivalent to the F-22 which is unavailable to US allies.The Flanker has proven itself to the be the best combat aircraft flying today other than the F-22.With such a track record behind it,Sukhoi is on course if it succeeds according to schedule and cost,for another two decades of success in the intl. fighter market with the FGFA.The JSF as a competitor is inferior in most respects, will be more expensive and buyers will never get the US's most capable versions.The aircraft will be in demand from some other independent nations like Brazil,S.Africa,Malaysia,Indonesia,Algeria,etc.,most of whom in the past have bought Russian Flankers and Fulcrums,apart from Russia's close CIS allies.The SU-30MKI which India co-developed to meet its own unique needs ,has become the "gold standard" for Flankers,saw the creation of the SU-35 single-seater equivalent and the upgraded version of the "Super-Sukhoi" to come,which is supposed to feature some of the 5th-gen tech being developed.
Thus incrementally,Sukhoi is maintaining its lead in the fighter stakes.The FGFA is as vital to the Russian aircraft industry as the JSF,but has the insurance policy of being developed upon the success of the Flanker variants,the best series flying,and thus has greater flexibility in development and time to perfect.If it rolls out a basic fully qualified for combat MK-1 version around 2018+ as planned,it would've stolen a march ahead of its 5th-gen rivals.
A slightly dated but informative report of progress.
http://en.take-off.ru/news/107-june2012 ... ght-trials
As many as four PAK FA planes in flight trials
This summer, the fourth flying prototype of the Sukhoi PAK FA (T-50) fifth-generation advanced tactical fighter joined the factory flight tests being flown at Sukhoi’s flight test facility in Zhukovsky, Moscow Region. Together with the third prototype, it is used mostly for flight testing of the fighter’s cutting-edge avionics suite – an advanced Tikhomirov-NIIP AESA airborne radar in the first place, a sophisticated IRST system and other systems as well.
The PAK FA’s fourth flying prototype, the T-50-4, was completed in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in late autumn last year. Sukhoi’s test pilot Sergei Bogdan conducted the first flight on 12 December 2012 and then flew it to the Gromov LII Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky on 15–17 January 2013 following several test flights and the painting in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The ferry flight about 7,000 km long, which included several stopovers across Russia, went smoothly and demonstrated the high reliability o the aircraft and all of its systems. As is known, the first three PAK FA prototypes were disassembled and flown to Zhukovsky by An-124 Ruslan airlifters after their several test flights in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The T-50-4 is the first prototype that ferried itself from the plant in the Russian Far East to the Moscow Region.
Having arrived at Sukhoi’s flight test facility in Zhukovsky, the T-50-4 (side number 054) joined in March the three other prototypes involved in the flight test programme there.
The third flying PAK FA prototype’s flight test phase commenced at Sukhoi’s flight test station in Zhukovsky in mid-June 2012. Sukhoi’s test pilot Hero of Russia Sergei Bogdan took T-50-3 prototype for its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 22 November 2011. Following three sorties under the factory acceptance programme, the aircraft had been painted and airlifted by an An-124 Ruslan heavy-lifter to Zhukovsky on 28 December 2011.
The aircraft had been assembled and its systems had been debugged and ground-tested at Sukhoi’s flight test facility for five months. In particular, the aircraft was for the first time equipped with an AESA radar prototype developed by the Tikhomirov-NIIP institute, and the radar’s operation as part of the avionic suite was tested.
Sergei Bogdan took it to the sky at the Gromov Flight Research Institute airfield on 21 June 2012. The AESA radar tests commenced in July. First, it was tested on the ground against an aerial target. The first flight test of the AESA onboard T-50-3 in several operating modes took place on 24 July 2012. According to an official statement by Sukhoi, “the early tests of the radar’s air-to-air and air-to-surface modes onboard the T-50-3 prototype have produced good stable results on a par with the performance of the best existing aircraft. Approaches to refining these capabilities have been proven. Work has begun to test the optical channels”.
To date, the T-50-3 has flown more than 50 test sorties, mostly to test the AESA radar and other avionics.
The second flying prototype, the T-50-2 (side number 052), was first flown by Sergei Bogdan on 3 March 2011. A month later it was brought to Zhukovsky, and started flying there in mid-August. In August 2012, the aircraft started being used for testing mid-air refuelling from Russian Air Force Il-78 tanker planes. Since early this year, the T-50-2 which logged more than 80 sorties by that time has been undergoing modification for trials within the expanded g-load and flight limit bracket and is to resume its flying in June.
The first flying prototype, T-50-1 (side number 051) is being used in trials too. It had spent about a year, undergoing improvements since the unveiling at the MAKS 2011 air show in August 2011. The T-50-1 first flew in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 29 January 2010 and has been flown in Zhukovsky since April 2010. The preparation of the T-50-1 for extreme angle-of-attack and supermanoeuvrability test flights had been completed by last autumn, and its first flight in the wake of the modification took place in Zhukovsky on 11 September 2012. In all, it fulfilled more than 100 sorties by this summer
The 100th test flight under the PAK FA test programme was performed in November 2011, with the 200th flight took place in January 2013. This year, the fifth aircraft is to join the trials. T-50-5 is under assembly at the plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur now. It will be followed by the sixth example.
As many as five Sukhoi test pilots have been flying the T-50s: in addition to Sergei Bogdan, who performed the maiden flights on the four prototypes being tested, they are Roman Kondratyev, Yuri Vashchuk, Sergei Kostin and Taras Artsebarsky.
On 25 April 2013, the first military pilot, Col. Rafael Suleimanov, a test pilot with the Defence Ministry Flight Test Centre named after Valery Chkalov, conducted his first solo flight on a PAK FA (T-50-3).
The RusAF commander Lt.-Gen. Victor Bondarev said in January that the PAK FA would start its official tests at the Defence Ministry’s Flight Test Centre in Akhtubinsk in 2013. The construction of the six prototypes will be followed by the manufacture of a low-rate initial production batch for operational evaluation and then by full-rate production. According to the media, about 60 production-standard PAK FAs are planned for fielding during 2016–20. Obviously, the deliveries will continue past 2020.
) made such claims as JSF is not air superiority fighter and without F-22 its useless etc. He is trying to save F-22 funding.