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Meet the new jet that has America very afraid, able
to fly further than the F35, reach Mac 1.8 without
afterburners, and can even be remotely controlled by an AI
pilot.
On paper, this new concept stealth jet is deliciously impressive.
On paper, that is.
As many might know, the journey from concept to creation
is filled with turbulence.
Is this jet, the future of Russia's Air Force, ready
to go toe to toe with the best of the
USA, or an experimental dead end?
It's time to reset the board, as the SU-75 has
made it.
Checkmate.
The Cold War of the 20th century between the United
States and the then Soviet Union might be over, but
a 21st century arms race continues at full speed ahead
between the United States and the Russian Federation.
The latter, now depleted of all its former Soviet republics,
continues to be a thorn in the side of America's
military aviation industry and its allies.
It's not by chance that Russia continues to use its
famous Mayday celebrations to show off its military might and
hardware such as the Soviets did back during the USSR
days.
Like any military power, Russia makes big song and dance
of the unveiling of any new aircraft.
Such was the case with its new fighter jet that
many aviation experts believe will be a direct competitor to
EU S S F35 superiority fighter.
The plane comes with not one but two catchy nicknames,
namely the Sakhoi LTS Screamer or the LTS Sakhoi Checkmate.
The Russians rather wirily refer to it simply as the
Checkmate.
Let's not forget that Russians are chess masters, bar none.
So a plane dubbed that does command some of my
attention.
Let's get the obvious out of the way first.
Many have noted how the Sukhoi LTS Checkmate looks a
lot like the Lockheed Martin made F35 stealth fighter.
Similarities between Russia's Checkmate and America's F35 are particularly stark
design wise.
For example, like the F35, the Russian Checkmate includes widely
splayed split angle tails, a narrow fuselage that houses a
single engine, and large wings that are somewhat diamond shaped.
However, rather than being a case of Checkmate being a
copy of the F35, these similarities shouldn't be too surprising.
After all, any stealth aircraft is fundamentally constrained by the
aerodynamic limitations imposed by having stealth features.
One can only defy physics so much further.
Design features of the Checkmate include its cropped delta wing
and movable fins that act as renovators which provide control
on both the pitch and your axes.
Sharp eyed analysts felt its most striking feature is its
intake, designed as a chin inlet slung under and wrapped
around the lower fuselage, but with a still flat underside.
The size of its wings suggests that the plane could
climb to 40,000 feet or higher.
But of course being a secret project, we don't know
yet for sure.
Weapons bays for two short range air to air missiles
are found on either side of the fuselage and the
capacity for three longer range weapons carried in the lower
Bay.
As well as an internal gun.
The Checkmate can also carry weapons on the external pylons
for missions not requiring stealth with the Eternal Weapons Bay
is designed to carry both air to air and air
to ground ordinance, including both infrared radar guided air to
air, air to ground and anti ship missiles, guided and
unguided bombs and unguided rockets.
So it's pretty easy to say that this aircraft has
weapons to spare.
In terms of weight, the planes maximum combat load is
7.4 tonnes, which includes a range of air to surface
weaponry with a maximum take off weight or M toe
of approximately 18 tonnes.
As for speed, there are claims that the plane can
reach Mac 1.8 and fly supersonically without the use of
an afterburner with an 8G manoeuvring rate.
It's power plant would probably be the same engine used
to power the SU 57 twin jet.
Other features of the Plane Herald by the builders Rostec
include that it will feature artificial intelligence or AI in
some capacity, although to what extent and to what end
that IAI will be used in the aircraft remains for
now unknown.
However, AI will no doubt be used for the plane's
voice control technology.
Speaking of, AIA spokesperson has also said that both a
twin seat manned version and an unmanned version of the
Checkmate are being considered for development, leaving us to wonder
if the future of Russia's Air Force will be metal
pilots.
It's this kind of reimagining of fighter jets that makes
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Anyway, back to the show.
It's being commentated that the launch of the new Sakoy
LTS Checkmate was probably the loudest way to announce a
new stealth aircraft.
Every year Russia hosts what is called the Maks Show,
standing for the International Aviation and Space Show, which is
an air show held at the Zhukovsky International Airport.
Various Tupelev, Alician and other planes, both military and commercial,
have been tested at the airport and it's place in
the sortied history of Russian aviation and space exploration makes
it an ideal venue for this event.
In attendance at the 2021 show were 831 companies from
56 countries.
So what I'm getting at is that this is the
show for Russian aviation and it was at this event
on July 20th, 2021 that the new Russian jet was
unveiled with much prompt and very loud music.
The plane is designed by Rostek, a defence giant that
is a subsidiary of the Russian conglomerate United Aircraft Corporation.
According to The Associated Press, Rostek boasted about its new
aircraft prior to the July 20th launch as being a
fundamentally new military aircraft and further stated how it being
produced in what they call one of the few countries
in the world with a full cycle capacity for producing
advanced aircraft systems as well as reckoned organised trendsetter in
the creation of combat aircraft.
As an interesting sign note, this same company did also
announce hydrogen powered engines for both aviation and ground applications,
which I think we can agree needs its own video.
Yet, while it might be easy to show off a
new fighter jet concept, can Russia actually afford this new
creation?
It's worth noting that jets with twin engines, such as
America's F22 or Russia's SU 57 may allow for greater
speed and reliability, but they're also much more expensive and
heavier, which in turn means that they're more thirsty for
fuel.
Twin engine fighter jets also tend to be more complex
and thus expensive in terms of maintenance, so a single
engine jet such as the Checkmate should be less expensive
in terms of purchase, fuel and maintenance costs.
Nevertheless, it doesn't mean that Checkmate is a cheap plane.
According to the CEO of the project, a Checkmate will
set back a buyer around 25 to 30 million.
However, and this is of critical importance in the global
aviation stakes, the Checkmate is a lot cheaper than the
F35 which was selling around 78 million a jet as
of 2020.
Far more countries worldwide will be able to spend around
30 million for a fighter jet then the mere handful
that can afford to fork out the 78,000,000 per F35
bought from America.
So you can start to see that the economics makes
sense.
It is known that should the Checkmate be produced, the
Russians will be depending heavily on foreign sales to make
the plane financially viable.
And that brings us back to the launch party and
explains why they had such a flashy big event and
had a video released on YouTube to promote the Checkmate
prior to its launch, featuring pilots from the air forces
of potential client countries such as the United Arab Emirates,
India, Vietnam and Argentina.
Those are the of countries that the Russians will be
betting will want to buy their own Sakoy LTS Checkmate
for their Air Force collections.
A further boost to the sales of the Checkmate could
be that the new plane has a planned combat radius
of 930 miles or 1496 kilometres, which is about 250
miles or 402 kilometres farther than the F35 can travel
at its least heavyweight.
It's true that external fuel tanks can increase the range
of the F35, but that makes the plane less stealthy,
and that in turn means that their Checkmate would essentially
be in a class of its own when it comes
to stealth fighter jets.
So perhaps cost will be the ultimate Checkmate move of
this SACOY LTS.
Not surprisingly, many Western aviation pundits were quick to point
out that the Sakoy LTS is only a prototype, potentially
far from being mass produced fighter jet ready for international
sales.
Experts at the show noted a lack of wiring and
hydraulic lines within the visible parts of the main landing
gear and other telltale signs that indicated what was being
launched was only a mock up rather than an actual
flight ready aircraft.
However, it's worth mentioning that Rostec themselves have confidently claimed
that the Checkmate will be ready soon for test flights.
Whether that was actually true or merely wishful thinking by
the Russian aviation company is yet to be known.
Rostek remains confident that the Checkmate's first flight is scheduled
for 20/23, with deliveries earmarked to clients by 2027.
But some critics have been quick to mention that the
F35 itself took nearly two decades between its concept and
production.
But using the F35 as a yardstick is just about
the worst analogy possible given the aircraft's farcical history.
In fact, for the sake of context, let's take a
quick step back in time to look at the F35
project.
The Pentagon had decided to replace the very successful yet
aging F16 fighter, of which 4600 had then been built
by General Dynamic since the mid 1970s.
And the F16 was a great jet.
It was super easy to operate, easy to maintain, and
could fly at twice the speed of sound.
Carrying fifteen different bombs, including two nuclear weapons.
It could do even more, shoot down enemy aircraft with
five different varieties of air to air missiles and wipe
out ground targets with four different air to ground missiles.
It was a super versatile all out killing machine and
then came along, or rather blundered in, is the F35.
The F35 cannot fly at twice the speed of sound.
In fact, its supersonic flight mode on the control panel
carries anonymous warning for emergency use only.
The F35 designers also opted for touchscreen switches rather than
the usual toggles or rocker switches that pilots usually use.
A very well and modern dandy, except that touchscreen switches
don't function 20% of the time, which is somewhat problematic
for fighter pilots in the middle of a dogfight.
The list of flaws on the F35 goes on and
on, including the heat coating on its engine rotor blades
failing so often that literally 5 to 6% of the
entire worldwide F35 fleet is grounded due to safety concerns
at any one time.
Even more scary is the bubble shield of the fighter
jet that starts to delaminate in mid flight, which is
beyond dangerous.
The development of the F35 has been an unminable, negated
disaster, which is why even a prototype Russian stealth fighter
jet, even if far from being ready for production, is
still a big worry to the bigwigs at the Pentagon.
As noted, Rostek has set itself the deadline of 2023
for the first Test flight and 2027 for roll out
of the Sukhoi LTS.
Checkmate Any aviation expert will tell you that these are
highly ambitious target dates for a plane of this magnitude
and cost.
However, there is no denying that the Russian plane has
some strong selling points, most notably it's relatively low cost
as a stealth fighter jet.
Whether the Sukhoi LTS would achieve a Checkmate in it's
aviation class is yet to be seen.
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