Russian Air Force numbers and procurement plans

How about moving the Ukraine stuff to Ukrainian thread ?

Amazed and stunned by some members here. That people can sink so low and support Russia and Putin at a time like this.

Thank god that the West seems ta had enough and will put an end to this. Russia will go bankrupt within 6-12 months.

What has he done that the US and UK and the French and EU have not done or supported in the last 30 years.

Take a week to think about it...

Oh shut the hell up.

So you are reading my posts again... still listening to western media though clearly.

Putin just invaded a free democratic nation for no reason what so ever.

Free and democratic while having opposition leaders in jail and actually banning languages from being spoken, and no reason what so ever including openly nazi military units that call Ukrainian residents in the Donbass and Lugansk regions Russian invaders to justify shelling them daily for the last 8 years, not to mention 50 plus bio weapons labs in the Ukraine, and of course the leader of the country and various other politicians openly discussing the acquisition of nuclear weapons...

Yeah, maybe he just flipped a coin and decided to invade.

Now his paying for it, with lives of young russians soldiers and a sinking russian economy.

Hahaha... like you care about the lives of Russian soldiers... next you will be calling them all war criminals... the separation of the Russian economy from the west will not be painless... but it will be worth it.

If there are three buttons you could push to piss off Putin they would be nukes, bio weapons and nazis and the US is pushing all three.

For the most part I had believed the nazi shit was just a ruse... something they knew would upset the Russians but it seems that after capturing lots of places where they were based the posters and books and symbology... these are real nazis, so killing them makes sense... even if they take a few innocents with them like they do.

Keep this up and Putin wont afford a single new submarine , Su-57 or Armata for the next 10 years. Its back to the 90s again.

That would only make sense if he was importing submarines and aircraft and tanks and paying in US dollars or Euros for them.

They will likely shift focus and increase development and funding for their navy with older ships being replaced by newer ships at a higher tempo because their navy will give them unrestricted access to the rest of the world... trading with the rest of the world with the west as the middle man just hands money and power to the west who have proven to misuse and abuse such power. Russia will start trading directly with the rest of the world and the rest of the world is going to be amazed at the difference between trading with Russia directly compared with trading with Russia via the west.

The Russian president can take his so called red lines and shove it up his ass.

Seems to be shoving those red lines up the EUs ass... the US seems fine... in fact it will be able to sell all the gas it has to Europe when Europe bans Russian gas so the US will be fine, though it likely will demand US dollars for the gas it sells to the EU... Euros wont be accepted.

And then when other resources from Russia suddenly become more expensive too then the EU is going to become much less competitive on international markets... will the EU grow up and realise the US hates them as much as Victoria Nuland does and is using them to keep Europe and Russia forming an economic block they don't control?

China and Russia have spent lots of money and time creating a silk route from Asia to Europe... but the US does not benefit from cheaper and faster trade between the EU and Asia so it is trying to destroy it by poisoning relations between the EU and Russia and the EU and China.... and if they got the chance between Russia and China.

What they don't understand is that trade routes from Asia to the EU can just as easily go to Africa instead and all the countries on that trade route benefit...

Look at any country... road and rail links from one side to another and towns develop and grow at intercections along the rail and road routes.... now expand that to countries... rail and road routes from Asia to Africa also means trade and business so at any point along that network you can send and receive goods quickly and relatively cheaply... that is good for business.

Pretty soon the third world will be first world, but what will all this do to the first world... who is going to use US dollars or Euros knowing they can be frozen and stolen for mythical made up crimes... Africa knows all about European courts of justice... not many whities in those jail cells.

Nato will now build up its forces in the east and Russia will have even more to worrie about then it had before.

Russia was only ever going to deal with HATO with nukes... now that it is clear they are a threat but of no value in any other regard that can be set in stone... why send tanks when you can nuke any force HATO tries to use against Russian territory.

BTW, Russia is swimming in money and still exporting to your shit lands. Once they stop, you can freeze for all I care while India, China, Vietnam and others get Russian resources. While they continue to get money.

The amusing thing is that Americas wealth, which is what the west really talks about is printed and has nothing to back it up. Russian wealth is in the ground and when it is accessed the money for it goes into everyones pockets instead of the 1% that own the mining companies in the west. It means Russia and Russians benefit from the wealth of Russia... which is why the west hates them so much... imagine if people in the west suddenly realised all the wealth extracted from the ground... oil, coal, minerals, etc etc... all that money went in to the pockets of a few very wealthy families in the west and the people in those countries whether in the west or the third world which they are also strip mining got nothing... except often cancer and a clean up bill.

That is the future the west promises... dumbed down drones to work and make things nice for the few who can afford it.

I completely agree that the invasion is criminal.

The invasion was more self defence than anything the west has perpetrated in the last 100 years or more.

Listen to Kiev... if they are to be believed they have been fighting Putin for the last 8 years... how can they possibly complain now after murdering that many of their own citizens and claiming they were Russians about a new Russian invasion?

I guess you have not heard of or do not know Victoria Nuland? Well in the 2014 Maidan

A foreign power overthrew their democratically elected leader and put a puppet in power via elections that excluded half the population... would be a bit like engineering a fake election to remove trump and put in an old idiot who does what they tell him.

I realise that is what the west thinks democracy is... the appearance of choice, but it really is not.

A Coup is a coup... and not even nearly democratic... especially when popular parties are banned, media are murdered, but it suits the wests interests so carry on like nothing has happened while they create bio weapon labs next door to Russia and shell innocent Ukrainian civilians whose main crime was speaking Russian instead of some made up language no one was using 100 years ago.

Amazed and stunned by some members here. That people can sink so low and support Russia and Putin at a time like this.

Yes, the west won the cold war... how dare Russia think it has any rights at all to its own resources or the future of its people... do they not understand the concept of the EU... subservience to the US no questions asked?

Thank god that the West seems ta had enough and will put an end to this.

Turns out the west was the paper tiger... the west can't even decide to stop buying Russian gas or oil...

Russia will go bankrupt within 6-12 months.

Yeah, not the first time I have heard such a prediction, unlikely to be the last either... but they produce their own food and energy... are they going to run out of hedge fund managers?

The war in Ukraine shows that having a small amount of expensive jets restricts your operations.

More a lesson for HATO really, but the Russians will likely take this on board too... potential future plans for the RuAF seem to have included boosting aircraft numbers either with MiG-35s with their low operational costs allowing them to be bought and operated in large numbers, or something like the Su-75 or a future MiG equivalent of this aircraft also as a cheap to buy and cheap to operate light numbers aircraft.

Together with drones that should allow force numbers to massively increase to increase their capacity to deal with hidden threats on the ground and in the air.

It clearly shows that modern first tier air forces need to change their structures when fighting enemies with access to modern mobile air defence systems in enormous numbers and supply chains that cannot be completely blocked off or dealt with.

Modern SAM systems are very capable and very powerful and in the past the Russians have been super lucky that western air defence is based on their air power which actually makes it easier to deal with... it is much harder to deal with ground vehicles launching weapons than aircraft launching weapons.

They already have an army that expects to defend itself from air delivered weapons, but the air force probably does lack disposable assets for recon and spotting threats and enemy forces that can destroy those threats when they spot them.

Of course having said this, this conflict is unusual in that it consists of essentially recon forces without the bulk of the ground forces which means they lack a significant amount of heavy armour but also a lot of ground based long range heavy air defence systems too.

Their supply convoys would benefit from the new vehicles they are introducing in terms of reducing the variety of parts and spares being carried to support mobile forces, but also added vehicles to the convoy of support vehicles that can defend the convoy itself as well... both on the ground like a few Terminator type vehicles but also self defence suicide type drones that can protect the convoy on the move as well.

Free roaming helicopters and aircraft seems to be a good solution to isolated consealed enemy units like artillery vehicles and anti tank units operating on their own in small groups.

Fortunately the west is blind and will ignore the lessons of this conflict which shows the value of even obsolete air defence vehicles being widely deployed like OSA and Strela-10... as well as longer ranged systems like Buk et al.

It was a huge mistake to not create a modern and cheap successor to mig-23/27 available in huge numbers and for which you wouldn't care about.

They will care about it as long as there are men in them, but cheaper support aircraft are on the way and of course they continue to use Su-25s and attack helicopters which seem to be very effective.

In terms of penetrating enemy airspace they have a range of new weapons like Grom and Grom 2 which are standoff bombs, Grom is rocket powered and Grom 2 replaces the rocket motor with 300kg of extra warhead... both have wings and are based on the Kh-38 missile and are intended to allow stand off attacks against protected targets.

2. Su-57; we all already know that, that is, that this combat platform is the successor to the Su-27 aircraft. Since the work on the development of the successor to the Su-27 began first, I have no doubt that the Su-57 is the priority of the Air Force.

The plan seems to have been to make a few batches... 76 odd and then test them in service to see what their performance is like and how well it goes and how much it costs.

This will then be evaluated in comparison with the Su-35/30 in the heavy interceptor fighter roles and also including the use of drones etc to determine whether to keep using both stealthy and non stealthy types in use or to go for more of one or the other.

I think in terms of lighter aircraft they will make a batch of MiG-35s and then look at Checkmates when they are ready and also the new MiG- fifth gen light fighter too to determine what to introduce as a sort of numbers aircraft for frontal aviation to replace the MiG-21/23/27 and Su-17/22 types in the swing fighter bomber roles.

I still think the Su-25 needs to be replaced by something custom designed to operate over the front lines which is obviously a seriously difficult design task... but it seems to be considered worth it.

It is also important to keep in mind the wide variety of missions the RuAF will need to step up for moving forward so having different aircraft with different capabilities for different situations is a good thing.

4. Sukhoi S-70 Hunter; A replacement for the Su-25, which I have already written once. Plans have already been announced that this unmanned combat aircraft, which has a long range and a large lethal arsenal, is planned to perform in tandem with the Su-57.

It is in no position to replace the Su-25 at all... maybe you meant replace the Su-35, but even then the Su-35 with its large numbers of external weapons hardpoints is going to be cost effective on its own.

7. Su-75 and aircraft carriers; If Russia already decides to build aircraft carriers, I believe that the Su-75 will be on the deck of those future carriers. I don't believe that it is economically viable to build another model of a fighter plane, such as the one from the MiG.

By definition a carrier aircraft means not a lot of planes so if you can base it off of a ground based aircraft then that makes all the sense in the world.

Having two carrier types makes sense... right now that is the MiG-29KR which is a good modern fighter but not with enormous range or amazing payload, but also the Su-33 which is physically bigger but has better range and a decent air to air load out for endurance and persistance... having only one costs you numbers or range and persistance... having both means more planes and better range but not all of your planes are going to be operating at max range from your carrier group... having shorter ranged aircraft makes sense so they defend your ships.

Personally I would go with a naval version of the Su-57 as a heavy long range carrier based plane which will justify a two seat version too, and that twin engined MiG light carrier fighter they showed a model of at the last MAKS airshow. A land based version would be interesting too.

10. Il-78MD-90A; this aircraft will be given priority to Russian strategic aviation, although I expect that Russia will build at least 40 to 50 of these tankers, so one part would be used by tactical aviation.

Honestly, I would like to see all the Il-78s transferred to the Russian Air Force for the PVO and frontal aviation use for strike aircraft and to extend the range of fighters. Their design allows them to operate from rougher airstrips and they are ready to refuel... lots of new aircraft have inflight refuelling probes but no tankers to refuel them.

In strategic and long range aviation I would introduce a tanker version of the Il-96... especially with twin PD-35 engines if possible.... it can fly faster and higher than the Il78 and burns less fuel doing it... the faster longer ranged Il-96 tanker could take off with PAK DAs and Bears and Blackjacks and fly to the north pole topping them off as they go and then return to Russian airfields... the higher speeds of the Il-96 means less faffing about with slower Il-78s topping up after takeoff.

The Il-96 will carry more fuel further and faster and will be fine to operate on the same runways the strategic aircraft they refuel operate from, plus it will free up Il-78s to refuel tactical aircraft which its design would be better suited to.

I would also build a lighter aircraft as an inflight refuelling plane... perhaps an Il-276 or maybe a Tu-330 because of its extra payload potential of 35 tons.

For trips around the world an Il-96 would be faster and be able to top up in countries along the way allowing your bombers to go places they normally couldn't go.

Russian helicopters are great and there is no need for some new platforms, the Russians have everything. In the future, we will see a larger number of Ka-52M, Mi-28NM helicopters, some new variants of Mi-8 and Mi-38, Mi-26, etc.

There have been serious hints about new high speed models that will be revealed soon and I think talk about their flying IFV with armour protection might get a lot more attention after the current operation proved there is still room for using air borne forces and ship transported landing forces... as if laying down two 40K ton helicopter carriers didn't spell it out already.

This is the only sore point of the Russian Air Force. Although the basic platform and workhorse Il-76MD-90A is in production, which is not yet at the desired level of production, problems remain with transport planes such as "light transport plane Il-112" and "medium transport plane Il-276".
* Il-112; replacement for An-26,
* Il-276; replacement for An-12 and An-72.
* PAK-TA; We will see if the replacement for the An-124 will be realized, because there is far less talk about that than about PAK-DP or PAK-DA.

I have to agree it needs attention but it is mostly hamstrung because of engines.

Production of the Il-476 should be massively increased not just for domestic use but the Il-76 was popular and useful world wide and in need of replacing.

All the more so because the An-12 is in urgent need of replacement too for which the Il-276 would be ideal and could be made on the same lines as the Il-476 when needed.

The Tu-204/214 are in production too which suggests to me that the opportunity of putting the Tu-330 into production makes sense because it has 70% commonality with those airliners too so when the current urgent need for airliners subsides existing and newly made Tupolevs can be moved to cargo duties and presumably the two new aircraft that will have stepped up to replace them... superjet and MS-21 will by then be all Russian and in serial mass production the Tu-204 factory could shift to building Tu-330s for the Russian Air Force to help replace the An-12s, while the Tu-214 factory could continue making Tu-214s for the roles of Elint and other older airliner types now obsolete... so Il-20/22 Elint types and Il-38 MPAs could be replaced by the rather more modern Tu-214 which, with new engines should be very capable aircraft.

The LMF-901 and the LET-610 modification and other types like the Il-112 and Il-114 small aircraft can replace the An-2 and An-24/5/6/ and An-32, while the Il-276 can replace the An-12... the Tu-330 can replace many early model Il-76s, and of course the Il-476 and Il-106 can be produced in large numbers to replace the An-22 and An-124 in lighter roles. Eventually when PD-35s are ready two can power the Il-106 and four the Slon in the 180 ton payload range... but that might not be till the 2030s.

Another great example is the C-47's that still serves in the SANDF to this day. They did receive a turbo prop upgrade in the late 80's but the fuselage dates back to 1943!

Aerodynamics have not changed a lot over the years... the critical thing is usually a decent engine which can make an unprofitable plane profitable again.

With its original engines the Tu-144 was not a great plane. Fit the engines from the Tu-160 bomber and all of a sudden it becomes profitable if you have the right customer and the right routes... further development for the new build Blackjack and it will be even more interesting...

That same MiG-31 is one of the few aircraft that the West did not have the opportunity to "evaluate", that is, in real terms STOLEN, as it is by far the most important tactical aircraft designed in the USSR. Neither the MiG-29 nor the Su-27 because the MiG-31 was the number one beast.

Suggest you look up the history of a Russian spy called Donald and the compromise of the MiG-31B aircraft design.

Of course it could be argued that it might have been an FSB trick to force an upgrade of the MiG-31 to MiG-31BM level at a time when there was no money for the upgrade... who can say...

If the S-70 Okhotnik turns out to be good, then Russia could give up the Su-25 aircraft.

S-70 is a fighter escort drone that operates with fighters as a sort of wing man... in the west equivalent drones are called wingman drones.

They would be no more a replacement for an Su-25 than an Su-35 or MiG-35... totally different jobs.

The Su-25 is a ground support aircraft... when ground forces are being attacked by large masses of enemy infantry they call up an Su-25 and it comes in and launches rockets and cannon fire at the enemy troops... if there is a bunker or firing position the ground troops can't break an Su-25 comes in with a couple of 250kg bombs and blows the shit out of it... on its way in or its way out if it spots enemy vehicles like trucks it will hit them with bursts of cannon fire. Other specific targets it will hit with Kh-25 laser guided missiles or bombs or rockets.

The S-70 would not be able to do any of that.

The same job with a significant difference compared to the Soviet Su-25 - strike from a distance.

Yeah, they already thought the Yak-130 could use standoff missiles to replace the Su-25 and it failed. In the US they thought a ground attack version of the F-16 called the A-16 could replace the A-10 and it failed too.

Rather nice looking plane too... an F-16 with the horizontal tail removed and the wing replaced with a huge delta wing and covered in weapon pylons... I seem to remember it had about 17 hard points for missiles and bombs plus its 20mm cannon... it failed too.

The Su-57 is the successor of the Su-27 family, and everything is clear about that.

I have not seen any evidence of Russia wanting an all stealth fleet, the Su-35 is good enough for most roles, while the Su-57 might be better for some roles having both makes sense.

The S-70 is a cheap support platform that boosts numbers and adds extra missiles in each Su-57 or Su-35 or MiG-35 flight of aircraft to add options and capabilities.