The Russians recently had an outstanding victory. The Chinese let the Su-57 into their air show! The Russians were pissing themselves boiling water from some kind of Russian joy. Although it was initially obvious that the Russians were invited to simply stand in the crowd. The Chinese are not interested in this aircraft. They have a bunch of their own fifth-generation projects, some of which are already being mass-produced. And if 10-15 years ago the Chinese were still interested in seeing what the Russians had and the engines were especially relevant, today even by the reaction of the Russians it is clear who is more important that the Russian analogue be at this show.
A couple of days later, the Chinese demonstrated that they invited the Russians not only for the crowd, but also for contrasts. To mock. The Internet has been flooded with satisfying videos of the skin of the Russian “fifth-generation stealth”. Now the Russians will start to make fun of it, saying that this is a KB prototype, not a serial one, and will also pull photos from the USA with damaged skin of the F-22. The Russians will convince themselves without any problems. But in reality, in fact, the skin of the Su-57 is the bottom. In the 90s, the Russians bragged about their Russian ingenuity, promoting the Su-27 and Mig-29 to themselves. Russian experts seriously said that the American F-16 and F-15 have very smooth skin with carefully fitted elements, which is expensive to produce. But the brilliant Russians made a cheaper and crude skin, with which the aerodynamics are slightly worse, but a lot of money is saved. The Russians did not mention that the smooth, high-quality fitted skin reduces the reflection of the radar signal.
The skin of the Su-57 is a step forward in comparison with the Su-27. That one was just a complete axe-cut darkness. But the Russian “stealth” with the cracks covered with some kind of shit doesn’t reach the level of the F-16. But the quality of execution is the least of the Russians’ problems. The much bigger problem for them is the materials themselves. It’s not clear what the Russians stuffed into the Su-57 under the guise of “radio-absorbing” materials. In Russian propaganda agitations with adequate details, there are zeros. But given the Russian technological level, there are serious suspicions that the situation is similar to the Russian EW.
In the photos in the selection, the Su-57 from the Chinese, Su-27, F-16, F-117, F-35, Typhoon.
