There's seems to be a common delusion that Russias only combat aircraft with an AESA radar is the Su-57. This is categorically false.
First, production aircraft with AESA fire control radars. (Not including EW or ECM that uses AESA like Khibiny)
Su-57 with N036 Byelka multi positional GaAs/GaN system with slotted planar/radiator and patch antenna arrays. Entered production in 2019 with over 50 made.
Su-35S with the N036Sh Pokosnik GaAs Wing radars with improved radiator arrays. Entered production in 2012 with over 200 made.
Su-30SM2 with the N036Sh Pokosnik GaAs Wing radars with quad radiator arrays. Entered production in 2019 with over 40 made.
We can see the N036KL radars on the bare frames
Su-30SM with normal wings
SM2 with the N036Sh Wing radars
35S
N036Sh antenna exposed
Brochure
This is because the SM2 uses the Irbis-E radar and the Sh Wing radars come as a radar package, an off shoot of how the old Su-37 used to have a rear radar.
Irbis-E and N036Sh package
Su-34M with both the Kopyo-DL rear facing GaAs radar with a slotted planar array and the RBB-3 Pika-M used on the UKR-RL SLAR/GAR AESA radar pod. It entered production in 2019 with over 60 made.
MiG-35D with the FGA-29 Zhuk-A GaAs AESA radar with a patch antenna array. It entered production in 2019 with 2 made.
Ka-52M with the V006 Rezets GaAs AESA radar with a patch antenna array. It entered production in 2021 with over 70 made.
Ka-27M with the FHA03E GaAs AESA radar with a patch antenna array. It entered production in 2014 with over 80 made.
S-70 Okhotnik-B with the VN-101 Zaslon GaAs AESA radar with a patch array. It entered production in 2024 with over 6 made.
Forpost-R with the MBRLS-MF2 GaAs AESA radar with a slotted array. It entered production in 2023-2025 with dozens to over 100 made.
That's 9 combat aircraft all in production and all using AESA.
Now we have either Prototypes or offered for upgrade.
Yak-130M with the BRLS-130R GaAs AESA radar with a slotted planar array.
Mi-24PN-1M with the V006 Rezets GaAs AESA radar with a patch antenna array.
Mi-171Sh Storm with the VN-101 Zaslon utilising a patch antenna array.
Su-75 with the N036 Byelka GaAs AESA radar.
FGA-35 Zhuk-AD for export MiG-35E or MiG-29 upgrades.
FGA-50 Zhuk-AM with GaAs AESA radar with a patch antenna array for export Su-30 upgrades.
That's a further 6 radars offered for 10 different airframes. So we have 8 production combat aircraft with AESA and over 500 produced.
wHy cAnT rUsSiA pRoDUcE aN aIrCrAft wItH aEsA
Sources
Comments
Post a Comment