Moscow. October 7th. INTERFAX.RU – For the fifth generation fighter Su-57 they are creating a new in-body missile that develops a speed five times faster than sound, the Izvestia newspaper reported, citing sources in the Russian Defense Ministry.
“A hypersonic ammunition is being developed for arming the Su-57. Now it is at the stage of ground testing and flights with mass-dimensional mock-ups. The missile will be placed in the internal compartments of the Russian stealth fighter,” the publication says, citing sources in the defense department.
According to the newspaper, a new hypersonic missile for the Su-57 is being created as part of development work (ROC) under the code “Lichinka-MD”. The designation “MD” is usually used for short-range ammunition.
“Presumably, it will fly at speeds five or more times faster than sound and will become virtually invulnerable to modern air and missile defense systems,” the article says.
It notes that the lead developer of the missile is the Tactical Missile Armament Corporation (KTRV), the second stage of the R&D project began in 2019.
According to experts interviewed by the publication, the main target for the new missile will be the sea targets of a potential enemy. In the future, the ammunition will replace the X-31 family of anti-ship supersonic missiles, which were created in the 1980s.
In December 2020, the first deputy chairman of the board of the Russian military-industrial complex, Andrei Yelchaninov, said in an interview with Interfax that the tests of the Su-57 armament complex, including the intra-fuselage one, would be completed in 2021.
“The peculiarity of the Su-57 is that it carries not only weapons that are already used by other types of aircraft (MiG-29, Su-30SM, Su-34), but also new types of weapons that will be used from the inside of the fuselage space. it is planned to be completed in 2021 as part of the aviation armament complex, “Yelchaninov said.
He stressed that these are completely new types of weapons, which are created from scratch, including using new guidance principles.
“This is really a big step forward. The Su-57 is a smart aircraft with smart weapons – air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles,” said the first deputy chairman of the board of the Russian military-industrial complex.
Earlier, an Interfax source reported that the first serial Su-57s will not receive a new generation of ammunition, since work on the creation of new aircraft bomb weapons, unguided missiles and ammunition for aircraft guns are at an early stage.
In September 2018, the head of the KTRV Boris Obnosov told Interfax that the Su-57 would receive the R-37M ultra-long-range hypersonic missile.
Now in service in Russia there is only one hypersonic aviation complex – the MiG-31K with a Dagger missile capable of 10 times the speed of sound and hitting targets at a distance of more than 2 thousand km. According to official data, since the end of 2017, 10 fighters in the MiG-31K “Dagger” modification have been on experimental combat duty in the Southern Military District.
