Su-30 for Russian Air Force #2

All su-30 are dual seat. It makes the work easier for multi role aircraft. Pilot can fly and look at potebtiak threats outsude whike the weapon officer look at its board and do the work.

The upgrade is mostly to bring the su-30 to su-35 level because it start to became outdated. With its huge rcs it is detectable at max range of any radar in service whike its own radar is not tge best russian have. I'm not sure but mki radar is not the same as SM radar in terms of range and ECCM. An upgraded radar would also make possible the use of log range missiles like rvv-sd(120km) or r-37(300km).

As a defensive aircraft however is RCS even relevant when it will be using its radar to detect threats and targets... or it might operate based on ground based radar and sensors and airborne radar in AWACS platform and no emit any signal at all so enemy platforms could only locate it by using their radar and revealing their location to the radar silent Flanker...

It is a large aircraft so you can fit a big radar and lots of missiles... both of which are valuable... it is probably every bit as manouverable or more so than the primary western fighter... the F-35, and more space for bigger radar... more missiles, and more fuel... trading missile for missile the Su-30 is always going to win there... and in a gun fight I would suspect the Su-30 is not the worst aircraft to turn and burn...

For many roles like patrolling airspace or even interception it is a fine aircraft that stealth would not improve... it would only make them more expensive to buy and to maintain and to operate.

Second seat on Su-57 is redundant for anything else

The advantage of glass cockpits is that it hides unimportant information from the pilot so he can concentrate on the job at hand. All information is available in other screens, but the most important and relevant is put before the pilots eyes at any one time.

The AI system for the Su-57 basically manages menial and mechanical things that need to be done but don't require the pilots attention, so he can focus on the job at hand... information is shared in the network so other platforms benefit from the sensors and weapons on the aircraft in the location it is in.

Not necessarily, the successor to the Hellduck (likely designated Su-62/64) not only would it have a 2nd seat, it'll probably likely have 3 or 4 seats for the drone controlling part of the plane, imagine how many drones could be controlled with a dedicated command post built into the aircraft? That functionality apparently already exists in the A-50/100 flying radars.

Swarm technology drones are not remote controlled and will be given waypoints and modes of operation but wont need continuous monitoring or control.

Their first two seat to control a drone would be the Ka-52... inside enemy territory it could launch a drone from a container under its wing that can fly over trees or into a valley to look for targets or threats and send back a signal... they could even just orbit the helicopter itself and just climb up in a spiral to get height to see targets located all around and to find threats... it could lase targets for all sorts of guided weapons the Ka-52 could be carrying or target information could just be passed up to HQ for an air strike or artillery strike while the Ka-52 commands the drone it launched to crash in to a nearby air defence vehicle to destroy it and then leave the area quietly...

It would make more sense to use an aircraft like a Tu-214 to monitor drones... hell the Tu-22M3 already has four seats and the new Tu-22M3M gets rid of two seats because of the automated attack and self defence systems makes bomb aimers and ESM operators redundant... perhaps they could use the two extra crew positions for drone operations and perhaps weapon aiming pods to mark individual targets with a laser for engagement from high altitude...

Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter-bomber loaded with an IAB-500 bomb, designed to simulate an izdeliye 244N tactical nuclear bomb

mnztr wrote:Strange that the bomb is so far to the rear of the plane.

Looks to me that it could easily carry two of them so that we are seeing only one in the photograph.

Aircraft delivered bombs you can change your mind right up until the last minute, and of course an Aircraft can defend itself with missiles and electronics.. imagine the issues if one of the 73 American missiles shot down over Syria was a nuke...

Cruise missiles are capable and useful but manned aircraft still make sense.

The location of the bomb in this case is fairly normal... there are two weapon pylons between the engines that can carry weapons... it could carry another weapon in front of the one shown if needs be...

Isos wrote:There is no point in using a free fall bomb as a nuclear weapon. Cruise missiles are better and gives you more chances to reach a target than a su-30.

The whole premise of the B-2 rests on using strategic weapons in the form of a bomber, not standoff missile platform.

Are they really saying that they will carry the Kh-32 in the Su-30SM???? Or will rather the Kh-32 carry the Su?

No, they are saying the company that currently makes the Kh-32 hypersonic missile is also working on other hypersonic missiles for use on smaller aircraft including the Su-30 for use as air to ground weapons.

The Kh-32 is rocket propelled, but I suspect the newer smaller more compact missiles will be scramjet powered...

And makes it a juicy target for sosna-r, igla-S with thermal camera mounted on vehicles, pantsirs with 30mm guns.

Using bombs put you in range of AAA and shorads. B2 is the easiest target for them.

To be fair dropping nuclear bombs does not require extreme precision so you can do it from altitude, but of course they are not that stealthy as to be able to fly through Russian airspace at high or medium altitude unnoticed.... they were supposed to be the ideal scud killers which translated to TOPOL killers, but after Desert Storm they realised both would be effectively impossible even if they were invisible in every regard...

That at least would make sense, in the original article they speak non-stop of the Kh-32. And they say they would modify the Su-30 to carry it

The Kh-32 is about 6 tons, and I rather doubt it would be the best choice for the Su-30 to be honest.

Charly015 has bothered doing the drawing of the Su-30 with the Kh-32... I think it would be even worse on a side view, the plane would land or take off directly riding on the missile

I think that image is enough to show it is not going to happen...

Russian media poping information from their ass about military stuff again. They don't even know what is the kh-32 or the su-30.

Well... more like they don't know enough about the new missile to talk about so they will talk about the missile they do know a little about that this company makes and that is also hypersonic...

IMO tey told the journalist kh-59 or another tactical missile with kh- in the name and back in his office he googled "kh- missile" and choose the first he saw and made an article on that.

Or they did a search on the company and hypersonic missiles and the Kh-32 was the only one that came up.