Russia’s fifth-generation Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA fighter jet is equipped with an advanced defense system that can neutralize an enemy plane’s stealth capability, a report said Friday, citing a unit of Russian state corporation Rostec. The planes, which will go into mass production in 2017, are claimed to be capable of outperforming the F-22 and fifth-generation F-35 fighters of the U.S. Air Force.

The T-50 PAK FA fighter jet will be built with composite materials, and come with advanced electronic systems and engines to ensure the plane can stay mostly undetected by radars and other optical and infrared technologies, Russia’s Sputnik News reported.

“The PAK FA is already to some degree a flying robot, where the aviator fulfils the function not only of pilot, but is actually one of the constituent parts of the flying apparatus,” Sputnik News quoted Vladimir Mikheyev, the deputy head of the Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET), a unit of Rostec, as saying.

KRET has created an advanced internal navigation system for the T-50 PAK FA jet, which autonomously processes navigation and flight information. The system can also determine position and motion parameters in situations when there is no satellite navigation, and make contact with GLONASS, Russia’s satellite-based navigation system, which works alongside the Global Positioning System.

The Russian air force will get 55 Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA jets by 2020 and the aircraft will replace the country’s Sukhoi Su-27 fourth-generation fighter jet. Russia is also expected to buy at least 50 Tupolev Tu-160 “Blackjack” heavy strategic bombers, which will be produced simultaneously with the country’s new bomber, called PAK DA.

RELATED STORIES
Russia