America's F-22 Stealth Fighter vs. Russia's PAK-FA: Who Wins?

This year marks a decade since the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor was declared operational with the U.S. Air Force.

Billed by many as the most capable air superiority fighter ever built, the Raptor only recently proved its mettle in combat over Syria and Iraq about a year ago. But the jet wasn’t used to annihilate a Soviet air armada over the Fulda Gap or rip apart an advanced enemy integrated air defense system as its designers had envisioned. Instead, the Raptor has most been relegated to the role of a flying sensor platform.

Nonetheless, the day is coming when the F-22 could face a foe that might have a chance of going toe-to-toe with it and winning—albeit a small one. Russia and China are hard at work developing the Chengdu J-20 and the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA. Of these two machines, the PAK-FA is probably the more serious challenger. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has somehow managed to retain a more or less credible defense industrial base—even if it’s just a shadow of its former self.

Everything about the PAK-FA suggests that it is similar in concept to the Raptor—being optimized as a fast, high flying and stealthy air superiority fighter. However, as one might expect, the Russians put more emphasis on certain characteristics and less on others.

One good example is stealth. The T-50’s design places far less emphasis on all-aspect low observables. Instead, it focuses on frontal aspect stealth—thus it has a so-called “Pac-Man” signature where as the F-22’s signature looks more like a spider if one were to look at it from a God’s eye view. Stealth is where the F-22 holds a huge advantage over the Russian jet.

In terms of sheer kinematics, the T-50 and the F-22 are probably comparable—especially once the PAK-FA receives new engines. The Russian jet’s current Izdeliye 117 engines are decent, but ultimately the plane will need to reequipped with the developmental Izdeliye 30 motors to fully exploit the capabilities of its airframe.

Both aircraft are capable of cruising faster than the speed of sound. The Raptor is able to maintain a hair over Mach 1.8 without afterburners while the PAK-FA can probably do at least Mach 1.6 without the blowers engaged. Max operational altitude is 60,000ft for the F-22 and is probably similar for the T-50. For max speed, the Raptor is redlined at Mach 2.0 because of the limitations of it radar absorbent materials, I would expect a similar limit for the Sukhoi.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/americas-f-22-stealth-fighter-vs-russias-pak-fa-who-wins-13806