New Russian single-engine fighter jet
A teaser trailer is an ingenious invention: a short video designed to raise the public’s interest in some piece of media by deliberately not revealing anything about it, save for maybe a taste of the general aesthetic of the final product.
On 13 July, 2021, Russian state corporation Rostec released a teaser of their upcoming single-engine fifth-generation fighter jet. It is an unexpected turn indeed: the entire publicity campaign, which included the teaser, was subtle and well-thought-out, making use of recent events, long-running myths about Russian technological capabilities and pop-culture references aimed with pinpoint precision. Even the type of the new aircraft Rostec is going to reveal was not spelled out, Western analytics had to piece it together bit by bit. Consensus was clear from the start though: obscured silhouettes, shadows and close-ups in the teaser point towards a single-engine fifth-generation fighter jet, a lighter counterpart to the recently adopted Sukhoi Su-57 Felon.
The buzz surrounding its development was there for a while already. ‘Insider information’ was leaked to state media channels from time to time, high-standing public figures kept vaguely confirming that such a programme exists and in late 2020 a news photo showed a model of yet unknown jet strategically placed on the desk of Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov, with a stealthy nose and a single air intake.
Media reveals that Russia’s next 5th gen fighter jet will weigh less than 18 tons and be Mach 2 capable. Concrete information about the development was, as always, almost non-existent. The bits mentioned by authoritative sources were either very vague or obvious and the most important questions never got answered. Nevertheless, the jet is said to be a ‘completely new development’, connected neither to the Su-57 nor to the previous generations of light jets. The speed of the new aircraft is supposed to be over Mach 2, the thrust-to-weight ratio greater than 1 and the engine is going to feature thrust vectoring, ensuring both super manoverability and short take-offs.
The only concrete figure leaked by the company was the jet weight: less than 18,000 kilograms (39,700 pounds). The number most likely refers to gross weight, making the new aircraft slightly heavier than the light jets of the previous generation, such as the MiG-19, the F-16, or the HAL Tejas.
The single engine, used by the fighter, is rumoured to be the Izdelye 30, originally designed as an upgrade for the Felon. Its thrust is 11,000 kgf (24,250 lbf ) dry and 18,000 kgf (39,700 lbf ) with afterburner, correlates nicely with the supposed weight, but might indicate that the jet is not going to be capable of super cruise, as its power-to-weight ratio is significantly smaller than that of known super cruising jets.
Another peculiar thing revealed by the trailer is the overall shape of the aircraft. Previous visualisations (made on the basis of one blurry picture and a whole lot of speculation) supposed that the aircraft is going to have canards, a valid guess considering Russia’s obsession with low speed manoverability. Yet, the teaser had a shot of the jet’s shadow on the surface of the water and it shows a conventional tailplane configuration, no canards and a shape very reminiscent of the F-35, the Yakovlev Yak-141, or the Boeing X-32. The shape was further confirmed on 16 July, as photos of the aircraft’s mock-up at Zhukovsky airfield emerged. It corresponded closely with Borisov’s model, confirming both the air intake placement and the tail design.
Russian Light Fighter
The direct competitors of the new jet are, obviously, the fifth-generation light fighters: the Lockheed Martin F-35 and the Shenyang FC-31. Their pairing with the ‘larger brothers’, the F-22 and the J-20 is likely to be emulated by the new Russian jet.
Implications
Rostec’s teaser has two underlying themes. One of them is the focus on export, personified in figures of men from UAE, India, Vietnam and Argentina rushing to meet the jet on its supposed reveal. The last shot of the video shows them staring at the obscured aircraft, in the company of pilots that somehow includes a Chinese and an American, as well as several others in vaguely NATO-ish uniforms. That could be interpreted as an attempt to target the main potential buyers (Vietnam has long been in negotiations to buy Su-57s, whilst Argentina is speculated to be eyeing Russian jets as well), but UAE has already sealed their F-35 deal and India, torn between the Rafale purchases, the HAL Tejas and the intense development of the HAL AMCA is a rather unlikely customer.
Another, much simpler reading is more likely: the intention was to show the exotic locations and the global scale of the reveal, with portrayed countries’ potential interest in the new aircraft being of secondary importance. The reveal itself, judging from Rostec’s messages, is supposed to be this world-shattering event, something that would change the aviation industry and ‘checkmate’ the competitors.
The fact that the word ‘checkmate’ itself has long been a meme and is used mostly with sarcasm did not bother Rostec. Instead, the company chose to use a photo of a flying saucer, popularised by a poster from the TV show X-Files, as another promotional image, modifying it with an image of a chess piece. There was also another image of a chess Knight riding atop a Tic-Tac-shaped object, as viewed from the cockpit of the F/A-18. Seen together, they are a clear allusion to the latest UFO craze, which was started by the US Navy footage and led to the much-discussed Pentagon report.