The Su-35S Flanker fighter is flying over the clouds.
The deputy chief of the Ukrainian General Staff, Oleksiy Gromov, had some gossip about the Russian aviation industry to give to the Ukrainian Media Center.
Gromov claimed that only nine of 24 Su-35S twin-engine fighter jets purchased by China for $2.5 billion in 2015 arrived after he reported that Russia was resorting to using older bombs.
Gromov's claims pile on to other troubling developments for the Su-35, with no less than three clients refusing or canceling Su-35 exports.
There's a good reason to take the allegations with a grain of salt, as Ukraine has been invaded by Russia, and there's every incentive to release embarrassing information that could impact arms deals being negotiated at Russia's annual meeting.
According to the deputy, 24 Su-35s had been downed. As of mid-August, visual media confirmed the loss of just one or two Su-35s over Ukrainian territory. The Su-35s were in Russian service before the invasion.
—🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 3, 2022
Gromov's initial claim is still plausible. There were teething issues with the Su-35S that were delivered to China in 2016 and 2018).
Both the PLA Navy's first aircraft carrier and the J-15 FlyingShark carrier-based jets are based on hardware transferred from Ukraine. It's possible that the Su-35's condition was discovered through these connections.
There isn't a lot of publicly available information on China's Su-35s, according to an expert on Chinese military aviation.
We don't know enough about China's Su-35s, because there aren't many official reports about them.
The Su-35S is a twin engine heavy fighter that can carry large fuel and weapons loads and operate over long distances.
In theory, the Flanker-E is a significant threat as it's more maneuverable than an F-15 thanks to its three-dimensional thrust-vectoring engines.
Stunning maneuvers can be applied to within-visual range combat. Due to a large amount of speed and altitude lost, such maneuvers are a one off.
It has a powerful Irbis-E passive electronically scanned array (PESA) multi-mode radar with an impressive maximum range of around 250 miles and can carry up to twelve air-to-air missiles.
Most modern Western non-stealth fighters, including upgraded F-15s and F-16s, retain one big advantage over the Su-35, which is that they are highly resistant to jamming.
While the Irbis-E is powerful and gives a detection advantage over older fourth- generation fighters, using its full power makes the Su-35S highly visible to adversaries.
Western beyond-visual-range missiles have better range and reliability than the Su-35s.
The Flanker-E is capable of launching missiles out to 250 miles for use against non-fighter aircraft, but Western air forces don't have an equivalent weapon. That is a specialized ability.
The Su-35S is at a disadvantage in BVR combat because of the lack of AESA radar.
The Egyptian Air Force had begun receiving Su-35s from Russia and had arranged an air-to-air faceoff to highlight this. The Su-35's radar was rendered useless by jamming from the F3R's SPECTRA electronic warfare suite.
The RBE2 AA AESA radar of the Rafale was used to shoot down the Su 35.
Two Su-35 customers have passed on the Russian jet. Indonesia, which had dangled an order for 11 Su-35s since the mid-2010s, decided to buy F-15EX jets instead Algeria passed on the Su-35 due to its radar.
The jets were worth more to these countries than the sanctions from the US would have made them.
Egypt canceled its order of Su-35 jets from Russia in exchange for purchases of F-15s because of sanctions and diplomatic pressure from the US.
As Moscow becomes more isolated, it may be less likely to sell Su-35s to Iran.
The first flight of the still-unrealized Su-75 Checkmate fighter has been pushed back a year to 2024, though the type is still being marketed.
Russian Su-35s are seeing combat in air-superiority and air-defense suppression roles over Ukranian, but they are not suppressing the old fighters or ground-based batteries.
The Su-35s are flown by the 6th Aviation brigade at Suixi air base in Guangdong province. The omission of a navigation antenna and the use of a novel targeting Pod are the only differences reported.
China initially wanted to purchase only a few Su-35s, but Moscow insisted on the minimum purchase of 24
It's thought that Beijing was most interested in studying Su-35 technology. Since the acquisition of the Su-35, China has tested indigenous thrust-vectoring engines for use on its indigenous jets.
The Flanker-E is well-suited to patrol over the South China Sea or circumnavigating Taiwan. In May 2022, China included Su-35s in large patrols inside Taiwan's air-defense identification zone, alongside indigenously-built J-11 and J-16 Flanker jets.
One-on-one, the Su-35 over matches Taiwan's F-16Cs.
The edge will be reduced once Taiwan's F-16s are upgraded to the latest F-16V Block 70/72 standard.
Taiwan claims that two Su-35s flew across the Taiwan Strait during Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island. The Su-35s jammed the radars of four Taiwanese F-16s, according to an Indian article.
"I'm always careful in taking such reports for real, more often the true intention is not to inform about the topic, but to tell a different story," said the man.
Sébastien Roblin writes on the technical, historical, and political aspects of international security and conflict for publications such as The National Interest, NBC News, Forbes.com, and War is Boring. He was a member of the Peace Corps in China. His articles can be found on the social networking site.
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