According to the Joint Stock Company UAC (United Aircraft-building Corporation), Russia has produced more combat aircraft than the U.S., in 2014.
As reported by Russian media outlets, in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio station, Vladislav Goncharenko, deputy head of the military aviation programmes department at UAC (the a Russian holding which encompasses Irkut, Mikoyan, Sukhoi, Ilyushin, Tupolev, Beriev and Yakovlev), Moscow has surpassed the U.S. in the number of produced combat aircraft.
Whilst in 2013, UAC companies delivered 68 planes, 100 aircraft, 95 of those are combat planes for the Russian Air Force were produced and delivered in 2014.
Along with the production of more planes, UAC subsidiaries have carried out the modernization of existing aircraft and the development of new weapons systems, Goncharenko said.
Even though we don’t know the corresponding U.S. figures, the number of new aircraft delivered to the front-line units of the Russian Air Force is a clear sign Moscow is strongly supporting its renascent military power.
For sure “quantity” does not always come with “quality” and, most probably, U.S. technology will still be ahead of Russian (or Chinese) one for several decades. However, it’s impossible to foresee the outcome of a dogfight in which few, advanced American 6th Generation fighter jets, face outnumbering Russian 5th Generation warplanes.
In the meanwhile, PAK-FA T-50 prototypes have been quipped with Himalayas EW defense systems to increase jamming resistance and self-protection capabilities. The delivery of the first production PAK-FA 5th Generation stealth jet to the Air Force is planned for 2016 whereas new type of combat and reconnaissance drone will appear by 2018. 6th Generation aircraft are being studied as well.
By 2020, 55 PAK-FA fighters will be in service with the Russian Air Force.
H/T to @Missilito for the heads-up
Image credit: Tony Lovelock
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It’s tough finding exact numbers for US production and I suspect that’s how
UAC are claiming this “win” but after a little digging I found Boeing’s production numbers for FY14 here: http://www.boeing.com/boeing/bds/deliveries.page
Even if you don’t count all the Apache helicopters built I see 97 combat aircraft delivered to their customers and with the Apaches it’s up to 137. So all of Russia is being beaten by Boeing alone. Lockheed’s numbers are much tougher to find but there are 36 F-35s due this year, add those to the unknown number of F-16s still being built and the and US production numbers are pushing 200.
Work and production for this re-armament surge started years ago. The implcations are that Putin and his “novoroissiya” PLANNED to become an aggressor. This is part of the war plan by Russia to “re-take” territories ceded when the Soviet Union fell apart. Every damned time something “comes out of Russia” its always aggressive, war-like, threatening, etc. Purin and his Russia today are behaving passive-aggressive, they are an aggressor then they are the victim and back and forth, to confound and elicit sympathy while they continue to re-tool for war at a feverish pace. The end-game is a dangerously aggressive Russia that is clearly scoping out its options. If they attack a NATO alliance nation or openly invade another country, the results will be disasterous for us all.
The only power that can prevent a golobal war lies in the hands of the Russian people. It is UP TO THEM to change the destructive course of their country. Russians adore and idolatize Vladimir Putin, but he is only going to bring them (and us) nothing but death, destruction, and grief. Possibly the end of civilization.
These numbers mean nothing because the US has an invincible secret weapon. If the US is ever in peril DIck Cheney will strap special rocket engines to his back and fly into battle destroying all the evil communists and terrorists. Most data of the Cheney Strike Fighter is classified but I think it’s armed with a shotgun, water-boarding cannon, and has engines that are powered by a lot of hot air. (But personally I think it’s really powered by the darkest fires of hell).
Funny! Last I heard the Dick Cheney strike fighter engines are powered by “dark matter”. :-)
The Sukhoi SU-35 Will pick NATO’s bones clean.
And any illusions the West has of a different outcome, Is just that, An illusion.
With 15% of US shale gas producers are already losing money because of the Obama regimes secret deal with Saudi Arabia, this report warns, up to half of all of Americas shale operations will face financial ruin if oil prices slip below $55 a barrel leaving millions without jobs in an already collapsing economy.
To the ability of the Federation withstanding a “Samson Defense” economic war against the US and EU, It should be noted that the current debt of the US stands at a staggering $18 trillion an amount so large it is now mathematically impossible to ever pay back while the EU is, likewise, at a equally staggering amount of €12 trillion ($15 trillion).
Compared to the combined US-EU debt of $30 trillion, Russia has only $678 billion in foreign debt, has very little outstanding debt and its public debt to gross domestic product ratio is 10% – an excellent figure compared to the EU’s dismal average ratio of 90.9 and the US’s 71.8%.
Likewise to note, MED analysts report that while Russia’s debt to GDP is roughly 14%, the EU currently stands at 90.9%, the US at 80.2%, and Japan’s at 227%, meaning, simply, that the Federation can withstand any economic hardship the Western alliance puts against it.
Also, and as independent analysts confirm, Moscow‘s coffers are well-filled, giving Russia the durability to weather a double external shock – tanking oil prices and Western sanctions.
Russia will not cut its oil production against the headwinds of collapsing prices, and may, indeed, increase its amount as the plunging ruble, combined with a rising US dollar, actually makes Federation oil the most affordable in the world.
No it wont. GO away putin.
Russians do not want war, although always ready for it. But we are fed up with US policy.