OVERVIEW: OVERVIEW: The Su-27SM3 aka "Flanker B” is a single-seat, twin-engine, long-range, all-weather, +4 -generation multi-role air superiority fighter capable of BVR engagements as well as precision ground attack, SEAD and anti-ship strike.

DETAILS:  Similar in concept to the USAF's heavyweight/lightweight F-15/F-16 fighter fleet mix, the Su-27 was developed as a heavyweight fighter to complement the lighter Mig-29 and is roughly comparable to the F-15E Strike Eagle.  

 The Su-27SM3 is a modernized version of the Su-27SM, which was a modernization of the earlier Su-27SK.  It features a reinforced airframe design, increasing the take-off weight by + 3 tons. It also has improved ECM capabilities and can carry more advanced A/A and A/G weapons.  To ease pilot workload, it has an "all glass" cockpit and an improved secure communications suite. It also has additional hardpoints and an improved engine providing increased thrust and increased overhaul life.  

The Su-27 is designed to be a highly maneuverable aircraft.  To achieve this, it was designed to be unstable.  The wing and fuselage form a single aerodynamically lifted frame, providing a high aerodynamic efficiency and high lift coefficient.  This, along with its low wing loading, high thrust-to-weight ratio, and an analogue quad-redundant fly-by-wire system, making it highly agile even at low air speed. The Su-27 can sustain 9.0 g maneuvers, and bubble cockpit gives the pilot excellent visibility.  These characteristics, combined with the pilot’s helmet-mounted target designator and the all-aspect AA-11 missile and a 30mm cannon, make the Flanker an excellent dog fighting aircraft.

The Su-27SM3 uses a N001V radar, providing it with a LD/SD capability and when combined with the AA-10 missile, a BVR capability.   The radar also has a ground mapping capability allowing it to detect ground and ship targets.

The Su-27SM3 is armed with a single 30 mm GSh-30-1 cannon with 150 rounds in the starboard wingroot.  The Su-27SM3 has up to 10 hardpoints for up to 8,000 kg of missiles and other weapons.   For air-to-air combat, it carries the R-27R/R-27T series (AA-10A/-10B/-10C aka Alamo A-C), an all-aspect medium-range missile with semi-active radar homing or with infrared homing.  These have a range from 0.27-32 nm.  It also carries the R-73 series (AA-11 Archer) all-aspect, close-combat air-to-air missile with infrared homing and a range from 0.17-11 nm.   For strike missions, ordinance includes a variety of guided munitions, including Kh-29T/TE TV-guided missiles and Kh29 laser-guided missiles, Kh-31A active radar homing ASMs, Kh-31P ARMs, KAB-500Kr and KAB-1500Kr ‘smart bombs’ and other ordinance. It can also carry free-fall bombs and the S-8/S-13/S-25 series rockets.

The countermeasures system includes a pilot illumination radar warning receiver, chaff and infrared decoy dispensers, and active multi-mode jammers, normally carried in wingtip pods in lieu of R-73 missiles in the wingtip hardpoints. The jammers are capable of mutual and group protection.  

The Su-27SM3 is powered by two widely separated AL-31FM1 afterburning turbofans, each producing 8500 kgf (18,739lbs). of thrust (military) or 13,499 kgf (29,760 lbs) of thrust at afterburner, giving it a 1.19  thrust-to-weight ratio at normal takeoff weight. Each engine has two air intakes: a primary wedge intake and a louvred auxiliary air intake. The design maximum speed is Mach 2.35 at altitude.

NOTES: IOC: 2011. Claimed to be "almost 2 times" more effective than the Su-27S against aerial targets and "than 3 times" more effective when operating against ground targets.


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