Are you interested in the fastest, most advanced Russian fighter jets? If so, this is your article! It is a very interesting topic and now Insider Monkey has published an article about it. The air power has always been one of the staples of Soviet (and Russian) military might. During the Cold War, together with tanks and nuclear submarines, the West most mostly concerned about various MiGs and Sukhois stationed on airfields all over Mother Russia.
Modern Russian Air force (or VVS, as it is abbreviated in Russian) often seems like a poor cousin, compared to the Red Air force that stroke fear into the hearts of NATO planners. During the 1990s and the collapse of the Soviet Empire, there was never enough money for training flights, fuel, basic maintenance or even pilots’ salaries. Naturally, this led to a drastic fall in performance and readiness, seriously cutting into the number of available fighters and personnel.
Now without a further ado let’s see what Insider Monkey has investigated for us. We have picked two fighter jets from their list.
The first one is Su-25SM3 (Speed:Mach 0.82). Although strictly speaking Su-25 is an attack jet, it does possess the ability to carry both K-13 and R-60 air-to-air missiles, which give it some multirole ability and can be stretched into a fighter category.After Afghanistan debacle, Soviet Air Force decided that Su-25, already in service since the 1970s, needed an upgrade in order to increase its capabilities and survivability. The new design was named Su-39, but ultimately it was too pricey to procure in numbers Russians needed. The Less ambitious project was called for and Su-25SM was born. It features new electronics, including laser targeting system, and new avionics suit.
The second one is Sukhoi Su-27SM. (Speed: Mach 2.35). Arguably the most successful Soviet fighter design, Sukhoi Su-27 spun the design of several other highly successful fighters present on our list of fastest, most modern Russian fighter jets. Originally, Soviet Airforce wanted a fighter able to compete with the new F-15 Americans were designing in the late 1960 and early 1970s. It turned out that specifications were too costly for a single airframe, so the program was split into Light and Heavy fighter. Light fighter resulted in MiG-19 and Heavy in Su-27. The Chinese reverse-engineered some of the Su-27 bought from Russia in the 1990s into Shenyang J-10. The SM version (serial moderniziroval – serial modernized) incorporates many technologies demonstrated on advanced Su-30 and Su-35 models.
For any further interesting information read Insider Monkey’s article about 8 fastest, most advanced Russian fighter jets.
