OREANDA-NEWS. April 09, 2012. The Su-35 has performed its 500-th flight within the Su-35 flight test program. The fighter was piloted by Sergei Bogdan, honored test-pilot of the Russian Federation, Colonel of air forces, the Hero of Russia. It was him who took the super maneuverable multirole fighter to the air for the first time, reported the press-centre of UAC.

At present, the fighter is undergoing the Joint State Tests (JST) at the State Flight and Test Center of the Ministry of Defense of Russian Federation named after V.Chkalov. The fourth serial Su-35S was delivered to the JST in March. The first and second Su-35s carried out preliminary flight tests. The basic set of flight and technical specifications of the on-board equipment and the characteristics of super maneuverability, stability and control characteristics, the characteristics of the power plant, the work of the navigation system were fully confirmed during the tests.

The maximum ground-level speed is 1,400 km/h, speed at altitude — 2400 km/h, the ceiling — 18 thousand meters. The detection range of targets in the “air-to-air” mode is over 400 km. This is significantly higher than that of the combat aircraft currently in service. The onboard OLS (optical locator station) can detect and track multiple targets at ranges exceeding 80 km. The aircraft complex is ready to undergo testing for combat use.

The analysis of the carried out tests proves that the Su-35/Su-35S features significantly better flight characteristics compared to analogue aircraft in service. The airborne equipment of the fighter allows for solving a wider range of tasks set by tactical and technical requirements.

The potential characteristics of the fighter will provide for the Su-35’s superiority to all tactical fighters of the 4th and 4 + generations, such as Rafale and EF 2000, modernized fighters of the F-15, F-16, F-18, F-35 type and allow to counter the F-22A fighter.

The serial production of the Su-35S is set up at Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association named after Y.Gagarin (KNAAPO), a part of Sukhoi Company, in accordance with the state contract on delivery of 48 aircraft to the Russian Ministry of Defence till 2015 signed in 2009.