Interesting thing I’ve heard in one of the videos. Apparently this airframe, despite not having FCS and radar had 4 mounting points for R-77 missiles under the fuselage (you can see them on photos)
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Probably for testing purposes, same as it was with Yak-141
The stealth seems a little sketchy, but the FM performance would sit nicely at top tier.
1.44 didn’t put big emphasis on stealth, because in USSR main characteristics of a 5th Gen aircraft were flight performance and super maneuverability.
If this is stealth then my Mitsubishi Lancer is also stealth…
Me when people make assumptions based on a single prototype airframe that was just a proof of concept.
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This thing was a technological dead end and Russia knew it. If it was really that promising, then Russia would have continued pursuing it.
Calling this thing stealth is like calling an F-16 stealth because it has a Have Glass coating on it.
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Dog it was introduced dyring the fall of USSR. Russia barely had money to sustain whatever it had at the moment, not pursue development of projects that barely left the paper stage. MiG bureau wasn’t going so hot either to work on it from internal funds, unlike Sukhoi that had much better financial standing.
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No one calling it “stealth”. At least not this prototype. It’s like calling YF-22 stealth because it’s a F-22 prototype.
while 0.3 m2 is certainly not stealth, it is low observable