Russia has for the past two decades relied on out-dated Soviet-era aircraft, but the Sukhoi T-50 multirole fighter, which can sustain supersonic cruise, contains over-the-horizon radar visibility and integrated weapons and navigation systems managed by artificial intelligence, may change all that by 2013.
Russia's military claims the planes, made from space-age materials, will rival US counterparts, as well as new Chinese technology, which is said to dominate US superiority in some aspects, such as stealth capability.
According to the Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin, the government has invested US $1 billion in the development of the T-50 and will invest another US $1 billion producing it.
Only the US-made F-22 Raptor matches Russian claims about the T-50, although its staggering price tag, US $330 million per plane, is a significant deterrent to sizeable production of the model.
