Note by the Saker: this is an unconfirmed report, based on a Russian social media post, so don’t take it to the bank. But this is curious, so I decided to repost it.
Russian fighter jets intercept U.S. F-22 Raptor flying over Syria
A Su-35S air-superiority fighter jet of Russia’s Aerospace Force has intercepted and visually identified the U.S. F-22 Raptor Raptor combat aircraft flying over Syria.
A photographs posted by unofficial Russia’s military pilot Instagram account on 24 September has confirmed an intercept of the U.S. F-22 Raptor Raptor combat aircraft by the Russian Su-35S fighter jet.
Photographs, made by the infrared search and track fire control system of the Russian Su-35S, shows in infrared spectrum an F-22 Raptor fighter jet flying over Syria.
The Su-35S infrared search and track system called the OLS-35 and includes an infrared sensor, laser rangefinder, target designator and television camera. This system to determine the general position of aircraft within a fifty-kilometer radius—potentially quite useful for detecting stealth aircraft, such as F-22, at shorter ranges.
The systems scans the airspace ahead of the jet for heat signatures caused by aircraft engines and/or plane’s surface friction caused by the aircraft flying through the air.
According to the Deagel.com, OLS-35 comprises a heat-seeker, a laser rangefinder/designator with new algorithms and advanced software to outperform its predecessor installed on the Su-27/Su-30 aircraft family. The Su-35 IRST is superior to the OEPS-27 in terms of range, precision and reliability.
But, the Su-35’s infrared search and track system (IRST) does not represent a panacea solution against stealth aircraft.
The OLS-35, like and other IRST, does not provide target quality track data for weapons employment. For example, if a Russian Su-35 fighter jet detected an approaching forward aspect F-22, the Russian pilot could not directly utilize the IRST data to direct semi-active, active, or passive homing missiles; laser illumination capabilities are generally a means to guide air-to-ground munitions rather than air-to-air missiles.
i would.add that, it can track to cue radar missile to the target, but is special for R-73, R-27T/ET kind of missiles that could be very effective against stealth fighters
that’s amazing that you know that stuff Miguelouuu – seems like you must have military background
nah, just a guy with curiosity and some info over the years. Thanks for the compliment
Remember when there were military secrets?
My understanding is that stealth avoids giving off a radar signature but cannot evade giving off a heat signature. Radar can sweep a big area but infra-red cannot. So the real problem is figuring out where to point the infra-red detectors. But once it picks up an enemy aircraft, as mentioned in this article, why wouldn’t it be able to set heat-seeking weapons on to that target?
Note: this stealth defeating IRST technology is not unique to Russia. USN F-18’s are being out-fitted with it. And several newer European fighters also have it.