With assertions of Mach 5 speeds and anti-satellite missiles, the MiG-41 codenamed PAK DP for “Prospective Air Complex for Long-range Interception,” seems to be a topic of much debate and doubt.

The MiG-41 project, which is purported to replace the aging MiG-31 Foxhound by 2030, represents an ambitious leap in aerospace technology, with its first flight projected to occur in 2025.

In 2018, Mikoyan Director-General Ilya Tarasenko said the MiG-41 was entering the “experimental design stage.” So far, the MiG-41 is more vaporware than reality.

One of the primary concerns is the extreme demands of hypersonic flight. Speeds between Mach 4 and Mach 5 necessitate the airframe and canopy to withstand intense levels of heat, only achievable with specialized materials.

The aircraft would also require specific hypersonic weapons systems that are air-launchable from the platform. Yet, such weapons and their delivery systems are not clearly defined or known to be in existence.

Design challenges aside, At such high speeds, the MiG-41 would need to store significant amounts of fuel. This would require aerial refueling and limiting the range of the fighter. The heat from the exhaust could also increase its radar signature, keeping it from being as stealthy as Russia has claimed.

“PAK DP (the official terminology of MiG-41) is Russia’s fake attempt to trick the world into thinking it can make an NGAD like the US or maybe China. It likely can’t,” Peter Suciu, a military expert, wrote in the National Interest.

“It is difficult to foresee a scenario in which the MiG-41 emerges from hype and propaganda shortly. Russia already has its hands full with the Su-57, of which few have been built and deployed.

“The Su-75 is looking for an international partner or buyer to fund its future development,” Dr. Brent M. Eastwood, the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare, wrote in the National Interest. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former US Army Infantry officer.

“The Russian aerospace industrial base is just stretched too thin to give the MiG-41 the kind of attention that it needs to make it from concept to prototype to serial production.

The program assumes a level of technological advancement that does not exist,” opined Dr. Eastwood.

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