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.