MOSCOW (AP) \u2014 Russian aircraft makers say they will present a prospective new fighter jet at a Moscow air show that opens next week.
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\nMOSCOW (AP) \u2014 Russian aircraft makers say they will present a prospective new fighter jet at a Moscow air show that opens next week. The new warplane hidden under tarpaulin was photographed being towed to a parking spot across an airfield in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, where the MAKS-2021 International Aviation and Space Salon opens Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit the show\u2019s opening. Russian media reports said that the new jet has been built by the Sukhoi aircraft maker in a program of development of a light tactical fighter. Unlike Russia \u2018s latest Su-57 two-engine stealth fighter, the new aircraft is smaller and has one engine. The new warplane\u2019s name is unknown, and there is no information about its capability and deployment prospects. Rostec, the state corporation that includes Russian aircraft makers, said the \u201cfundamentally new military aircraft\u201d will be unveiled Tuesday at the show. In an apparent bid to raise public interest before the presentation, Rostec published a picture of the new plane covered by tarpaulin with \u201cwanna see me naked?\u201d written under it. It also posted a brief video featuring excited foreign customers and the jet\u2019s vague shadow over the water. Following the Rostec announcement, Russian plane spotters rushed to Zhukovsky to take pictures of the new plane – an eerie parallel with Cold War times when Western spies tried to get a glimpse of the latest Soviet warplanes at the tightly-guarded airfield that served as the country\u2019s top military aircraft test facility. \u201c Russia is one of the few countries in the world with full-cycle capacities for producing advanced aircraft systems, as well as a recognized trendsetter in the creation of combat aircraft,\u201d Rostec said. The Kremlin has made modernization of the country\u2019s armed forces a top priority amid a bitter strain in relations with the West, which have sunk to post-Cold War lows after Moscow \u2018s 2014 annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimean Peninsula, accusations of Russian interference in elections, hacking attacks and other irritants.<\/p>\n