The Sukhoi Su-34 “Fullback” is one of the odder fighters in service: a two-seat strike jet with the crew sitting side by side, a pressurised cabin you can stand up in, and a reputation for creature comforts. A post circulating on Instagram says it has “a galley and a bunk”, a 4,000 km range, a titanium armoured cockpit and a tail warning radar that give it survivability “no dedicated bomber can match”.

Some of that is true. The bunk and the tail radar are not, and the survivability claim does not survive contact with the war in Ukraine.

A Cockpit You Can Stand Up In

The Su-34’s crew climb in through a ladder that drops from the nosewheel bay; there is no standard way to open the canopy from outside. Inside, the two K-36DM ejection seats sit side by side, so the crew share one set of displays. The cabin is pressurised so that the crew can fly without oxygen masks up to an altitude of about 10,000 metres, keeping masks for emergencies and combat.

Behind the seats is enough space for one crew member to stand upright. That is where the “bunk” story comes from, but there is no bunk. A crew member who wants to rest can lie on the floor, with head and body over the entry hatch and legs between the ejection seats.

A Can Heater, Not a Galley

The “galley” is a heater that warms tinned food, plus thermos flasks for drinks and rations. The famous toilet is not a toilet either: it is a metal canister with a cone-shaped opening, effectively a hand-held urinal. That is still more than most fighter crews get, and it matters on long missions. United Aircraft Corporation puts the aircraft’s endurance at up to ten hours.

Titanium, Yes. Tail Radar, No.

The armour is real. The whole cockpit sits in a 17 mm titanium tub weighing about 1,480 kg, roughly one and a half times the armour of the Su-25 ground-attack jet. It protects the crew against fragments and small-arms fire.

The tail warning radar is the bigger myth. The Su-34’s long tail “stinger” was meant to house a small rear-looking radar, but the idea was dropped early in development. Production aircraft carry an auxiliary power unit in the tail cone, with chaff and flare dispensers underneath.

Range and Weapons

The 4,000 km in the caption is a ferry range, with extra fuel and no combat load; sources give between 4,000 and 4,500 km. The combat radius is closer to 1,100 km. The Su-34 can also refuel in flight; in 2010 one flew 6,000 km non-stop with two refuellings. It has 12 weapons stations and the manufacturer quotes a maximum combat load of 8,500 kg. The 12 to 14 tonne figures seen online are not backed by Russian sources.

Better Than a Bomber?

The caption says the armour and tail radar give the Su-34 survivability “no dedicated bomber can match”. It is true that bombers such as the B-1, B-52, Tu-22M3 and Tu-160 have no armoured cockpit tub. But the Su-34 has no tail radar, while the Tu-22M3 does carry a rear-facing gun-laying radar and the B-52 carried tail-gun radars for decades. More to the point, cockpit armour stops shrapnel, not surface-to-air missiles. More than 40 Su-34s have been visually confirmed lost or damaged in Ukraine since 2022, which makes it one of Russia’s most heavily lost combat aircraft. We track the numbers in our Su-34 production and losses report and on our Su-34 encyclopedia page.

Diesen Beitrag auf Instagram ansehen

Sources: The War Zone, “All the crazy quirks and features on Russia’s Su-34 Fullback”; United Aircraft Corporation (Su-34 specifications); Wikipedia (English and Russian), Sukhoi Su-34, citing Gordon (1999) and RIA Novosti; Techinsider; Oryx (equipment losses in Ukraine)