Via the Russian-language Strizhi site - the web home of the Swifts, a MiG-29 aerobatic team - comes this selection of photos of the Su-35 unveiled at the MAKS airshow this week. Distinguishing features include a twin-wheel nose landing gear to handle higher weights and no pitot probe on the radome, replaced by air-data probes on the forward fuselage.

The absence of the pitot probe is important. The agility of the original Su-27 that astounded the world in 1989 was helped by tiny strakes at the probe-radome junction, which stabilized the vortices on either side of the body at high angles of attack. With 3-D thrust vectoring, the Su-35 needs neither these nor the canards of the Su-30.

Under the port wing is a mock-up of a long-range AAM, resembling the long-discussed Novator KS-172 or R-100, and designed specifically to go after high value air asset (HVAA) targets such as AWACS.

Pic credit: Strizhi.info