Defense Min to Get First Su-57 Fighter Jet

Photo courtesy: Sukhoi Website

Russia’s Defense Ministry will get the first serial-produced Su-57 fifth-generation fighter in December, a source in the defense industry told TASS on Monday.

“The Defense Ministry will get the first serial-produced Su-57 with the operational first-stage engine on the single military output day in December this year and four more such planes in 2021,” the source said.

The new fighter’s delivery rate will eventually grow to 15 aircraft a year, the source said.

“As a result, the contract signed in 2019 on 76 Su-57s through 2028 will definitely be fulfilled on time,” the source stressed.

The deliveries of Su-57 fighters with the second-stage engine are set to begin in 2022, the source said.

The Su-57 is a fifth-generation multirole fighter designed to destroy all types of air, ground and naval targets. The Su-57 fighter jet features stealth technology with the broad use of composite materials, is capable of developing supersonic cruising speed and is furnished with the most advanced onboard radio-electronic equipment, including a powerful onboard computer (the so-called electronic second pilot), the radar system spread across its body and some other innovations, in particular, armament placed inside its fuselage.

The Su-57 took to the skies for the first time on January 29, 2010. Compared to its predecessors, the Su-57 combines the functions of an attack plane and a fighter jet while the use of composite materials and innovation technologies and the fighter’s aerodynamic configuration ensure the low level of radar and infrared signature.

The plane’s armament will include, in particular, hypersonic missiles. The fifth-generation fighter jet has been successfully tested in combat conditions in Syria.