What the Su-57 should offer

A new batch of Russian stealth jets has been announced. However, the Su-57 has never demonstrated what Putin's prestige aircraft is supposed to be capable of.

Moscow – Justin Bronk saw this as a “severe blow” – “for an aircraft program that has long been in crisis and is a core part of Russian military pride,” as the aviation analyst at the Royal Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI) wrote.

Bronk spoke of the probable damage of a Sukhoi Su-57 “Felon” on the ground of the 929th State Flight Test Center VP Chkalova in Akhtubinsk by a drone attack from Ukraine in June. Now Vladimir Putin's air force is to get new fighter jets of this type, as the Military Watch Magazine reported. Their number remains uncertain, as does their usefulness.

According to the official index of global air forces, Russia currently has 14 Su-57 aircraft. The aircraft is one of the fifth generation – which is characterized above all by its stealth technology and is the competitor to the US F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor. According to the index, 62 more aircraft have been ordered. The magazine Defense News reports that a total of 76 units are to be produced by the end of 2027. The planning has supposedly been underway since 2019.

“Goals remain ambitious”: Russia’s armaments barely keep up with its own targets

The Russian Air Force wants to increase the stocks of its supposedly most advanced combat aircraft as quickly as possible, writes the magazine Flight ReviewThe manufacturer has put new production facilities into operation. “Nevertheless, the goals remain ambitious,” Flight Review-Author Patrick Hoeveler writes.

“If its creator has his way, the Su-57 could soon also serve as a flying launch platform – for disposable drones full of explosives that can find their target autonomously.”

Production of the aircraft is to be increased by 67 percent this year compared to the twelve machines delivered in 2023; this means that by the end of this year 20 machines should be ready for front-line service, writes Military watch and then assumes that the number of aircraft will double to a total of 42; as such, there are different figures circulating about the actual fleet size of this type.

The Su-57 is the carrier system for Russian glide bombs, which are released outside the range of the Ukrainian air defense. This allows the carrier systems to operate at a safe distance from the air defense missiles. However, recent announcements suggest that Russia already has ambitious plans for the bird: “If its creator has his way, the Su-57 could soon also serve as a flying launch platform – for disposable drones, full of explosives, which find their target autonomously,” wrote the Flight Review.

Putin's visions: The Su-57 fighter jet is planned as a super drone mothership

According to the descriptions, the Su-57 is to load a “jet-powered disposable combat drone” and carry it to a safe distance from its potential target. The highlight of the new weapon is that this drone will autonomously search for targets using its own sensors and attack them independently based on its own decision, as Flight Review-Author Patrick Zwerger writes. In any case, the carrier aircraft could continue to operate far outside the enemy air defenses.

However, the aircraft seems to have barely lived up to the praise it received from Russia. The latest report from the trade journal Flight Review is sobering. According to reports, the Russian Air Force recently received new Sukhoi Su-57s; possibly even three at the same time. “But it's not a great success for Russia, because the superfighter still lacks the new engine,” writes author Zwerger.

Technical counter-offensive failed: New aircraft continue to fly with old engines

The aircraft delivered will still have an old engine. The revolutionary feature of the new aircraft will be the “supercruise” that the new engine will enable, i.e. constant supersonic flight without afterburner. Without this capability, the Su-57 is quite conventional, and the range will remain the same. Four years ago, observers were already saying that Russia was promising more with the aircraft than it could deliver.

The new engine was already considered the core of the jet at the time. The “central challenge” was seen as the development of a second-generation engine. According to a former Sukhoi aircraft engineer who later became an independent aviation expert, “the 76 'operational' models that the Russian Air Force will receive in the 2020s will not be equipped with the planned second-generation engine. It remains unclear when the second-generation engine will be ready,” Ryan Bauer and Peter A. Wilson wrote four years ago.

Fighter jet as a permanent promise: Integration into Russia's armed forces is slow

The two analysts from the RAND think tank also complain that the aircraft's sensors should also be upgraded so that it could compete with the US F-35 – which is probably still a long way off, whereas the F-35 is currently being gradually integrated into the air forces of various NATO partners, including the German Air Force.

The Russian Federation's aviation industry has a long tradition of unsuccessful attempts to fully exploit the fruits of the post-Cold War information technology revolution. Western sanctions and the separation of the Russian and Russian aviation industries have exacerbated the situation, write Bauer and Wilson.

Russia's announcements regarding an increase in production of the super-bird should also be viewed with caution; as Bauer and Wilson also judged four years ago: “The aircraft made its first flight about ten years ago, but despite Russian promises to the contrary, the large-scale system has not yet been integrated into the Russian or other foreign armed forces.” However, this has slowly changed – although the rare appearances of the aircraft over Ukraine suggest that Russia fears bad press.

Competitor of the F-35: No threat to the USA from Su-57 to be feared

The US magazine The National Interest (NI) is currently formulated more sharply: “Although it is claimed that the Russian Su-57 is the most dangerous fifth-generation fighter jet in the world, it lags behind its American counterparts, the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II.” In addition to the outdated engine and the presumably still to be improved sensor technology, criticism is Germany-Author Maya Carlin the immature stealth abilities.

Peter Suciu also had National interest It has been suggested that US experts consider the Su-57 to be a fourth-generation jet because the radar cross-section is supposedly worse than that of the US F-35. Maya Carlin supports this claim by saying that the horizontal tail of the Su-57 is mounted in front of the wings, which increases the radar cross-section and offers more surface area for enemy air reconnaissance – she does not see the aircraft as a threat to the USA in a possible future conflict.

“Pure talk”: Putin sells prestige aircraft as more powerful than it really is

Just because of the supposed weaknesses of a single jet and the limited number of available machines of this type. She also suspects that the fleet of Russia's first stealth aircraft will hardly change significantly in the foreseeable future. The announcements from Russia, such as Military watch The CEO of the producing United Aircraft Corporation quoted: “The number of fifth-generation fighter aircraft delivered to the Russian Aerospace Forces is increasing every year.”