Starting from 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry will receive 12 fifth-generation fighters per year. The first serial Su-57 was handed over to the Aerospace Forces in the winter.
The head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), Yuri Slyusar , spoke about the pace of deliveries of the latest fifth-generation Su-57 fighter to the Ministry of Defense.
"This year we will deliver four cars already. And then our task-together with the cooperation — is to reach the level of 12 cars per year. In total, we have signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense for 76 such vehicles," Slyusar said.
The agreement on the supply of 76 fighters to the Aerospace Forces was signed at the Army-2019 forum. The first production car was delivered in 2020.
Serial Su-57
Image source: Svetlana Balaeva
The very first of the production cars was supposed to be handed over to the military in December 2019, but the plane crashed during tests. The pilot ejected and survived, but the incident led to serious proceedings and had far-reaching consequences for the Sukhoi company, including a change of its leadership.
The Su-57 is the only fifth-generation fighter developed in Russia (in 2000, the country launched a prototype of a new generation MiG 1.44 fighter, but the project was soon closed).
MiG 1.44 MFI
Image source: wikipedia
The first flight of the Su-57 was performed on January 29, 2010. In addition to a couple of production cars, we built ten flight prototypes and several samples for testing on the ground. The plane, among other things, was tested in Syria.
The fighter was developed using stealth technology. It has two large internal compartments for placing weapons and two additional side ones. The arsenal includes air — to-air missiles, air — to-surface missiles, as well as various aerial bombs.
In the future, Russia may receive another, lighter fifth-generation fighter. In this regard, we recall that the United Aircraft Corporation recently announced the presentation of a "fundamentally new military aircraft"at the MAKS air show.
While it is impossible to say with certainty what the novelty is, however, the director of the industry agency "Aviport" Oleg Panteleev recently said: we are talking about a light fighter. The car, among other things, can be exported.
It is also known that Russia is developing a new-generation fighter-interceptor, which in the future will be able to replace the famous MiG-31 in the VKS. The promising machine is known as the MiG-41 and can become the fastest combat aircraft in the world.