Sukhoi-57 at Airshow China 2024 | Photo: Rosoboronexport/UAC
Russia’s state-owned arms export agency, Rosoboronexport, said on Wednesday they have the first foreign customer for their fifth generation Sukhoi-57 stealth fighter aircraft.
Russia’s TASS news agency reported the CEO of Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheyev as telling Russian news media at Airshow China at Zhuhai, “We have already signed the first contracts for the Su-57.”
Mikheyev did not, apparently, specify the country that has ordered the aircraft, the export variant of which is called the Sukhoi-57E. TASS also quoted him as saying, “Su-57E fully meets all requirements to fifth-generation aircraft. Its major competitive advantage is the real combat engagement experience. The Russian Defense Ministry said it excellently performed in combat.”
The aircraft, which conducted demonstration flights at the airshow, was once the basis of a project in which India had participated for a time, for the two-seater Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) program.
India withdrew from the program in 2018 after potential costs blew up and diverging views about the design approach.
Other potential customers for the Sukhoi-57 in the past have included China, Vietnam and Algeria. China debuted its own land-based, air force version of its J-35 naval stealth fighter aircraft at Airshow China called the J-35A. China’s PLA Air Force already operates the J-20 stealth fighter.
Exactly a year back at the Dubai Airshow, Mikheyev had said Russia was in discussions with potential partners for the joint production of the Sukhoi-57.
An aircraft remarkably similar in form to the Sukhoi-57 appeared as an adversary ‘fifth generation fighter’ in the 2022 Tom Cruise-movie Top Gun: Maverick.
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