Russia Cancels Mass Production Of The Su-57 Fighter Jet

Su-57 was never really fifth-generation, and never really stealth

Jul 13, 2018

• Russia’s Su-57 fighter jet. Only 12 have been ordered, and no more orders are coming.
• Russia announced earlier this month that the Su-57, its proposed entry into the world of fifth-generation stealth fighters, will not see mass production.
• The jet had some promising capabilities in combat, but design and production difficulties made it a difficult project with limited export potential.
• This move represents a failure for Russia to manage its huge defense budget and breadth of projects and to find buyers for its version of a jet meant to take on US stealth fighters.

Russia announced earlier this month that the Su-57, its proposed entry into the world of fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft, will not see mass production.

“The plane has proven to be very good, including in Syria, where it confirmed its performance and combat capabilities,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on Russian TV on July 2, as The Diplomat reports.

But despite Russia’s non-stop praise for the plane and dubious claims about its abilities, Borisov ultimately said, “The Su-57 is considered to be one of the best aircrafts produced in the world. Consequently, it does not make sense to speed up work on mass-producing the fifth-generation aircraft.””

Justin Bronk, a combat aviation expert at the Royal United Services Institute, told Business Insider that Borisov’s comments “could be charitably described as an unreasonably optimistic reason why they stopped production.”

Basically, Borisov said the plane is so much better than everything out there, they don’t need to build it, which Bronk finds unlikely.

Instead, Russia will stick to what it’s good at with upgraded fourth generation aircraft in service instead of the Su-57, which originally was meant to replace the older fighters.

The Su-57, a plane meant to function as a killer of US F-35 and F-22 stealth jets with an innovative array of radars, saw a brief period of combat over Syria, but the deployment only lasted days and didn’t pit the jet against any threats befitting a world class fighter.

Initially proposed as a joint project with India, the Su-57 hit trouble when neither side could agree on how to split the production and technological development. After 11 years in the program, India withdrew, leaving Russia to go it alone with a weak economy.

Now, India has been discussed as a potential buyer of the F-35 in another blow to Russia’s dream of developing its own fifth-gen fighter.

A senior stealth scientist recently told Business Insider that though the jet claimed a stealthy profile, it had glaring and obvious flaws. A 2016 report from IHS Janes stated the jet was fifth generation “in name only.”

But the Su-57 carries a massive payload, and was slated to one day carry nuclear weapons. Like the Su-35 before it, had super maneuverability beyond that of any US jet.

By all means, the Su-57 appeared a next-level dogfighting jet capable of taking out the US’s best fighters in close combat, but its failure to integrate stealth meant that getting in close with an F-35 or F-22 seemed an unlikely bet.

Bronk said Russia must have looked at the program and realized that it didn’t have the potential, even with upgrades and maturation, to ever work out to be worth the price. At around $40 million a unit, Russia’s Su-57 is less than half the price of an F-35, but considerably more expensive than its other jets.

“Russia is more or less admitting defeat in building a feasible fifth-generation fighter,” said Bronk.

For that price, according to Bronk, Russia can just put the fancy radars and missiles on its older planes in greater numbers, as the Su-57’s airframe was never really stealth in the first place.

Russia is currently working on new tanks, submarines, and nuclear weapons, all of which tax its already large defense budget. With other projects going forward, it appears the Su-57 has become the first casualty of the budget crunch.

As the US’s F-35 starts to come on line in significant numbers, and China’s J-20 stealth jet deploys in earnest, it looks like Russia is getting left behind in the world of top-class militaries.

Source: Spacewar