MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/: Work is in progress on the designer documentation for the light fighter jet Checkmate. Its serial production will begin in 2027, Rostec corporation’s CEO Sergey Chemezov said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
"We have plans for starting serial production in 2027," he said.
So far, a prototype has been created and designer documentation is being developed.
"We borrowed the onboard equipment and the engine from the fifth-generation fighter Sukhoi-57, but reconfigured them somewhat," Chemezov said, adding that Rostec was creating the plane on its own money without drawing budget funds.
He hopes that the Defense Ministry will agree to purchase the plane.
The light tactical fighter Checkmate, developed by Sukhoi (an affiliate of the United Aircraft Corporation of the public corporation Rostec) was presented for the first time at the MAKS-2021 air show. Its foreign presentation followed at the Dubai Airshow 2021 in the United Arab Emirates. The Checkmate’s maiden flight is due in 2023.
The Checkmate project boasts the latest achievements in science and engineering, including an open architecture that can be reconfigured to meet the customer’s needs and requirements and unique artificial intelligence features. The stealth plane has an intra-fuselage compartment for air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons and is capable of carrying a payload of 7 tonnes. The fighter can hit up to six targets simultaneously. The single-engine Checkmate’s speed is Mach 1.8 and combat radius, 3,000 kilometers.
