KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, February 26. /TASS/. The first serial-produced Sukhoi Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet will arrive for Russia’s Aerospace Force in 2019, Deputy CEO of the Sukhoi Aircraft Company Alexander Pekarsh said on Tuesday.
Pekarsh heads the Company’s branch in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East where Su-57 planes are manufactured.
"If we speak about the Su-57 program, we are today at the stage of manufacturing the first serial panes. In 2018, we completed the manufacture and the delivery of a batch of prototype planes that are now undergoing trials. Under the existing contract with the Defense Ministry, we have two planes in the production process, with the timeframe for the delivery of the first aircraft in 2019 and the second plane in 2020," the Sukhoi deputy chief executive said.
"I am confident that we will cope with the task and the first serial-produced plane will be delivered this year," he added.
A source in the Russian aircraft-making industry earlier told TASS about the same timeframe.
Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Sukhoi Aircraft Company signed a contract on the delivery of the first two Su-57 fighter jets to the troops at the Army forum in Kubinka outside Moscow on August 22, 2018. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko said at the time that the first serial-produced Su-57 out of 15 planes planned for delivery would arrive for the Aerospace Force in 2019.
The Su-57 is a fifth-generation multirole fighter designed to destroy all types of air targets at long and short distances and hit enemy ground and naval targets, overcoming its air defense capabilities.
The Su-57 took to the skies for the first time on January 29, 2010. Compared to its predecessors, the Su-57 combines the functions of an attack plane and a fighter jet while the use of composite materials and innovation technologies and the fighter’s aerodynamic configuration ensure the low level of radar and infrared signature.
The plane’s armament will include, in particular, hypersonic missiles. The fifth-generation fighter jet has been successfully tested in combat conditions in Syria.
