MOSCOW — A production plant key to Russia’s fifth-generation Su-57 aircraft program has opened new facilities aimed at scaling up the sluggish delivery tempo, state-owned aerospace conglomerate United Aircraft Corporation announced.
Officials have put into operation new development facilities related to the fuel system and started construction of a hangar for avionics testing at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur factory in eastern Russia, according to the company.
Su-57 aircraft are limited in their participation in the invasion of Ukraine, carrying out strikes from Russia’s territory. Following the country’s full-scale invasion of neighbor Ukraine, state arms makers Rostec, UAC and the aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur are under numerous sanctions from the United States, the European Union, Ukraine, Great Britain, Switzerland and other countries, forcing them to look for electronic equipment and components in Asia or import them illegally.
Russia only has a small number of Su-57 aircraft. The contract for the production of 76 planes by the end of 2027 was signed by the Defense Ministry at the Army Forum in June 2019, with Komsomolsk-on-Amur specified as the main production site.
However, the plant was quickly deemed too small, forcing officials to spend time expanding production space, which entailed changing and adding new equipment.
As a result, according to independent aviation expert Michael Jerdev, to date, the Air Force has received no more than one-third of what was planned under the contract. There was a transfer of 10 aircraft to the Air Force in 2022, and 11 copies in 2023. Critical bottlenecks are the supply of avionics and a new engine, the so-called Izdelie 30, says Jerdev, pointing to Western sanctions.
Until recently, Su-57 aircraft were equipped with the previous-generation AL-41F-1 engine. In December 2023, Rostec announced that some of the aircraft delivered in 2024 would boast the successor engine.
According to Pavel Luzin, an expert at the Washington-based think tank CEPA, the engines of the so-called second stage for the Su-57 and Su-75 Checkmate have been in development since the early 2010s, but they are unlikely to enter mass production before 2025. The production capabilities of the Ufa Engine Industrial Association are limited, which likely will mean the company must stop making older engines to focus on the new one.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it plans to receive 22 Su-57 aircraft in 2024. But by August 2024, there was no information about the status of any deliveries yet.
Ukrainian forces are thought to have damaged one or two Su-57 aircraft in June 2024 with a strike on the Akhtubinsk airfield in southern Russia, the Kyiv Independent reported at the time, citing Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andrei Yusov.
Maxim Starchak is a Russia correspondent for Defense News. He previously worked as an editor for the Russian Defence Ministry and as an expert for the NATO Information Office in Moscow. He has covered Russian nuclear and defense issues for the Atlantic Council, the Center for European Policy Analysis, the Royal United Services Institute and more.
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