Sourced : The Diplomat
By Franz-Stefan Gady
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) is expected to sign a contract for a pre-production batch of 12 Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jets, Russia’s first indigenously designed and built fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on Thursday.
“We are buying Su-57 jets for test combat use. First stage state trials are over,” he told journalists, he said, according to a TASS news agency report. “This year, we will sign a contract for the first batch of 12 Su-57 fighter jets for the Armed Forces.”
The Su-57 is a multirole, single seat, twin-engine air superiority/deep air support fighter developed under the PAK-FA fifth-generation fighter program. The Su-57, which took to the skies for the first time in 2010, will replace the Russian Air Force’s existing stock of MiG-29s and Su-27s in the coming decade.
Russian efforts to field the country’s first fifth-generation fighter aircraft in the not so distant future are hampered by delays in designing and building a new turbofan jet engine for the Su-57. In December 2017, the aircraft made a first flight with a new engine prototype with mixed results.
Read more at : https://thediplomat.com/2018/02/russias-defense-ministry-to-ink-contract-for-12-stealth-fighter-jets/