United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), the parent company of Russia’s leading aircraft manufacturers, recently opened an expansion of its Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAZ) plant, located in the far east of the country.
This is where Sukhoi’s main fighters are produced, including the Su-57, Russia’s first stealth fighter.
The new facilities were built precisely to speed up production of the 5th generation aircraft.
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According to the UAC, a fuel system testing area has been put into operation and the first stage of an avionics testing facility has been completed.
“The technical re-equipment and expansion of the production capacity of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur plant is a multi-year investment program involving a large amount of government funding and investment of the corporation’s own funds. Thus, we have created the most advanced and large-scale high-tech production for the production of the most modern aircraft systems,” said Yuri Slyusar, General Director of the UAC.
The Su-57 will also receive a hangar for testing systems and ground tests of the Su-57.
“Our task is to put this building into operation as soon as possible, since the next stage is planned to reconstruct the existing hangar for testing aircraft systems. Further expansion of the enterprise’s capacity is also planned. With the support of the state, the third stage of production will be built at KnAAZ and a major reconstruction of the other facilities of the enterprise will begin,” noted the plant’s director Alexander Pekarsh.
Production at an unknown rate
Russia began serial production of the Su-57 only in 2020 after years of development. A dozen pre-series aircraft have been assembled, some of which have been sent to the Air Force for combat evaluation.
The Russian government has officially ordered 76 new Su-57 fighters, but the number of aircraft delivered is unknown.
The UAC occasionally discloses some “batches” delivered, but does not disclose how many aircraft are sent to the Ministry of Defense. It is understood that deliveries are made for every one or two jets completed.
The last delivery announced by the state-owned company took place in December 2023.
