Russia’s new 5th-gen fighter, the Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate, had the date of its inaugural flight postponed from 2023 to 2024. The change was confirmed by Denis Manturov, Russian Minister of Industry and Commerce, to the Interfax agency.
“Changes were made to the design, which corrected the time of the first flight. But at the same time, the principle of modularity and modern digital technologies made it possible to make these changes in the shortest possible time, and as early as 2024 we plan to start flight tests,” said Manturov.
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The Su-75 was announced by Rostec, Russia’s state-owned technology conglomerate, in July last year during the MAKS 2021 air show in Moscow. The aircraft is the second 5th-generation fighter project developed in Russia. The first of these was the Sukhoi Su-57, introduced into the Russian Air Force a few years ago.
“During the time that has elapsed since the presentation of the project at MAKS 2021, we have received feedback from potential customers. Work was also carried out to optimize the cost and analyze individual technical solutions, which made it possible to significantly increase competitiveness, commercial attractiveness and reduce the technical risks in creating a domestic single-engine engine”, said the minister.
Manturov, however, did not comment on changes to the production schedule for the new jet, which is scheduled to start in mid-2027.
The Checkmate project is the result of Russian science and engineering advances, achieved primarily through the advances seen today of the Su-57, which was the country’s first Russian stealth fighter.
The Russians, however, focus the Su-75 on the foreign market and for that Rostec points out two aspects of the fighter that it considers “unbeatable”.
The first advantage is the weight-to-power ratio of the aircraft, “unique in its class”, according to the company. The second is the purchase price of the new fighter, estimated at between $25 million and $30 million.
The estimate is between 30% to 40% of the amount charged for the F-35A, a 5th generation Lockheed Martin fighter that has won several competitions around the world.
