The Sukhoi Checkmate fighter is being exhibited by Rostec in an enclosed space at the Dubai Airshow, the new Russian aircraft’s first appearance at an overseas event.
The presence in the United Arab Emirates would have already aroused interest in the country in co-producing the aircraft, in partnership with Russia, said company executives.
Viktor Kladov, who is responsible for international cooperation at Rostec, revealed on Monday that the Tawazun Economic Council, Mubadala Investment Company and Edge Group had been approached for possible cooperation in the production of composite materials and telecommunications technology.
Kladov also argued that even the US has 22 partner countries in the production of the F-35 fighter due to the high costs of programs like this.
Rostec also presented for the first time an image of Checkmate in an unmanned version. “We foresee that maybe in five years, we have the unmanned version of Checkmate controlled by artificial intelligence,” said the executive of the state-owned company.
MC-21-310
The Russian delegation at the Dubai Airshow is quite significant. There are aircraft such as an executive version of the Superjet 100 and the MC-21-310, a new jetliner for up to 211 seats in the variant equipped with PD-14 engines.
“This is the first major foreign aviation event after the pandemic,” said UAC Director General Yuri Slyusar. “We see that interest in Russian technology is quite high. And for us, of course, this is an opportunity to showcase our achievements.”
The acrobatic team “Russian Knights” also participates in the aerial demonstrations.
