Russian Aerospace Forces to get 1st batch of Su-57 5G fighters
MOSCOW. Jan 7 (Interfax-AVN) - The multirole fifth-generation fighter aircraft Suikhoi Su-57 (Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation, or PAK FA), will enter service in the Russian Aerospace Forces soon, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) said.
"The brand new fifth-generation airborne complex T-50\PAK FA on which we pinning great hopes and plans. Very soon it will start entering service in the Russian Aerospace Forces," UAC said in a Facebook post.
Su-57 deliveries to the army could begin in 2018, an aviation industry source told Interfax earlier.
"The delivery to the Russian Aerospace Forces of the pilot batch of few fighters is expected as early as 2018," the source said.
Su-57 is due to enter service in 2018, Viktor Bondarev, the Forces' former commander-in-chief and head of the Federation Council defense and security committee, told Interfax earlier.
"We are about to begin the serial production of the fifth-generation aircraft," Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with Rossiya-24 television in November 2017.
The production of all prototypes involved in flight tests would be finished in 2017, UAC President Yury Slyusar said earlier.
It was reported that the pilot batch meant for the Russian Defense Ministry would consist of 12 fighters with a "first-stage" engine. The new engine, a fifth-generation propulsion unit designed by United Engine Corporation (UEC), underwent flight tests in December 2017. Until now nine PAK FA prototypes with the "first-stage" engine have been tested.
Su-57 was designed by Sukhoi Design Bureau. It has an entirely new set of deeply integrated avionics with highly-automated control and intellectual support for the crew. The first PAK FA flight took place at Komsomolsk-on-Amur on January 29, 2010.