Su-57

Sukhoi · Russia · first flew 2010 · fighter

The Su-57 Felon is Russia's first operational fifth-generation stealth fighter, emphasising supermanoeuvrability alongside reduced radar signature.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — WingsMid-mounted, tapered
E — Engines2 × turbofan, fuselage-mounted
F — Fuselage20.1 m fuselage
T — TailTwin fin

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Identify it by the faceted, blended stealth planform, widely spaced engines with movable leading-edge surfaces between the intakes, and outward-canted all-moving twin fins.

Specifications

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Flown as the T-50 prototype in 2010 and designated Su-57 in 2017, the aircraft was developed under the PAK FA programme to give Russia a stealthy multirole fighter. Series production has been slow, and the type entered limited service late in the 2010s.

Variants

The single-seat Su-57 is the baseline, with a planned Su-57M upgrade introducing a new engine, and an uncrewed S-70 Okhotnik developed as a stealthy companion drone. An export Su-57E has been offered.

Where you'll see it

A front-line Russian asset produced only in small numbers, the Su-57 has not been seen in UK skies. Its mix of stealth shaping with thrust-vectoring agility marks a distinct design philosophy from Western stealth jets.

In depth

The Su-57's design philosophy diverges sharply from its Western contemporaries, and understanding why illuminates the aircraft clearly. Where the F-22 treats stealth as the top priority and agility as its complement, the Felon's engineers at the Sukhoi Design Bureau weighted those priorities in reverse order. The aircraft's twin AL-41F1 engines are set further apart than on the F-22, with a wide channel between the intakes that houses avionics and provides a lifting body contribution — a concept borrowed from the Su-27 family. The movable leading-edge vortex controllers between the inlets and the outboard wings are a Sukhoi signature that no Western manufacturer has replicated. Combined with full-authority thrust vectoring in both pitch and yaw, they give the Su-57 post-stall manoeuvring capabilities that arguably exceed the F-22's, at the cost of a radar cross-section that Western analysts estimate is measurably larger.

The Su-57's service history is extraordinary for how little of it there has been. Russia announced it had deployed a small number of pre-series aircraft to Syria in February 2018, a three-day visit framed as a combat test — the aircraft appeared to fly in a low-threat environment accompanied by Su-35 escorts, and returned without incident. From 2022 onward, Su-57s have been used to fire Kh-59 cruise missiles into Ukraine from stand-off range over Russian territory, carefully avoiding entering Ukrainian airspace where they might encounter air defences. The deliberate stand-off use of a supposed front-line air-superiority fighter tells its own story about Russian confidence in the type's stealth performance at this stage of its development.

Against the F-22, the Felon faces a real stealth disadvantage: its engine face is partially visible from the forward quarter because the intake ducts are curved but not fully serpentine, and its internal weapons bays are smaller than Western analysts expected. Against China's J-20, the comparison is closer in design generation but the two aircraft reflect different national priorities and have never faced each other in any context where performance could be assessed. Among its more immediate rivals in the export market, the Su-57E has been offered to several nations without landing a foreign sale, suggesting that reputation has not yet translated into confidence.

For Western enthusiasts, the Su-57 is almost impossible to see outside Russia. The type appeared at the MAKS airshow at Zhukovsky near Moscow in 2011, 2017 and 2019, where it flew full display sequences including the Pugachev Cobra and tail-slide — manoeuvres that demonstrate extraordinary departure resistance and recovery authority. MAKS has historically been open to foreign visitors, though the political climate since 2022 makes attendance impossible for most Western spotters. No airworthy or preserved Su-57 is accessible outside Russia.

The detail that most rewards close study in the few available ground photographs is the fuselage skin panel seaming. Unlike the large smooth skins of the F-22, the Su-57 has a more complex surface treatment with serrated panel edges — an approach to radar cross-section management that is different from but not necessarily inferior to Western methods for certain radar frequency bands. The RAM coating colour on production aircraft is a distinctive dark grey-green, lighter than the Su-35's typical two-tone scheme, and the intake lips are notably sharper and more angular than on the earlier T-50 prototypes — a useful cue for distinguishing prototype-era imagery from current production aircraft.

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Compared head-to-head

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