(Damascus) The war in Syria has allowed the Russian military to test its equipment in a real time combat situation, which has allowed the designers to test and adjust. Well the latest piece of Russian equipment to be spotted in Syria is the Sukhoi Su-57 aka the Russian Stealth fighter.
The Russia media has been singing the praises of the SU-57 since its first flight in 2010, yet dispite all the rhetoric, the SU-57 still hasn't got past the testing stage , due to a number of issues such as using engines built for the SU-35 until its own engines come on line around 2025. This hold up has resulted in India (which has funded a lot of the work) which was intending to purchase 200, lowering that figure to 144 then to 108, now looking at ditching the plane and going with the F-35 instead.
To that end in order to speeding up the test phase , Moscow has deployed 2 SU-57s to Khmeimim Airbase in Syria, in gain some actual combat experience in which to allow the builders to stamp combat proven onto the plane thus improving its chances of a sale to all those Arab despots who like shiny new toys.
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Exclusive#Russia deploying its brand new fifth generation fighter jet the Su-57 in #Khmemeim AB #Syria— Wael Al Hussaini (@WaelAlHussaini) February 21, 2018
2 Su-57
4 Su-35
4 Su-25
1 A-50U were deployed in the #RuAF AB in Latakia/Jableh today pic.twitter.com/MA4NIKyMW7
A number of commentators in the media have expressed that this deployment is to allow the SU-57 to be tested against the F-22 Stealth fighter as used by the USAF. The thing is the F22 has been in service for 15 years and it is pure stealth, the Russian planes (and the Chinese) are not fully stealth and would be stupid to go up against the F-22. But as I mention above, this is all about getting the SU_57 into service.
