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Russia has largely kept its Su-57 fighter jets out of the war in Ukraine, fearing a loss of combat.
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But on Saturday, Ukrainian forces attacked one of the planes hundreds of miles from the battlefield.
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It was the first ever hit on Russia’s much-vaunted fighter plane.
Russia has tried to hide its very limited number of Su-57 fighter jets from the war in Ukraine, fearing that a combat loss would be a blow to the aircraft’s reputation, Western intelligence and aviation experts said.
But last weekend Ukraine damaged one of the fifth generation fighters inside a long-distance strike hundreds of kilometers inside Russian territory, underscoring its vulnerabilities Moscow’s most celebrated weapons – even if they are far from the battlefield.
An Su-57 was hit “for the first time” on Saturday in an attack on Russia’s Akhtubinsk airport, located more than 580 kilometers from the front line, Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said in a message. rack in the Telegram messaging app.
To support its claims, HUR shared satellite images that reportedly showed some damage to the aircraft as a result of the attack, as well as visible explosion and burn marks on the tarmac in the immediate vicinity of the fighter jet.
The extent of the damage is ultimately unclear and Business Insider was unable to immediately verify the footage.
According to sources, several Su-57s were seen at Akhtubinsk airport as early as December 2022. satellite images shared by the UK Ministry of Defense.
In both images, the Su-57s appear to be parked outdoors, with no paved shelters. Saturday’s footage appears to reveal some sort of curved structure, but whatever it is didn’t prevent the attack, which was Reportedly carried out by a cheap Ukrainian drone.
This particular detail has not gone down well with Moscow’s war commentators.
“Russian milbloggers used the June 8 strike to criticize the Russian military command for not building hangars to hide Russian aircraft from Ukrainian attacks,” analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank wrote on Monday. research.
The milbloggers “claimed that Russian forces could build hangars at any military airfield in Russia for the cost of one Su-57 aircraft,” which is estimated to cost $35 million, the analysts noted.
Russia’s problematic Su-57 program
The twin-engine Su-57, known to NATO as the ‘Felon’, is Russia’s first attempt at a fifth-generation fighteralthough analysts have often wondered whether the aircraft can actually claim that status, given that it apparently has some of the necessary capabilities.
Russian state media has often touted the Su-57 as comparable to – or even better than – US fifth-generation stealth fighters such as the F-22 and F-35. But it is full of technical problemsincluding a lack of stealth-capable engines and body panels sleek enough to sufficiently reduce the radar signature.
The aircraft first saw combat in Syria in 2018 and was delivered to the Russian military in 2020. Kremlin officials have claimed that the Su-57 has seen combat in Ukraine, although evidence supporting the claims is extremely limited.
Western intelligence and aviation experts have said it belongs to Russia reluctance to use the Su-57 in combat suggests that it is keen to avoid reputational damage, loss of sensitive technologies and reduced export opportunities that might arise when the plane is shot down by Ukraine. Moreover, Moscow may not have confidence in the plane’s alleged stealth capabilities.
The HUR said the Su-57 is Russia’s “most modern fighter,” capable of launching Kh-59/69 missiles, and that only “a few” of these fighters are in service. The Southern Command of Ukraine specified that Kiev hit one of six operational aircraft on Saturday. Moscow has a similar number of unfinished aircraft.
Russian state media has suggested that the military will eventually field dozens of Su-57s by the end of this decade, but it is unclear whether these plans will materialize.
Justin Bronk, an air force and technology expert at British think tank Royal United Services Institute, said Saturday’s Ukrainian attack is a “significant symbolic blow” to Moscow’s “long-troubled” Su-57 program, although the direct its effect on the war will be “almost non-existent”.
“Due to the small size of the fleet, the political humiliation if one were shot down and the slow development of aircraft systems, the Su-57 has played an extremely minor role in the conflict so far,” Bronk wrote in a message on Monday. analysis.
He said the attack shows that Ukraine has a “relatively mature, low-cost, long-range intimidation capability” that it can use to attack military bases deep inside Russia.
Ukraine relies on an arsenal of homemade, long-range exploding drones to strike repeatedly military and energy objectives located hundreds of kilometers within Russian territory in recent months, because Kiev had not been able to do so with missiles supplied by the West. However, some of these restrictions have been relaxed in recent weeks, giving Ukraine more options.
Read the original article Business insider
