After many delays and multiple mishap, Russia’s new-generation Su-57 Felon fighter jet is lastly headed towards frontline service. The primary operational — versus check and analysis unit — throughout the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS, to provide its Russian acronym) to obtain the brand new fighters would be the twenty third Fighter Aviation Regiment (Istrebitelnyi Aviatsionnyi Polk, IAP) based mostly at Dzyomgi close to Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia’s Far East. However it’s going to possible be a great whereas till these superior plane are in a position to tackle common fight missions with their new operators.
The regiment’s deputy commander, Lt. Col. Ilya Sizov, informed the Jap Navy District newspaper Suvorovsky Natisk in November that the unit’s pilots are presently present process theoretical coaching on the Su-57 on the crew conversion heart in Lipetsk. The 4th State Air Personnel Preparation and Navy Analysis Middle at Lipetsk is tasked with conducting the navy analysis of preliminary batches of tactical fight plane, coaching pilots within the fight utility of the plane, and creating air drive techniques.
Lt. Col. Sizov talked about the theoretical (versus sensible) coaching of pilots from Dzyomgi in Lipetsk when speaking to Suvorovsky Natisk. This implies it’s going to nonetheless be a very long time earlier than the primary group of 23 IAP pilots has really absolutely mastered the Felon.
The airfield at Dzyomgi is collectively utilized by the 23 IAP and the Sukhoi Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Plant, or KnAAZ. Previously, this facility produced Su-27 fighters and presently makes Su-35 and Su-57 plane. Having the manufacturing plant collocated is good for supporting the operations of recent plane varieties, with specialists from the manufacturing plant readily available to help. Because of this, it was the regiment in Dzyomgi that was the primary to obtain Su-27 fighters in 1985, adopted by the Su-35S in 2014, and now the Su-57 — deliberate for 2023.
What number of Su-57s are there?
After 10 check examples of the Su-57 (beforehand often called the T-50) fighter produced between 2010 and 2017, on August 22, 2018, Sukhoi was awarded a contract for 2 extra refined pre-production fighters to be delivered to the VKS, one in 2019 and one in 2020. The primary of those crashed throughout a handover flight on December 24, 2019, attributable to a flight management system’s failure — an incident that we coated on the time. One yr later, in December 2020, the second plane, tail quantity ‘01,’ grew to become the primary Su-57 to be formally handed over to the Russian navy and was deployed to the Russian Ministry of Protection’s 929th State Flight Check Middle in Akhtubinsk.
A giant order for the Su-57 arrived on June 27, 2019, when the protection ministry positioned a contract for 76 fighters with deliveries deliberate between 2021 and 2027. The schedule offered for the manufacturing of 4 plane in every 2021 and 2022, then seven plane every in 2023 and 2024, after which 18 plane every in 2025, 2026, and 2027. The primary 4 fighters have been to be handed over to the Lipetsk crew conversion heart, whereas the remaining ones have been to finish three operational regiments of 24 plane every.
In line with a lot of the Su-57 program, the implementation of those plans was additionally delayed. The primary two plane from the 2021 manufacturing run (‘02’ and ‘52’) have been delivered in February of that yr, and the remaining two (‘53’ and ‘54’) have been delivered in Could 2022. This implies the navy presently has 5 plane: ‘01’ and ‘02’ are in Akhtubinsk, and ‘52,’ ’53,’ and ‘54’ are in Lipetsk. The 4 plane deliberate for 2022 and supposed for the regiment in Dzyomgi will most likely be prepared initially of 2023.
Alongside collection manufacturing, the plane is being improved. On October 21, 2022, Su-57 ‘511’ (T-50-11) started flight testing after modernization (in its unique type it had first flown on August 6, 2017). Based on the official announcement, “a set of onboard tools with prolonged performance, mental crew assist and the potential for utilizing a variety of new kinds of weapons was being examined. Additionally it is attainable to put in the second-stage engines on the plane.” Total, the scope of modernization doesn’t sound very formidable. Particularly, it signifies that the brand new izdeliye 30 engines for the proposed absolutely modernized Su-57M will not be even prepared to start out trials but, not to mention to be put in in manufacturing plane.
Russian state media has reported on a number of events about the usage of the Su-57 within the battle with Ukraine, a chance that now we have additionally addressed previously. In October, Gen. Sergey Surovikin, commander in general cost of the Russian invasion, mentioned that the Su-57, “having a variety of weapons, in every sortie solves multifaceted duties of destroying air and floor targets.” It appears virtually sure the Su-57 didn’t fly over Ukraine — there isn’t any purpose for Russia to take such a threat. If the Felon has been used, the plane would have fired its long-range missiles from deep inside Russia.
Total, it’s exhausting to foretell what’s going to occur with Su-57 manufacturing and additional growth. Because the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia finds itself in a totally new political and financial scenario. Nevertheless, additional delays will certainly have an effect on the fighter. In the meantime, the probabilities of the Su-57E export model discovering success seem to have been additional diminished. This plane has been provided unsuccessfully since 2018.
The fighter regiment in Dzyomgi (the title means ‘birch grove’ within the native Nanai language) was fashioned again in August 1939 because the 60 IAP. First, it flew I-16, then Yak-9 (from 1945), MiG-15 (1951), MiG-17 and Yak-25 (1955–56), Su-15 (1969), and, starting in 1985, Su-27 fighters. In 2000, the personnel and Su-27 plane from the 404 IAP in Orlovka, which had been dissolved a couple of months earlier, have been included into the sixtieth regiment in Dzyomgi; on the similar time, the unit’s designation was modified to 23 IAP.
Presently, the 23 IAP has two squadrons (a fighter squadron in Russia includes 12 plane) of Su-35S single-seat fighters plus a small variety of Su-30SM two-seaters for coaching. Along with the principle base in Dzyomgi, the twenty third regiment additionally maintains a detachment (often three Su-35S fighters) at Yasnyi airfield on the island of Iturup (Etorofu) within the strategically essential Kuril Islands archipelago.
The 23 IAP within the battle with Ukraine
For the 23 IAP, involvement within the marketing campaign towards Ukraine started a month earlier than the invasion. Within the final days of January 2022, 12 Russian Su-35S and a number of other Su-30SM fighters arrived on the airbase in Baranavichy in Belarus. The Su-35S fighters got here from the 22 IAP in Tsentralnaya Uglovaya and the 23 IAP in Dzyomgi, whereas the Su-30SM fighters have been from the a hundred and twentieth Unbiased Fighter Aviation Regiment in Domna; all three models belong to the eleventh Army of Air Power and Air Protection assigned to the Far East of Russia.
The fighter jets arrived in Belarus beneath the pretext of taking part within the joint Russian-Belarusian navy workouts often called Allied Dedication 2022 (Soyuznaja Reshimost), which ran from February 10-20. As soon as in Belarus, the Flankers have been organized right into a combined aviation group, the commander of which was the commander of the 23 IAP, Col. Alexander Lobyntsev.
After the workouts, the plane remained in Belarus, and so they participated within the invasion from the primary day. Within the spring, after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kyiv area, after the operation there led to failure, a bunch of Su-35S and Su-30SM fighters from Baranavichy moved to Voronezh, Russia, and to the airfield of the forty seventh Bomber Aviation Regiment that flies Su-34 Fullback strike plane. Stationed right here, they have been now near the jap border of Ukraine.
Su-35S fighters very not often fly over territory managed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. For instance, when working from Baranavichy, Russian fighters fired their missiles towards Ukrainian plane that have been indicated to them by A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning plane, remaining over the territory of Belarus the entire time.
The identical scenario now continues within the east. Above all, the Su-35S makes use of the superior capabilities of its R-77-1 (AA-12 Adder) and particularly the 124-mile-range R-37M (AA-13 Axehead) air-to-air missiles, in comparison with the R-27 (AA-10 Alamo) missiles utilized by the Ukrainian fighters. You possibly can learn extra concerning the R-37M missile in our earlier report on the MiG-31BM Foxhound’s battle in Ukraine.
This may increasingly clarify the low attrition of Su-35S fighters in comparison with the excessive losses of Russian Su-25 Frogfoot assault plane and Su-34s, which extra usually function in a really difficult air-defense setting. Just one Su-35S loss over Ukraine has been documented. This was an plane from the 159 IAP in Besovets shot down close to Izyum on April 3, 2022.
On November 1, Zvezda TV (a channel affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Protection) confirmed a video wherein a pilot defined that he shot down a Ukrainian navy plane with a long-range missile, with out specifying the kind of weapon. Within the background was a Su-35S fighter armed with two R-37M missiles in tandem between the engines, two R-77-1s beneath the air intakes, two short-range R-73s (AA-11 Archer) beneath the wing, and one Kh-31PM (AS-17 Krypton) anti-radiation missile beneath the wing.
The Kh-31P/PM anti-radiation missile, used for self-defense, is a typical weapon on Su-35S fighters in Ukraine. Often, along with the usual set of air-to-air missiles, the Su-35S carries one Kh-31P or PM, in case of a ground-based anti-aircraft risk. The pilot prompts the missile’s passive radar seeker earlier than coming into the hazard zone. The Kh-31P/PM missile is then launched mechanically when its seeker detects the working fire-control radar of the enemy’s ground-based air protection system. In a video printed by the Russian Ministry of Protection, a pilot speaking about the usage of the Kh-31 says that “the missile detects the radiation of the enemy’s air protection techniques, then acknowledges and acquires the goal, after which it launches.” The pilot continues: “The missile acquires the sign rapidly [and] calculates the gap. It takes seconds from acquisition to launch.”
Sometimes now we have seen Su-35S fighters utilizing giant glide bombs towards targets in Ukraine. In a video from Voronezh Air Base, one of many Su-35S plane is seen carrying two heavy 3,300-pound UPAB-1500B bombs, whereas one other one was armed with 4 smaller 1,000-pound KAB-500M bombs. The UPAB-1500B bomb, due to its pop-out wings, has a variety of as much as 31 miles, and the KAB-500M bomb can hit targets at as much as 25 miles. Each bombs are guided by inertial navigation with satellite tv for pc correction; within the present variations, there isn’t any terminal homing. The KAB-500M and UPAB-1500B bombs have been in manufacturing since round 2019.
For its participation within the invasion of Ukraine, the 23 IAP not too long ago obtained Russia’s highest distinction for a navy unit. On November 17, President Vladimir Putin awarded the regiment the title of Guards. Two pilots of the regiment, Maj. Viktor Dudin and Lt. Col. Ilya Sizov in the meantime obtained the very best particular person distinction in Russia, the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
Whereas there’s each signal that the 23 IAP will proceed to play a number one function within the Ukrainian air battle, with plane and crews rotated into the fight theater so long as there’s a demand for them there, it stays a lot more durable to foretell when the identical unit will lastly convey its Su-57s into full operational service.
With the primary group of pilots apparently but to really start flying the new-generation fighters, it appears will probably be some appreciable time but earlier than Dzyomgi can declare Russia’s newest fighter jet operational. Within the meantime, the difficulties that the Su-57 program has confronted thus far are solely more likely to be compounded by the results of the battle in Ukraine, together with the limitations on high-tech elements manufacturing and import imposed by sanctions in addition to the necessity to allocate sources to extra pressing necessities throughout the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Contact the editor: thomas@thedrive.com
