Russia mass-produced Su-57 without completing the engine?
Although Russia has decided to mass produce the Su-57, the Izdeliye 30 engine generation dedicated to the stealth fighter has not been completed.
Information about the serial production of Su-57 was personally announced by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko, the first contract for the supply of 12 fifth-generation Su-57 fighters to the Russian Air Force has been signed and serial production work has been carried out.
Mr. Krivoruchko added that the enterprise is doing a great job, and he confirmed that the Su-57 fighter with a new-generation engine is currently being tested.
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Deputy Minister Krivoruchko's statement may reflect the fact that the first 12 Su-57 aircraft of the Russian Air Force have not yet achieved full technical and tactical features as designed.
Its 5th generation standard Izdeliye 30 engine is currently still in the testing phase, so this mass-produced Su-57 batch still has to temporarily use the AL-41F1S engine of the 4++ generation fighter.
Defense News magazine said that the fact that Russia is mass-producing the Su-57 but has not been able to complete the standard engine shows that Russia is facing great difficulties in completing the new generation of engines.
This fact has been proven through the Su-57's tests with Izdeliye 30. During the test flight on October 11, 2017 at 4:00 a.m. (local time), a prototype of the 5th generation stealth fighter Sukhoi Su-57 (model number unknown) encountered a relatively serious incident.
The incident caused the plane to shake and lose control, with a high risk of crashing. However, the test pilot was an experienced person, so he was able to bring the fighter back to base safely. After the incident, the Russian Air Force temporarily suspended test flights to find the cause of the incident.
It is known that this is not the first time the Russian Air Force's highly anticipated fighter jet has encountered technical problems with its new engine, but this is a relatively sensitive time because Moscow has just announced the standard 5th generation engine model for the Su-57.
The Izdeliye 30 engine has very different external characteristics when placed next to the AL-31FN or AL-41F1S series currently equipping the Flanker family of fighters.
And with Deputy Minister Alexei Krivoruchko confirming that work on the Izdeliye 30 engine is still underway, the reality is that the plan to complete the Su-57 program by 2019 is still quite far away.
