Russia tries to jolt its sluggish Su-57 warplane production

MOSCOW — A production plant key to Russia’s fifth-generation Su-57 aircraft program has opened new facilities aimed at scaling up the sluggish delivery tempo, state-owned aerospace conglomerate United Aircraft Corporation announced.

Officials have put into operation new development facilities related to the fuel system and started construction of a hangar for avionics testing at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur factory in eastern Russia, according to the company.

Su-57 aircraft are limited in their participation in the invasion of Ukraine, carrying out strikes from Russia’s territory. Following the country’s full-scale invasion of neighbor Ukraine, state arms makers Rostec, UAC and the aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur are under numerous sanctions from the United States, the European Union, Ukraine, Great Britain, Switzerland and other countries, forcing them to look for electronic equipment and components in Asia or import them illegally.

Russia only has a small number of Su-57 aircraft. The contract for the production of 76 planes by the end of 2027 was signed by the Defense Ministry at the Army Forum in June 2019, with Komsomolsk-on-Amur specified as the main production site.

However, the plant was quickly deemed too small, forcing officials to spend time expanding production space, which entailed changing and adding new equipment.

As a result, according to independent aviation expert Michael Jerdev, to date, the Air Force has received no more than one-third of what was planned under the contract. There was a transfer of 10 aircraft to the Air Force in 2022, and 11 copies in 2023. Critical bottlenecks are the supply of avionics and a new engine, the so-called Izdelie 30, says Jerdev, pointing to Western sanctions.

Until recently, Su-57 aircraft were equipped with the previous-generation AL-41F-1 engine. In December 2023, Rostec announced that some of the aircraft delivered in 2024 would boast the successor engine.

According to Pavel Luzin, an expert at the Washington-based think tank CEPA, the engines of the so-called second stage for the Su-57 and Su-75 Checkmate have been in development since the early 2010s, but they are unlikely to enter mass production before 2025. The production capabilities of the Ufa Engine Industrial Association are limited, which likely will mean the company must stop making older engines to focus on the new one.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it plans to receive 22 Su-57 aircraft in 2024. But by August 2024, there was no information about the status of any deliveries yet.

Ukrainian forces are thought to have damaged one or two Su-57 aircraft in June 2024 with a strike on the Akhtubinsk airfield in southern Russia, the Kyiv Independent reported at the time, citing Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andrei Yusov.

Maxim Starchak is a Russia correspondent for Defense News. He previously worked as an editor for the Russian Defence Ministry and as an expert for the NATO Information Office in Moscow. He has covered Russian nuclear and defense issues for the Atlantic Council, the Center for European Policy Analysis, the Royal United Services Institute and more.

莫斯科——俄罗斯国有航空航天集团联合飞机制造公司宣布，俄罗斯第五代苏-57战斗机项目的关键生产工厂已启用新设施，旨在加快缓慢的交付速度。

据该公司称，官员们已启用与燃料系统相关的新研发设施，并在俄罗斯东部阿穆尔河畔共青城工厂开始建造用于航空电子设备测试的机库。

苏-57战机在入侵乌克兰的行动中参与度有限，只能从俄罗斯境内执行打击任务。在俄罗斯全面入侵邻国乌克兰之后，俄罗斯国家武器制造商俄罗斯技术集团公司（Rostec）、联合航空制造集团公司（UAC）以及位于阿穆尔河畔共青城的飞机制造厂均受到来自美国、欧盟、乌克兰、英国、瑞士等国的多项制裁，迫使它们不得不从亚洲寻找电子设备和零部件，或者非法进口。

俄罗斯目前只有少量苏-57战机。2019年6月，国防部在军队论坛上签署了到2027年底生产76架战机的合同，并指定阿穆尔河畔共青城为主要生产基地。

然而，该工厂很快就被认为规模太小，迫使官员们花时间扩大生产空间，这涉及到更换和添加​​新设备。

据独立航空专家迈克尔·耶尔德夫称，迄今为止，空军收到的飞机数量仅为合同计划数量的三分之一。2022年向空军交付了10架飞机，2023年交付了11架。耶尔德夫指出，关键瓶颈在于航空电子设备和新型发动机（即所谓的“Izdelie 30”）的供应，并提及了西方制裁的影响。

直到最近，苏-57战机还配备的是上一代AL-41F-1发动机。2023年12月，俄罗斯国家技术集团公司宣布，2024年交付的部分战机将配备后继发动机。

据华盛顿智库CEPA的专家帕维尔·卢津称，苏-57和苏-75“棋盘”战斗机的第二级发动机自2010年代初就开始研发，但不太可能在2025年之前投入量产。乌法发动机工业联合体的生产能力有限，这可能意味着该公司必须停止生产旧款发动机，转而专注于新款发动机的研发。

俄罗斯国防部宣布计划在2024年接收22架苏-57战斗机。但截至2024年8月，仍未有任何关于交付情况的信息。

据《基辅独立报》当时报道，乌克兰军事情报发言人安德烈·尤索夫称，乌克兰军队在 2024 年 6 月袭击俄罗斯南部阿赫图宾斯克机场时，可能损坏了一两架苏-57 战机。

马克西姆·斯塔恰克是《防务新闻》的俄罗斯特派记者。他曾任俄罗斯国防部编辑，也曾担任北约驻莫斯科新闻办公室专家。他还曾为大西洋理事会、欧洲政策分析中心、皇家联合军种研究所等机构报道俄罗斯核问题和国防问题。