Moscow holds on to the hope of selling its Su-57 multirole fighter aircraft abroad, so it has brought a display model to the Aero India 2025 defense exhibition and air show, slated to open in Bengaluru on February 10th through 14th. This will be the second foreign demonstration for this aircraft, after the previous attempt during the Airshow China 2024 in Zhuhai in November 2024.
That last episode ended up in a reputational disaster as the guests were allowed to inspect the prototype too closely, discovering the poor assembly quality, protruding bolts, and other design flaws, captured in first-ever close-up photos and footage of the Su-57. All while at the very same exhibition, China disclosed its own next-gen fighter, the J-35A, which may rival the American F-35.
Read more: After Su-57 Embarrassment at Airshow China, russians Try to Reanimate the Fighter's Reputation Citing Patriot System
Russian Su-57 arrives in #Bengaluru for #AeroIndia2025 pic.twitter.com/PPXhaWACOg— IDU (@defencealerts) February 6, 2025
In preparation for the exhibition, the russian Su-57 has only just arrived in India. This time, russia may try to establish a no-access zone at a "safe" distance around the exhibit to prevent the same situation from happening again, once the visitors start flooding in starting Feb. 10th.
The decision to include russia wasn't void of consequences for India, too: soon after the arrival of russian aircraft, the United States Air Force Command canceled scheduled demonstration flights of F-16 and F-35 jets at Aero India 2025. The updates have been reflected in the official air show program from Demo Team F-35 and F-16.
Worth noting, India is one of the few countries that continues to purchase russian weapons despite the threat of such deals backfiring due to the CAATSA law, a US document that is supposed to impose sanctions for military cooperation with the russian federation. For instance, just the other day India purchased an anti-ship version of the Kalibr missile, the 3M54, without any visible consequences.
Still, the chances of Moscow's success in securing a Su-57 contract with New Dehli are slim, and the main reason for that lies elsewhere. It was in 2007 when India entered a joint project with russia, eyeing a local production of this aircraft in India.
However, by 2018 it withdrew with a scandal, blaming the operational capabilities of Su-57 which were underwhelmingly mismatched with its self-proclaimed fifth-generation fighter status.
Furthermore, just a few months later, in March 2024, India finalized the design of its own fifth-generation fighter, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). Defense Express previously outlined the scope of this effort and its ties to the russian-less Su-30 modernization program, too.
Read more: russia Keeps Trying to Sell Su-75 Checkmate to India But No One Wants a Fighter Without Working Prototype
