Recent video showing a russian Su-57 fighter jet operating in Ukraine highlights the ongoing struggles of the russian military-industrial complex. The cameraman filmed a Su-57 of the russian Aerospace Forces flying by with two Kh-59 cruise missiles mounted on its outer pylons, as identified by Western experts.
These Kh-59MK2 missiles have a range of 300 km and are intended to strike stationary targets — a weapon the russian forces have systematically used since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Read more: First Photo of a Kh-69 Missile With New Warhead, Downed By Ukraine's Air Defenses
Rus Su-57 savaş uçağı, iki adet Kh-59 seyir füzesiyle uçarken görüntülendi. pic.twitter.com/gcz06CqFmU— Clash Report TR (@ClashReporttr) October 20, 2024
However, the Su-57 wasn’t designed to use these missiles. Although the Su-57 isn’t considered a true fifth-generation fighter, it still incorporates stealth technologies to reduce its radar signature. But it only works effectively if the aircraft uses weapons stored in its internal bays.
To address this, russia developed a new missile variant, the Kh-69, specifically designed to fit within the Su-57’s internal compartments. The aircraft can carry up to four Kh-69 missiles inside, maintaining its stealth profile.
In fact, the use of the Kh-69 in Ukraine has been documented previously, too. The russian forces have been using these missiles at least several times since the winter of 2023/2024. For example, during the attack on the Trypilska TPP in April 2024. These instances have shown that Kh-69's effective range is around 400 km, and a new version with a cluster warhead was confirmed just the other day.
Despite the availability of the Kh-69, the Su-57 in the video is seen carrying older Kh-59 missiles on the outer hardpoints, which compromise the aircraft’s disguise. This defeats the primary advantage the Su-57 has over other russian jets like the Su-27 derivatives (Su-30, Su-34, Su-35).
According to estimates, russia has only 12 to 15 Su-57s in total, prototypes included. The number of aircraft directly involved in combat missions is 10 at best, though more likely it's limited to 4 or 6 units. Considering russia only has a handful of carriers to use Kh-69s, the fact that the filmed Su-57 is using older missiles instead implies that production of the Kh-69 is struggling to keep up with the demands of war.
The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine estimated in May 2024 that russia’s production capacity for the Kh-69 was just 1 to 3 missiles per month, and 45 stockpiled. Despite efforts to ramp up production over the past months, evidently, these numbers fall short of the needs for specialized weapons for Su-57.
Read more: Expert`s Opinion: russians Can Use Not Only Su-57 Aircraft to Launch New Kh-69 Missile
