Alexander Mikheev, the head of the Rosoboronexport - a russian state-owned company focused on the trade of russian weapons on the international market, said that currently there are already "signed contracts" for the export of the Su-57 stealth multirole fighter aircraft (NATO reporting name: Felon). This news was extremely unexpected, especially given the fact that russian weapons are actively losing their traditional markets, as well as the fact that russia has been unsuccessfully trying to sell its Su-57 for 16 years.
Therefore, the fact that the head of the Rosoboronexport was the source of this information, and not someone from the Kremlin, looks somewhat strange. In view of this, the question arises, is this news not an attempt to make wishful thinking come true? This question can be especially raised against the background of the fact that the first foreign demonstration of the Su-57 at the Airshow China 2024 in Zhuhai ended with the Chinese teasing and mocking the russian fighter.
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russia's first attempt to sell its Su-57 dates back to December 2008. Then the russians signed a contract with the Indian company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the joint development of the FGFA aircraft, which was supposed to be a localized version of the Su-57. After 10 years, India withdrew from the project, stating that the Su-57 does not even meet the requirements of low visibility, rather than all the criteria of a fifth-generation fighter. In March 2024, India finally approved the project of its own fifth-generation fighter, which will be created in this country without the participation of the russian federation.
Turkey was mentioned as one of russia's potential customers, as the russians offered to buy additional aviation systems, including the Su-57, in addition to the S-400 SAM systems in 2019. Ankara was not interested in this aircraft, because it has its own 5th-generation KAAN aircraft. In russia, they also announced Vietnam's desire to purchase this aircraft – this also did not find practical confirmation in the future. Similarly, russian announcements about negotiations with the United Arab Emirates and Iraq ended.
Algeria was named as another client for the purchase of the Su-57. In 2020, a number of unofficial sources reported that the Algerians allegedly contracted 14 Su-57E. But after four years, no official confirmation of the existence of this agreement has been found. In September of this year, controversial information appeared in the media that Algeria changed its choice to the Su-35 multirole fighter, although as early as 2022, similar sources reported that the Algerians did not want to buy these fighters.
In the end, Algeria really remains a fairly likely buyer of russian weapons, as it operates russian MiG-29SMT, Su-30MKA, Yak-130 aircraft, as well as S-300 SAM systems, T-90S tanks and even the Iskander operational mobile short-range ballistic missile systems. At the same time, it should be noted that the existence of a contract for russia does not mean the possibility of fulfilling it.
It should be noted that currently the russian federation still has two clients who will definitely be ready to purchase the Su-57 and now they are the main partners for the Kremlin. The first is Iran, which has already received the Su-35 and allegedly even received a license to manufacture them. At the same time, Tehran may really be interested in acquiring the Su-57 multirole fighter aircraft, because now this country is updating its aircraft fleet only thanks to the possibility of receiving aircraft from russia.
The second potential client is the DPRK. In particular, in September 2023, Kim Jong Un personally visited the russian aircraft factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he personally inspected the Su-57. Therefore, such a scenario is also quite likely.
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