Daniel Brown
A Russian lawmaker said that Su-57 stealth jets will be way cheaper than F-22s and F-35s, according to Sputnik, a Russian state-owned media outlet.
“The fifth-generation fighter jets are undoubtedly competing with US F-22s and F-35s, but it is considerably cheaper even though it has similar characteristics, while in some aspects, for example, maneuverability, it does better than the US jets,” Vladimir Gutenev, a member of State Duma’s expert panel on the aviation industry, told Sputnik.
Gutenev added that Su-57s will be two and a half times cheaper than F-22s and F-35s, even though the two US aircraft have different price tags and their prices range greatly.
Sputnik reported that F-22s cost $146.2 million and F-35s cost between $83 and $108 million. The Pentagon published a report late last year, however, saying that F-22s cost $143 million, while Lockheed Martin published a report in June 2018 saying that F-35s cost between $94.3 and $122.4 million (depending on the variant).
Lockheed Martin F-35 “Lightning II”
The Russian lawmaker’s comments came after Moscow ordered a dozen Su-57s, which are expected to be delivered in 2019, Russian media reported.
But Russia is still testing the Su-57’s new Izdelie-30 engine, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. Therefore, the Su-57 is still flying on the Su-35’s AL-41F1 engine, and cannot be considered a fifth-generation aircraft yet.
Gutenev also said Russia gained “additional information” about F-22s and F-35s from the Su-57s deployment to Syria.
“The time our four Su-57 aircraft spent in Syria definitely allowed us to get additional information on this aircraft’s ability to detect [using communications systems] US F-22 and F-35 aircraft which are operating in the same airspace,” Gutenev said, Sputnik reported.
While Russia may have learned “about Western air operations and capabilities in the shared skies over Syria,” Justin Bronk, an expert on aerial combat at the Royal United Services Institute, told Business Insider in early 2018, “that process goes both ways since whatever Russian military aircraft do is done within airspace heavily surveilled by Western assets.”
This article originally appeared onBusiness Insider. Follow @BusinessInsider on Twitter.
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