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New footage appears to show Russia’s experimental 5th generation fighter arriving in Syria

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New footage to surface on social media late Wednesday night appears to show Russia’s most advanced fighter platform, the Su-57, arriving in Syria for combat operations.

The Su-57, also known as the PAK FA and T-50, is Russia’s most advanced fighter platform, widely believed to be a 5th generation competitor for the likes of America’s F-22, and China’s J-20. However, unlike the F-22, which entered service more than a decade ago, and the J-20, which reportedly became combat operational last week, the Su-57 remains years away from mass production and combat operations. To date, the Russian military has taken delivery on fewer than 12 of the prototype aircraft, which have already suffered repeated setbacks due to hardware issues and budget limitations.

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  • Daniel Y

    I hope we somehow end up shooting one or two down.

  • Thomas S

    Honestly, I imagine that they are doing it for much the same reason we deployed the F22 in desert fox/desert shield back in 99.
    Some of it is to show the world the new toys sure. Don’t underestimate the value of “field testing” in very real conditions though. You learn a lot by putting your equipment in real deployment conditions at the end of a real supply line. Simple things like what do we do if we have to work out of sub optimal facilities, runways that get covered in fine particulate and such. What does all of this do to our maintenance schedules and parts life.
    It works for people too.
    In short, the first day you field something in battle hopefully isn’t the same day you need it to work flawlessly. If you can work the kinks out in lower risk actions, do so.

  • Stig

    Inside Russia it is becoming more and more unpopular to be in Syria. Their loses are becoming harder and harder to hide. So they throw out their best POS for publicity. They will quickly claim shooting down US F-22s, which the US will laugh at. They can only stay around for a few flights before the engines need swapping out. They should call it Putin’s POS

  • Glennw79

    Syria is a dangerous situation now. I was two when Beirut was going down the shitter. Syria is important to Russia and now they are flexing their muscles. I hope their isn’t bad decisions made by either side, nor confusion.a

  • HowFar?

    Jeez I wonder what aircraft that looks like, and where they came up with that design?