Away From The Action? Russian Air Force’s First Su-57 Fighter Deployed Under Southern Military District

Russian military sources quoted by state media have reported that the first serially produced Su-57 next generation fighters to join the Russian Air Force would serve under the Southern Military District. "The Aerospace Force has obtained the first batch-produced Sukhoi-57 plane. It was delivered to a regiment in the Southern Military district," the source stated, adding that a further four fighters would be delivered by the end of 2021. The fighter is currently at a low initial production rate, with serially produced airframes to be used primarily for testing, which partly explains the choice of location. Forces deployed under the Russian Southern Military District are considered among the least likely to face threats of major combat, and border mostly friendly countries in the former Russian sphere of influence in Central Asia. This contrasts to forces deployed to the west, east and north, which respectively face NATO forces in Europe, U.S. forces in Japan and South Korea, and NATO assets in the Arctic. The southern district has taken on a greater degree of importance in recent years due to its small border with Ukraine and the integration of the Crimean Peninsula into its command from 2014.

It is expected that the next theatre where Su-57 jets will be deployed will be to the West, which has usually been the priority for deployment of the latest fighters due to the scale of NATO force deployments in the theatre. With strategic competition in the Arctic fast growing, deployment to the north is also a possibility. This will only occur, however, once the fighter has been more throughly tested in actual service. Very few initial production variants of the Su-57 are expected to enter service, with more advanced variants integrating next generation Saturn 30 engines expected to enter service from 2022. The rate of production is set to increase considerably from 2025 and again from 2027, with the fighter comprising a greater proportion of Russian orders as production is expected to by cut for older designs such as the Su-30. The Su-57 is currently considered a fifth generation fighter in terms of performance, but is reportedly intended for combat at the sixth generation level and will integrate multiple state of the art technologies to this end ranging from artificial intelligence to laser and hypersonic weapons.