Minimal Work For Pilots: Russia’s New Su-57 Fighter Boasts Unprecedented Levels of Automation

Russia’s state run United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has revealed new details regarding the cockpit of the country’s next generation heavyweight fighter the Su-57, which has seen an unprecedented level of automation in order to reduce the burden on pilots. Russian combat aircraft have benefited from increased automation in successive generations, with the country’s first fourth generation combat jet the MiG-31 having been a world leader in this regarding when it first entered service. The Su-57 is currently configured as a fifth generation fighter, although later production models are expected to field sixth generation capability with a number of new technologies currently being developed for them. In the New Horizons magazine run by the United Aircraft Corporation, the head of the corporation’s Cockpit Department Nikita Dorofeyev stated: “Automation, information integration and intellectual support are the defining requirements for the ergonomics of a modern fighter’s cockpit. Theoretically, the pilot, after taking off and before the landing approach, may not fly at all, but search and attack targets. Moreover, this process is also sufficiently automated.” 

According to UAC, complex information about both the tactical situation and the aircraft systems cannot all be simultaneously accommodated on the display area of the single seat fighter’s cockpit - and would risk overwhelming a human pilot. With the Russian fighter models being produced in the largest numbers today being twin seat platforms - namely the Su-30SM and Su-34 - which can accommodate a weapons systems operator to support the pilot in responding to data and operating armaments, the Su-57 has required greater automation to allow a single pilot to perform as efficiently. This has included not only greater automation but also use of artificial intelligence - currently to a limited degree but likely to a greater extent in future. The fighter currently ensures that pilots are provided only with the required data based on the mission. In addition, considerations for a possible twin seat variant of the Su-57 are being made - particularly for export with at least one potential client having expressed a preference for such configurations. The need for twin seat fighters at a time when the applicability of artificial intelligence is fast increasing has been brought to question in several countries - with no fifth generation fighter having yet to be developed into a twin seat variant. The Su-57 entered service in the Russian Air Force from December 2020, and was the third fighter of its generation to become operational following the American F-22 and F-35 and the Chinese J-20.