Russia to Deliver Su-57 Fighters to New Client Before January: Kazakhstan and North Korea Likely Buyers

The Russian defence export conglomerate Rosoboronexport’s CEO Alexander Mikheev has confirmed that a new foreign client for the Su-57 fifth generation fighter will begin to receive its fighters before the end of 2026. This follows considerable speculation that India, Kazakhstan, Iran or North Korea may have placed orders, and follows the first confirmed export delivery of the new fighter type to Algerian in November 2025. It follows a statement by Rosoboronexport in April confirming that multiple countries have now placed orders for the aircraft. 

The Indian Defence Ministry in January 2026 confirmed that talks for the license production of the Su-57 had reached an advanced technical stage. The Russian Defence Ministry was June 2025 reported to have made an unprecedented offer to provide full access to the fighter’s source code, while in December that year Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev alluded to the possibility of  a fully joint program. North Korea is considered a leading potential client, and with Russia having come to depend increasingly heavily on the country’s support for its ongoing war effort with Ukraine, raising the possibility that Pyongyang could leverage this to press Moscow to look for loopholes in the current UN arms embargo to supply new fighters. 

In early February Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov announced that contracts had been signed in the Middle East for the export of the Su-57, observing that “some contracts have been signed, though I cannot disclose the details.” While Iran is considered the only likely client in the region, its ongoing war with the United States would make deliveries before the end of the year highly challenging, as airfields in the country continue to come under attack. Over two dozen Su-35 fighters which have already been built for Iran have yet to be delivered, and remain in Russia. 

The Su-57’s appeal to foreign clients is assessed to have increased considerably due to the entirely unique level of high intensity combat testing it has been put through in the Ukrainian theatre. Operations have included air defence suppression, air to air combat, and operations in heavily defended enemy airspace, as well as a range of precision strike missions. In August 2025 Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces Lieutenant General Alexander Maksimtsev confirmed that preparations were underway for deliveries of the Su-57at an accelerated rate, following the opening of new facilities in August for their production. The ability to deliver the aircraft rapidly is expected to be key to its export appeal, with production in 2026 expected to far exceed those of all other Russian fighter types at over 35 Su-57s. This will be vital to allowing for deliveries to new clients in parallel to continued deliveries to the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Algerian Air Force.