If Turkey had to buy the Su-57 it would be the first country (outside Russia) to buy the first Russian stealth fighter
Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak says Ankara may switch to buying the Russian Su-57 (or Su-35) if Washington decides to suspend the delivery of F-35.
As we have recently reported, Lockheed Martin should deliver Turkey’s first F-35A stealth fighter on Jun. 21, 2018.
Turkey plans to purchase 100 examples of F-35A, conventional takeoff and landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter.
However the U.S. Congress is attempting to derail the process because of the country decision to upgrade its air defense systems with Russian S-400 surface-to-air-missiles (SAMs).
“If they take such a step at a moment when we are trying to mend our bilateral ties, they will definitely get a response from Turkey. There is no longer the old Turkey,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told private broadcaster CNN Türk in an interview on May 6.
If Turkey had to buy the Su-57 it would be the first country (outside Russia) to buy the first Russian stealth fighter after India dropped out of Sukhoi/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), known in India as the Perspective Multirole Fighter (PMF), which actually was a derivative project of the Sukhoi Su-57.
The Sukhoi Su-57 is a stealth, single-seat, twin-engine multirole fifth-generation fighter aircraft designed for air superiority and attack roles. The aircraft is the product of the PAK FA (literally “Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation”) program. Sukhoi’s internal designation for the aircraft is T-50.
Russian Air and Space Force (RuASF) chief Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev told last August that thanks to its features (which include supercruise, supermaneuverability, advanced avionics and advanced weapons) the aircraft will be able to outperform the F-22 Raptor.
In fact Russian state media claimed that the Su-57 will feature a maximum speed of 1,600 mph, slightly more than that of the F-22 Raptor, and that its missile range, based on the information available, also exceeds that of the F-22.
Photo credit: Dmitry Pichugin via Wikipedia
