The Russian Su-57 (NATO reporting name: Felon), previously known as T-50, is taking part to its first airshow abroad, with two aircraft now arrived at Zhuhai airshow for the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition and Aero India. In fact, the Felon’s fourth prototype, T-50-4 “054 Blue”, participated in airshows.
Under the current state of the Su-57 (PAK-FA) programme, Sukhoi Design Bureau has identified numerous issues with the aircraft, including immature flight control system, avionics, no AESA radar, no sensor fusions and erroneous engine control system.
The Sukhoi Su-57 was often criticized by experts for many features that could degrade the low observability such as rivets, weapon doors’, engine nacelles’ and air inlets’ rounded shaping, rough panel’s seamlines, etc. Some of those problems are yet to be mitigated in later prototypes.
That’s…. really poor quality control there. Not good for low observability on top of already poorly optimised shaping!
— Justin Bronk (@Justin_Br0nk) November 4, 2024#Su57 #Felon https://t.co/GZTAqySiDJ
Russia’s so-called Su-57 fighter jet, hailed as “unrivaled,” has arrived at Aero India 2025, but Indian obversers are not impressed like the Chinese journalists who exposed poor workmanships of Su-57.
Indian military expert said that Su-57 is not as a cutting-edge production model as Western jets, but as a 12-year-old prototype 054 that first took flight in 2012.
Instead of showcasing a cutting-edge aircraft, Moscow sent an aging prototype with the tail number 054—a test model, the T-50-4, which has been in service since 2012.
This isn’t a new production aircraft, but the same 12-year-old prototype previously sent to China. The likely reason? The poor reliability of Russia’s serially produced Su-57s due to Western sanctions.
Back in 2021, United Aircraft Corporation head Yuri Slyusar promised that Russia would deliver 12 Su-57s per year starting in 2022. In reality, only two or three are produced annually, and they don’t enter service immediately.
The Su-57 program has been plagued with failures, including cannibalism of prototypes for spare parts.
The first serial Su-57 crashed in 2019 due to a flight control system failure. The second, delivered in 2020, spent years in testing before entering service. Every so-called “serial” Su-57 requires extensive modifications after leaving the factory.
This explains why Russia keeps sending the same aircraft to international exhibitions—it’s the only one they can trust not to crash.
Meanwhile, every time this so-called “stealth” jet takes off to fire a Kh-69 missile at Ukraine, Ukrainian monitoring channels detect it immediately with their own Soviet-era radar proving points that Su-57 was never a stealth jet.
The missile bay’s section also shows poor panel fitment, with gaps and various defects on the panel’s edges. The screws holding these panels are visible and appear to be at different depths, suggesting they were fitted tightly just enough to hold the panels together, as well as featuring multiple head types.
The jet’s initial units left a lot to be desired for, with poor workmanship which reflected on 054’s airframe panels as seen when it arrived at Zhuhai airport on Nov. 3. As mentioned, “054 Blue” was one of the first prototypes, and first flew on Dec. 12, 2012, from Kosomolsk-on-Amur, when the project was still designated with the original development title, the T-50 PAK-FA.
The other aircraft presents similar defects. As mentioned earlier, “057 Blue” was transported in a disassembled form on an Antonov An-124, without the radome, wings and the vertical stabilizers. This would be the aircraft used for static display, while 054 would perform the aerial displays, consistent with the SDB (Sukhoi Design Bureau) usually using this airframe for the purpose. The Felon is likely to be piloted by Sergey Bogdan, SDB and UAC’s (United Aircraft Corporation) only senior test pilot.
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