Sukhoi Su-57 Su-57

The Su-57 is the production version for the Russian Aerospace Forces. Flight testing began with the T-50 prototype in 2010 and serial production started in 2019, with the first aircraft delivered in December 2020. A total of three regiments, 76 aircraft, are planned.

On 25 December 2020 the Russian Defence Ministry announced that the Su-57 had entered service with the delivery of the first production aircraft to one of the aviation regiments of the Southern Military District at Lipetsk. That initial batch was used for military evaluation, tactics development and crew conversion training. The first operational unit to be equipped is the 23rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment at Dzyomgi, in the Eastern Military District, with deliveries due to begin in 2023; the unit is colocated with the KnAAZ plant, which eases support for a newly introduced aircraft. The first fully operational regiment of 24 aircraft was expected to be equipped by 2025.

The actual delivery pace is reported in accounts that do not reconcile, and this entry does not arbitrate between them: available tallies range from just over twenty serial aircraft by the end of 2023 to "around 18" delivered between 2022 and the end of 2024, and the February 2026 batch was announced without disclosing its size.

The aircraft also serves as a testbed for integration with UAVs and for subsystems — weapons, control and navigation — being developed for Russia's future sixth-generation combat system, in both manned and unmanned form. In January 2019 it was reported that the third flyable prototype (bort no. 053) was being used for interaction with the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik UCAV and for testing its avionics.