It's also the first clean sheet fighter design to come out of Russia in a long, long time.
It's actually irrelevant. Their R&D never stopped 'cause of Indian and Chinese orders.
For all its advanced features, the RuAF has ordered just 75.
The Russians base their procurement via a State Armament Plan, and they publicly announce what they are buying within that period. The current one is 2020-2027 called GPV-2027. The plan for 2028+ is yet to be announced.
So it's 76 jets in 3 regiments until 2027, but production will continue beyond that, with new variants taking over.
Since Russia has 5 military districts, at least as many as 6 regiments worth will be bought, 1 spread between training and testing units. The war could increase numbers.
If we buy the Felon, we'd be paying through our noses for getting it to perform to its advertised specs. Since MMRCA, the IAF has been considering the total lifecycle cost of different competing aircraft.
LCC of Russian jets used to be a problem before, it's not as much today. That's why the 117 has achieved Western standards. It has the same overhaul cycle as the latest Western engines. AL-31FP was at 1000 hours with 4000 hours life, 117S was improved to 1500 hours and 6000 hours life, but 117 is at 4000 hours, possibly 8000 hours life. So it even exceeds Rafale's current engine, which is at 3000 hours with 6000 hours life.
Similarly, the airframe should be able to provide full 8000 hours or even 10000 hours, if that's how long AL-51 is expected to last.
All this without even counting the ridiculously cheap ruble, which means even if the Su-57 is harder to maintain, the Rafale will still be more expensive due to Western costs. So the Su-57 is the cheapest way to push the IAF to the next level.
Problem is the RuAF probably doesn't have enough Su-57 in service for us to even arrive at a reasonable estimate. All figures from the manufacturer would be hypothetical. So all things considered, Su-57 would be a huge risk in tactical and financial terms for the IAF. With Rafale, we'd at least know what we were getting for our money.
Lining up an export customer already puts it at a pretty good maturity level. And by the time we make a decision, it's gonna be years later and quite a few more before we get it. Even though we call it a stopgap, both F-35 and Su-57 are realistic only after 2030.
