Russia's New Su-57 Fifth-gen Fighter Begins Flight Tests With New Weaponry: TASS

Russia's first indigenously designed and built fifth-generation stealth fighter, the Su-57, has started flights with the most advanced air-launched weaponry on its board, local media reports.

"Tense work is underway. The entire set of precision weapons for this aircraft, both inside the fuselage and on an external sling, is being developed by the Corporation’s enterprises. We have switched to practical flights and I believe that we will see the result in the imminent future," Tactical Missiles Corporation CEO Boris Obnosov said in an interview with the TASS-published Bulletin of Military and Technical Cooperation.

According to the Corporation’s chief executive, the protocols of information interoperability with almost all types of weapons have been agreed. "The basic work, i.e. launches, is forthcoming," the chief executive said.

The Russian fifth-generation Perspective Aviation Complex of Frontline Aviation (PAK FA, also known as the T-50) fighter jet took to the skies for the first time in 2010. And the fighter performed its first flight with a new engine on December 5 last year.

Currently, the so-called first stage engine 117S is mounted on the Russian fighter. A new engine has not yet received its name and is conventionally designated as "the second stage engine."

It was reported earlier that Russia’s T-50 (PAK FA) fifth-generation fighter jet had received the serial index of Su-57. The experimental design work on the most advanced fighter jet should be completed in 2019 and its deliveries to the troops should begin at that time. As United Aircraft Corporation CEO Slyusar said, the pre-production batch will consist of 12 such planes.