The new warplane was photographed towed to a parking spot across an airfield in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, where the MAKS-2021 International Aviation and Space Salon opens Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit the show’s opening.
Aviation fanatics discovered the secret fighter jet; its name is still unknown. However, the jet is observed to be wrapped in black fabric adjacent to a large hangar. The new warplane’s name is unknown, and there is no information about its capability and deployment prospects.
However, the images reveal some of the fighter’s interesting details, making everyone curious before the official reveal on July 20.
Last week, United Aerospace Company, a corporation including Mikoyan-Guervich (MiG) and Sukhoi design bureaus, posted this photo on Instagram. The mysterious new unnamed fighter jet is being compared to a UFO.
In addition, UAC posted another image with a caption saying that the “mystery will be revealed on July 20.” The image consists of a knight chess piece flying above an aircraft cockpit. The cockpit frame resembled to that of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the jet seen in the Navy’s notorious UFO sightings.
A Russian media outlet TASS reported that UAC would disclose a “fundamentally new military plane” in Russia’s annual summer air show, MAKS-2021.
Before the final disclosure of Russia’s fighter jet, the leaked images show that it has twin tails, a single-engine, and a nose that appears similar to the Sukhoi Su-57.
The TASS report revealed that the new secret jet would feature “low radar signatures in various bands, a high thrust-to-weight ratio, a large weapon payload, and advanced air-launched armaments.”
A Twitter account speculated that the Russian fighter jet is basically built for aircraft carriers. Compared to Su-57, the plane’s departure angle is higher. This would prevent the tail from grating the flight deck on high position take-offs, especially from aircraft carriers with ski ramps. Russia, India, and China use such carriers.
Starting from the MiG-23 “Flogger”, this is the first time that Russia has built a single-engine fighter called Sukhoi Fighter Jet. After more than 50 years, it is the country’s second fifth-generation fighter, launching 11 years after the Sukhoi Su-57 heavy fighter.
Though Russia will disclose their stealth fighter tomorrow, we are still unsure when it will be included in the Russian Aerospace Forces (RuAF) inventory. In 2010 Russia’s Su-57 was announced, but the RuAF received its second Su-57 in January 2021. Some major glitches related to production arose, and India stepped back from creating a derivative for the Indian Air Force. Now Russia has its eyes on 76 Su-57.