Kathrine Frich
Selling a high-tech weapon requires absolute confidence.
When a nation’s leader declares a new fighter jet to be the undisputed best on the planet, the public usually nods along.
But when the country’s own frontline experts start poking holes in that narrative, the sales pitch falls apart.
Words against deeds
Vladimir Putin recently showered praise on Russia’s newest stealth fighter, the Su-57, calling it a fifth-generation marvel. The boast did not sit well with independent defense analysts at home.
Despite the intense risks of criticizing the military, prominent commentators are openly pushing back against the official hype. Military analyst Maksim Kalashnikov led the charge by comparing the jet to American-made hardware.
“If the Su-57 is a better aviation complex than the notorious F-35, then where is it in Ukraine?” Kalashnikov wrote, according to Defence Blog. He pointed out that Israel uses Western jets for daring, deep-strike missions.
“The F-35s in the Israeli Air Force worked against Iran as if there was no air defense there at all. They struck air defense systems and hit critically important targets. But do we see analogous actions by the Su-57 in Ukraine? No, just drones and missiles. Do the Su-57s even follow behind their waves? In this life, deeds matter, not words. We’ve already been fed enough words,” Kalashnikov added.
The missing partner
Other local critics point to deeper technical failures within the program. A major issue is the lack of a functional wingman.
The Su-57 was designed to operate alongside an advanced heavy combat drone, but that partnership has largely failed to launch. Commenters noted that without its robotic partner, the main jet struggles.
One commenter wrote on the situation: “Without the S-70 Hunter, the Su-57 is also a museum rarity that never even became a true fifth-generation aircraft, not in terms of engines, not in avionics, not in stealth.”
“Everyone can see the result of this state of affairs in the special military operation [War in Ukraine], where the Russian Aerospace Forces have failed to achieve air superiority over contested territory and have lost air superiority over Russian territory itself,” the anonymous critic continued.
Grounded by reality
Western experts have long doubted the aircraft’s true capabilities. The jets fly with older engines borrowed from previous models.
Ultimately, the battlefield tells the real story. After years of intense conflict, the fleet remains too small to risk in actual combat. Keeping a weapon system on the sidelines proves the skeptics right.
Sources: Defence Blog
