India May Consider Russian Su-57 as Stopgap to Counter China-Pak 5th Gen Jets as AMCA Still Far Away

India's pursuit of its own fifth-generation fighter jet, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), is a testament to the nation's growing defence ambitions. This indigenously designed aircraft promises cutting-edge capabilities like stealth technology, supercruise, and advanced weaponry.

However, the AMCA project faces potential delays, particularly in the development of a suitable engine, which could take six to seven years according to current estimates. This delay has opened a window of vulnerability for India as regional rivals China and Pakistan forge ahead with their own fifth-generation fighter programs.

China has already deployed the Chengdu J-20, and is actively developing other advanced fighter jets like the FC-31. Pakistan is also expected to acquire sophisticated fighter aircraft in collaboration with China. This evolving regional threat landscape has prompted India to re-evaluate its options and consider interim solutions to maintain its air superiority.

One potential solution gaining traction is the acquisition of Russia's Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet. Initially, India had reservations about the Su-57 due to concerns about its engine and other technical aspects. However, recent upgrades, particularly the integration of the Izdelie 30 (A51) engine, have reportedly addressed many of these issues. This new engine significantly enhances the Su-57's thrust, fuel efficiency, and stealth capabilities.

The Su-57 boasts advanced radar-absorbent materials and a reduced radar cross-section, making it a formidable stealth aircraft. With these improvements and its full operational status within the Russian Aerospace Forces, the Su-57 is now viewed as a viable option to bridge the gap until the AMCA is ready for deployment.

Procuring the Su-57 offers several advantages for India. Firstly, it allows the Indian Air Force (IAF) to quickly acquire a fifth-generation fighter jet to counter the J-20 and other advanced threats. Secondly, the Su-57 shares similarities with India's existing fleet of Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters, potentially easing the transition in terms of maintenance, logistics, and pilot training.

While the AMCA remains a crucial long-term goal for India's defense industry, the Su-57 presents a compelling stopgap solution. By acquiring the Su-57, India can ensure its air power remains robust and capable of addressing the evolving challenges in the region. This strategic move underscores India's commitment to maintaining its defense edge in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment.

 

[Anonymus]

KF21 Boramae is BEST option now....

it's better go for rafale then

 

[NSR]

So we will bow to some one sided western sanctions? Bhaad me jaye ye sanctions, India should maintain its decision autonomy at all cost.

India already owning billions of dollars for oil to Russia.
Now please figure out how India will pay the huge contract bill first and write it here.

Not only India, but many other countries also no longer buying Russian armaments for same sanctions reasons too.

Sad indeed but there is only one superpower, and it is surely behaving like one.

 

[DB_NE_Guy]

They shot down their own stealth drone by su-57 as experimental drone went out of control. Where it tells you its not 5th gen ?

Question is not about who and what shoot it down, but I am pointing out at rivets on the external parts of that drone. Do check the pictures. It's nothing out of stealth plane.

 

[DB_NE_Guy]

Okotnik was shot down by su57 while they were flying over UKRAINIAN airspace due to some malfunction in the drone/interference by Ukrainian EW. This tells all that you need to know, why weren't Ukrainian AD able to detect and shoot both of these down? Okhotnik has rivets because it is still undergoing testing and is not the final version just like the first instances of the su57

are u assuming that I am clueless about what shot it down and why? answer to ur question could be the reaction time of the Air defence system. If it has the rivets because of testing prototype then why would Russia proclaim it as equal to western counterparts. Even Su-57 design was not stealth enough. That's one of the many factor India was not impressed with it. It is just tall claim by Russians that compels others to believe in it.

 

[Pad UwU]

Whoever wrote this article missed a bunch of points, or simply decided to ignore them:

Your info is outdated and need some more research bruh😹😹😹

 

[Pad UwU]

it's better go for rafale then

Rafale is just a missile carrier interceptor.... It will be detected by enemies easily

 

[Anant]

Your info is outdated and need some more research bruh😹😹😹

Care to point put where you feel I am mistaken, or is that blanket statement all you are going to make?

 

[MahaKaal]

About time, we don't want, but we need them now asap.

 

[Pad UwU]

are u assuming that I am clueless about what shot it down and why? answer to ur question could be the reaction time of the Air defence system. If it has the rivets because of testing prototype then why would Russia proclaim it as equal to western counterparts. Even Su-57 design was not stealth enough. That's one of the many factor India was not impressed with it. It is just tall claim by Russians that compels others to believe in it.

They equal in usefulness and function... Don't you even know Iranian hack US drone too from the past?🧐🤔 That's why no drones are safe if you use a powerful electronic warfare against it😹😹😹

 

[Sridhar]

Buy 50 Su57

The Russian Airforce itself have received only 30 odd j SU57 jets against their 70 or 73 orders paced.

 

[Sridhar]

They shot down their own stealth drone by su-57 as experimental drone went out of control. Where it tells you its not 5th gen ?

Then why do you think IAF walked out of the project?
SU 57 is not a true 5th Gen fighter yet.

 

[PKPRS]

Nothing is Going to stop From Buying our own security related defence deal , If Bharat Think there is need of Su-57 Fighter jet they will Buy if Not they will not . it will depend on IAF , But I still think Instead of Buying old Mirage-2000 at 60 Mn$ Bharat should go for Brand new Stealth fighter jet

After a long time sensible comment, anything possible through BRICS payment system, Borat can do anything, what ever is good for it's security, now India and China signed a security pact and dis engaged at the Border, the MOD guys will use this a reason to not procure anything.

 

[Spectre]

Whoever wrote this article missed a bunch of points, or simply decided to ignore them:

Expert Anant’s on-site opinion about SU-57 after flying it personally from Moscow, this expert also visited the SU-57 plant personally to notice production problem.
Of-Course if a small number of 36 Rafales is not going to be maintenance problem, SU-57 wouldn’t either.

this expert is very qualified to give opinion on SU-57.

 

[Anant]

Expert Anant’s on-site opinion about SU-57 after flying it personally from Moscow, this expert also visited the SU-57 plant personally to notice production problem.
Of-Course if a small number of 36 Rafales is not going to be maintenance problem, SU-57 wouldn’t either.

this expert is very qualified to give opinion on SU-57.

Rather than trying to be snarky, how about you actually give some evidence? Russia has received some Su-57s, but gauging both by their limited deployment and the small batches, it is known that they are still only in small-scale production.

 

[Anant]

India shall immediately buy 36 su57 and 36 rafael f4 and then work with Saab and rafeael to make super rafael and super gripen indigenously along with super sukhoi
India can use engine from Safran or al51 from russia for it's AmCA or tejas mk1A or tejas mk2 projects

Yes, let's get that massive maintenance headache. That's what we need, isn't it?

 

[rtnguy]

2 squadrons of Rafale and 4 of Su57 and cancel MRFA deal

 

[Sudha]

If we don’t, we won’t have any money to buy anything. So let’s not go there, especially for our enemies like Russia.

And US trying to do regime change in Bharat as well as armtwisting on F404 is a friendly nation? Can't you comment on anything without being a fanboy of western nations?

 

[Sudha]

As for Rafale, they have significant surplus production.

Really? 🤣😂😆 DA is thinking about opening an Indian line (100% owned by them if they bag MRFA off course) to clear the backlog of orders & you are speaking of "surplus production", mai God!😂

 

[Sudha]

India shall immediately buy 36 su57 and 36 rafael f4 and then work with Saab and rafeael to make super rafael and super gripen indigenously along with super sukhoi
India can use engine from Safran or al51 from russia for it's AmCA or tejas mk1A or tejas mk2 projects

Meanwhile we can buy few nos of F21, F18 & how about some eurofighters also? Bharat wouldn't want to make the EU feel depressed, right? 🤣

 

[Akshat]

Really? 🤣😂😆 DA is thinking about opening an Indian line (100% owned by them if they bag MRFA off course) to clear the backlog of orders & you are speaking of "surplus production", mai God!😂

Please go and read the year end commentary of Dassault CEO. He has specifically said they are willing to take new orders and they can deliver them on time.

Now let’s come to the math of it. They have already reached 2 per month from March this year. That’s 22 this year and 24 after this year. That’s 238 by the end of 2033. They have to deliver about 212 till then. And they are already expanding to 36 per year from next year.

But I know that facts don’t matter to you. You will just do rhetoric and call me a French agent for speaking with facts. I will be waiting for you to either accept these numbers or to counter them with facts. I know you won’t do either. Your whole intention is to defend DRDO without facts and for that you have to defame every other procurement source of India.

 

[Akshat]

And US trying to do regime change in Bharat as well as armtwisting on F404 is a friendly nation? Can't you comment on anything without being a fanboy of western nations?

Did I say they are a friendly nation? I have openly said and I will repeat. US is not our friend. They just need us to counter China and they will help us grow for that. But at the same time they want to keep us under their thumb with these tactics and will ruin us the day we become a threat to them. Unlike you, I have no interests other than the interests of my country India and I have no reservations in speaking the truth. I don’t support India’s enemies like you do.

 

[Phantom]

KF21 Boramae is BEST option now....

KF21 and Rafale are 4th gen jets, AMCA will take 10-15 years, until then we need to have a stop gap, it would be better to cancel MRFA, use SU-57M as a base design, add local avionics, Radar and other components making it little more stealthy with the composite and RAM tech we have, we don’t have another option, in 1-3 years all the countries around us will be flying some sort of stealth jets, it is way too dangerous for us without that capability, we are also planning to use a variant of Izdeliye-30 engine for AMCA, so it would be very useful.

 

[Phantom]

They equal in usefulness and function... Don't you even know Iranian hack US drone too from the past?🧐🤔 That's why no drones are safe if you use a powerful electronic warfare against it😹😹😹

In 1999 Yugoslavia shot an F-117 stealth drone using Soviet SA-3, sometimes stealth UAV's and even stealth jets loose their stealth when doing something like when opening internal weapons bay door or flying in a certain angle where there is thin RAM coating, they will loose their stealth and get picked by Anti Aircraft system’s radar, so nothing is 100% stealth.

 

[tipoo2]

The Russian Airforce itself have received only 30 odd j SU57 jets against their 70 or 73 orders paced.

They just created a large expansion to go in on serial production of the Su-57M, the "M" is when jets are considered actually baked in Russian parlance, with the Su-30 era avionics replaced and modernized and the AL51-F1 engines

It's a bit like concurrent development

 

[tipoo2]

KF21 Boramae is BEST option now....

Why do people even bring this up as an option, it's such a non-option. For one, their self admittedly 4.5th gen MK1 with no internal bays will be ready only by the time AMCA should be as well, which at least has internal bays and hits more marks of a 5th gen fighter. For two, South Korea is equally new to this as us, they're getting Lockheed's help but contract help is available to us to pay for as well.

There's no point to get a 4.5th gen KF21 when our internal bay having AMCA should be ready by then. The problem is what to do while we wait for AMCA.

 

[tipoo2]

Please go and read the year end commentary of Dassault CEO. He has specifically said they are willing to take new orders and they can deliver them on time.

If we're talking about till 2033, sure. Any new orders today won't start arriving until at least 2028 as there's other countries in line and the last deliveries into the 2030s.

 

[tipoo2]

Agree on AMCA.

As for Rafale, they have significant surplus production. I have given the numbers multiple times here. We can get more Rafale’s per year than Su57. So backlog is not even an issue here.

And coming to the plane’s quality. We all know how Russia lies about its super weapons. Even Russia isn’t ready to induct them in large numbers. And with the sanctions on chips and other semi conductors, it is unlikely that they can rival the computing power of western jets, which is of supreme importance in this age. And even as per Sukhoi’s own admission, it’s RCS is going to surpass Tejas and Rafale. Yes, Rafale or Tejas will have a higher RCS with missiles, but the EW system and better weapons will easily offset that gap.

It seems that almost no one covered this because "haha su-57 sucks" in western media, but they did just make a major new serial production expansion in preparation to switch to the Su-57M they'll be making much more quickly, Russian fighter development is a bit confusing but while they've been flying the Su-57 in combat, the "M" is when they consider a jet fully baked, and it comes with modernized avionics and the AL51 designed for it, while the AL41 was not designed for IR stealth.

All I'm saying is what's the harm in India taking a second look into their claims and seeing if it stacks up, they don't have Dassault's backlog

 

[Akshat]

If we're talking about till 2033, sure. Any new orders today won't start arriving until at least 2028 as there's other countries in line and the last deliveries into the 2030s.

Again, not true.

At the start of this year, Dassault had a backlog of 211 planes. I think 6 more were added as the last batch of Indonesian planes came into the backlog. So that’s 217 planes. 70 are for the French Air Force.

They have 141 export orders in the backlog. 126 are from Indonesia and UAE alone. UAE will start getting their planes from 2027, and Indonesia from 2026. So this year and the next, most of the orders will be going to the French airforce. Now Dassault’s promise is to start deliveries in 36 months. So any planes ordered now will indeed almost come in 2028, which is their promise. If you wanna take an imaginary case and be very strict about the schedule, you have 2 months left in this year, and these orders can come from the quota of French airforce. They did give 12 planes to Croatia.

And mind you, I am only talking about the current production. That alone has surplus capacity. But they have already went to 3 planes per month rate this year at the component level. They will reach that level at assembly level next year. That would mean a net surplus capacity of 13 planes annually. That would mean the new planes can come well before 2028 as well. And even if they are late in getting to 36 planes level, they can meet the current targets at least. They can keep doing that till 2028, as their promise is of 36 months.

 

[RG]

Any delay in Engine availability for AMCA and Tejas may result in India going Su-57 order, that seems to be likely and logical solution.

 

[tipoo2]

Makes sense. We don't have any other 5- gen jet available. Provide Russia with inputs to improve the jet. Some AMCA tech Uttam GAN can be integrated in it. If Russia wishes to export their jets they can do it via prod line in India to avoid sanctions.
Since AMCA would be in production arond year 2040. We should buy few squadrons of SU57 before we induct AMCA.

Yeah some of our own tech like the Virupaksha GaN AESA radar and GaN EW could make it better, where Russia barely seems to have produced any fighter sized AESAs with only the Su-57 itself in some 20 models having it. And that's a first gen non-GaN type AESA.

We'll be ahead of them on some core technologies soon, but are still some 1.5 decades away from being able to squadron up with AMCA, and that's just MK1, so some interim hybridization may be worthwhile