Russia's Su-57 Stealth Fighters Are Half-Blind—And Too Vulnerable for the Ukraine War

The Russian air force has mostly held back its roughly 30 Su-57s

Su-57. Via Wikimedia Commons

The Russian air force’s Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighters are missing critical components and payloads, including the sensor pods that help them spot targets on the ground.

But that’s not why the air force’s roughly 30 Su-57s—10 of which are prototypes—are mostly sitting out the war in Ukraine.

No, the twin-engine, supersonic Su-57s are staying home in order “to avoid reputational damage, a blow to export prospects or the loss of sensitive technology that could follow if the aircraft were downed over Ukraine,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight posited in a new report, echoing a similar assessment by the U.K. defense ministry.

The Ukrainian main intelligence directorate drove home the Su-57’s potential vulnerability back in June 2024, when the directorate’s one-way attack drones damaged at least one of the $40-million fighters at Akhtubinsk airfield, in southern Russia 365 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.