MOSCOW – Russia has unveiled its new fleet of ‘invisible’ supersonic fighter jets, Tass reports.
The £120million Sukhoi-57, which will have a top speed of 1,615 mph, is said to rival America’s F-22 and China’s Chengdu J-20.
Kremlin officials say the fifth-generation stealth jet has been ‘christened like a baby after its birth’ as Su-57 and will undergo another year of testing before it enters military service in 2019.
Air Force chief Viktor Bondarev described the aircraft as a ‘wonderful machine’ and last month said: “Every country probably wants planes such as this, and we have them.”
The plane was called ‘PAK FA’ and ‘T-50’ during its developmental stage. Russia says the Su-57 will use state-of-the-art stealth technology to make it hard to track on enemy radars.
According to Newsweek, the jet will carry K-77M missiles with a reported range of 125 miles. The US AIM-120D Scorpion has a shorter range of about 100 miles.
In 2015, it was reported that it will be able to fly at a maximum altitude of 20 kilometers with top speeds of 2,600 kilometers per hour.
The country’s armed forces will receive an initial batch of 12 of the aircraft.
