The Current Events Room
Russia's Su-57 Stealth Fighter Has Problems: Engines, Oil, and Weak Adversaries
I have been saying this a while about Russian jet engines. Now with Russia's budget shot to hell from low oil prices, can Russia afford to produce their 5th Gen under performing fighter?
All the cards are stacked against the Su-57 — the price of oil is low, it’s engines are no better than its predecessors, and the current airframes it would replace are doing just fine.
Russia depends on oil and gas for revenue. If these energy exports would slow to a trickle — or when the price for these exports is low, less money flows into Russian state coffers.
The disagreement between Saudi Arabia and Russian to put a price floor under crude prices by cutting oil production has caused the price of oil to fall dramatically. Increased Saudi production has flooded the market with a glut of cheap Saudi Arabian crude, which is designed to undercut Russian exports of the black gold.
Saudi Arabia’s consolidation of its global market share is bad news for the Su-57, and really all Russian military acquisitions, which will likely be hit hard in the future. There will almost certainly be less money for ambitions and expensive projects.
Old Engines
There is another fundamental problem with the Su-57 — its engines are essentially the same as those of the aircraft it is designed to replace, the Su-35S.
Although the Su-57 was intended to sport the more powerful and efficient Izdeliye 30 engines, most — if not all — prototypes and production models have been equipped with the Al-41 engines used on the Su-35S. There have been reported problems with the new Izdeliye 30 engines, related to reliability and quality control.
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