Russia's Su-57 Stealth Fighter in Syria: “This Is Testing in Actual War"

The most likely reason for the Russian deployment is to refine the Su-57 design for production and to gain as much operational wartime experience as possible.

Russia's Su-57 Stealth Fighter in Syria: “This Is Testing in Actual War"

Russia appears to have deployed two prototype Sukhoi Su-57 PAK-FA fighters to its Khmemeim airbase in Syria.

While the reports of the stealth fighters arriving in Syria are unconfirmed, it would be highly unusual to deploy a developmental asset into a combat zone before it is ready for war. Indeed, the Russian move—if confirmed—would be the equivalent of deploying the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor into combat during the late 1990s or early 2000s while the jet was still in the engineering manufacturing development (EMD) phase. However, deploying a developmental jet into combat to gather operational experience and data might not be unusual from the Soviet/Russian perspective.

“This is testing in actual war. The Soviets did that,” Vasily Kashin, a senior fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, told The National Interest.



Source: Yahoo News