DUBAI AIRSHOW — Russian defense firms didn’t only bring models of their platforms, but made a splash here at the Dubai Airshow this year by displaying some full-sized military hardware, including the debut of an export variant of the Sukhoi Su-57 Felon fighter.
The Su-57 was parked along the flightline here, attracting visitors eager to get a closer look, including, at one point, some American servicemembers. The plane also took part in an aerial demonstration, which a Russian industry official said would highlight the jet’s “super-manueverability.”
The Su-57, also known internally as the T-50 and billed as Moscow’s answer to the F-35, is Russia’s first fighter to use stealth technology and was developed to replace Russia’s aging MiG-29 and Su-27, according to a US government profile of the plane. Russian officials have lauded the jet, but it’s seen its share of skepticism in Western news reports.
As such the jet has reportedly had a hard time enticing international customers. But this week Sergey Chemezov, CEO of the state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec, claimed there is actually “huge demand.” (Another Russian official reportedly said this week the Su-75 had already been delivered to an unnamed export customer.)
“I will not confirm any contract number or any of our partners, but I can definitely highlight that we have a very huge demand from many countries for this particular aircraft [Su-57E], and we are hoping to even expand this demand,” Chemezov told reporters through a translator on Tuesday.
As for going up against the F-35 — and as to whether the Su-57E could find a home here in the Emirates as a long-awaited F-35 deal continues to stall — Chemezov told reporters, “If you talk about F-35, it’s much more expensive than the SU-57, but SU-57 is not in any case worse or less capable than the F-35.”
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Lancet On Display
Beyond the Felon, Russian defense firms also made the pitch to international customers for their unmanned platforms. For instance, at the Russian display the company Zala Aero unveiled Lancet-E loitering munition, the latest evolution in tech that’s proved deadly in Ukraine.
“The upgraded Lancet-E reconnaissance can engage targets equally effectively during daylight and nighttime hours using television or thermal imaging guidance systems,” officials at Russian stand told Breaking Defense.
They pointed that the company has expanded the number of warhead types for the Lancet, “increasing the range of targets it can engage.”
The officials at the stand signaled that the firm is interested in exporting the loitering munition, specifically to Middle Eastern buyers.
Elsewhere at the static display in the desert heat, Russia also unveiled YAK-130 M trainer and light attack aircraft produced by United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), featuring a number of integrated armament.
Just beside it was armed Ka-52 helicopter, and farther beyond the military transport Ilyushin IL-76 MD-90A occupied a large space.
The Effect Of Sanctions
Broadly speaking, Chemezov acknowledged that international sanctions had “made our [Rostec’s] life a little more difficult, and we had to switch to an independent style of production of different systems, but we have been under sanctions within the last 10 years and I can with full assurance say that our company has not even grown weaker.”
Chemezov pointed that the company’s exports have decreased since 2022, the year Russia invaded Ukraine, but was ambitious the future.
“Since 2022, the export has gone down a little bit, but this is due to the certain reasons that you may witness, we have to concentrate more on our domestic defense order and to satisfy the needs of our Russian army, but we have enhanced the production capabilities, which are going to be enhanced even further more, and you will see that pretty soon we will be able to not just maintain the current level of export, but even to broaden and expand more,” he said.
“I can assure you that in about two or three years we will go back to the, to take the second place in the world [in defense exports],” he said.
PHOTOS: Dubai Airshow 2025
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