Russian Ministry of National Defense announced recently that the first batch of Su-57 fighters have begun their process of assembly in mass production, and a number of production line picture were unveiled.
Judging from the pictures, No. 01 aircraft of Su-57 is almost finished, and there are several other Su-57s in the rest of the plant. The aircraft has just undergone its assembly and its large structural components such as the front and rear fuselage, wings and engine compartments are being integrated together before starting to install complex and numerous airborne equipment.
The No 02/03 front frame is being installed, and the mounting bracket of the airborne radar can be seen. The reinforcement frame is covered with weight reduction holes. In front of the cockpit is the radar, below is the avionics equipment cabin, a large number of cable pipelines will be installed behind, including power supply, environmental control and data transmission.
This angle clearly shows structure of the radar cabin. Russia has broken through the new airborne active phased array radar technology, but it is still limited by its outdated software and hardware technology and process of electronic components, and which is far behind of similar products of the United States.
Su-57 fighter is still adopting a traditional way of manufacturing, which makes wings and fuselage separately, being fastened together by three hinges. In contrast, F-35 and China’s FC-31 use the latest wing body integrated manufacturing technology, which is stronger and lighter.
The base of the movable front strip can be seen in the picture, and some cables are installed, and the motor and hydraulic servo mechanism will be installed.
The body structure is painted with a yellow anti-rust primer, and the surface is covered with a layer of gray protective paint, but it is not a stealth coating, and then topcoat and camouflage are directly applied. A large number of rivets are left on the front fuselage frame, indicating that the manufacturing process of Su-57 fighter is still relatively conservative, and the latest technology such as integral molding is rarely used.
Most notably, in Su-57 fighter assembly plant, all the distances are the vertical tail and the fuselage of the fighters such as Su-30SM. In other words, the so-called Su-57 mass production does not have a separate production line, instead, Su-57 fighters are being produced in parallel with the old types of Sukhoi fighters.
This shows two points. First, the technical application and tooling process of Su-57 still stays in the Su-30 era. Second, Su-57 fighter is likely to be in a small scale for a long time in the future, rather than mass production, and the number of this fighter jets will be limited.