Algeria & Su-57 .. Rumours or Reality?

Over the past year several reports rumoured Algeria to be the first foreign client to acquire Russia's 5th generation fighter Su-57. However, the Russian side never commented on the matter and nothing official was heard about Algeria buying Su-57 fighters.

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More recently, a photo of the building of the Algerian Ministry of Defence has caught the attention because it shows the Su-57 fighters operating alongside Algerian Su-30 fighters, frigates, and T-90 tanks. Many take this as a sign that the reports that had been circulated earlier are plausible.

Tests of Su-57 prototypes were conducted but a crashing incident in December 2019 slowed down the process of delivering the fighter. However, in June Sukhoi already started talking about the export version of the fighter  its annual report for the year 2019.

In August, the producing company said that it plans to deliver 76 Su-57 aircraft the Russian Ministry of Defence by 2028. Soon after this announcement, Anatoliy Serdyukov, the Industrial Director for the State Corporation Rostec's Aviation Cluster, said that once the orders of the Russian Armed forces are met, Russia would be ready to meet the demands of its foreign clients. Furthermore, he added that they were conducting advertising campaigns.

On the sidelines of the VI International Military-Technical Forum ARMY-2020, the spokeswoman of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) Maria Vorobyova said to reporters that several countries have sent official bids for the purchase of the latest fifth-generation Su-57 fighters from Russia.

"Despite the fact that this is a new sample of Russian military products, a number of official applications for its supply have been received already," said Vorobyova.

However, no contracts with Algeria have been concluded, and nothing is known about the status of the negotiations.

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