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Additional Su-34 Fullbacks, Su-57 Felons Delivered to Russian Air Force as Year Draws to a Close

T. B. Smith

UAC has delivered six batches of Su-34s and three of Su-57 during 2024, with a total of at least 12 Fullbacks and five Felons. While the Su-34s are the upgraded NVO variants, the Su-57s appear to still be the baseline variants.

The RuAF (Russian Aerospace Forces) received new deliveries of the Su-34 NVO Fullback fighter-bomber and the Su-57 Felon fifth generation jet on Dec. 23, 2024, the UAC (United Aircraft Corporation) announced. While UAC didn’t specify the number of airframes, Russian military aviation analyst Guy Plopsky says that at least one airframe of each type was delivered, as shown by the photos and videos released.

In total, during 2024, the collective number of Su-34 reaching the RuAF (Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily Rossii or VVS) can be estimated at 12 to 14 units. While the number of Su-57s delivered is unclear, it must be noted that a contract for 76 aircraft was signed in 2019, with deliveries to be completed by 2027. So far, one aircraft was delivered in 2020, eight in 2022, 11 in 2023 and at least five in 2024, according to the info available.

Saying that Rostec is “rhythmically supplying” aircraft, the company’s CEO Sergei Chemezov mentioned in a statement released on Telegram that the Su-57 and Su-34 delivered on Dec. 23 “will soon take their place in service,” defining them as “the best aircraft in their class.”

The deliveries

The Su-34 is the backbone of the RuAF’s tactical standoff strike and battlefield interdiction attacks, employing the FAB-series of bombs with UMPC-guidance kits on Ukrainian army ground positions. The service has lost an estimated 34 airframes until Feb. 2024, going by leading Western reports and war tracker forums. Many of these, at least in the opening months of the war from February to mid-2022, were due to MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defense Systems) missiles as the jets made low-passess over Ukrainian ground positions.

According to Plopsky, the latest delivery of the Su-34 is the sixth in 2024, with the previous roll-outs being announced in early April, mid-June, early September, early October and late November. He therefore concludes that, in total, the RuAF has received between 12 to 14 units of the Su-34 Fullback in 2024.

Only one aircraft can be made out from the photos and videos, and serial numbers/bort numbers are not visible. The Su-34 has the L-175 Khibiny-series of EW/ESM (Electronic Warfare/Electronic Support Measures) pods installed on the wing tips, similar to the one on the Su-35S. The aircraft is shown being fueled by a fuel truck and is carrying a large external fuel tank on the centerline pylon.

Screengrab of the video released by the United Aircraft Corporation showing the Su-57 taking off under icy conditions. (Image credit: United Aircraft Corporation/Rostec)

It must be noted that the UAC identifies this as the Su-34NVO variant, also known as Su-34M. NVO is a Russian acronym which stands for Navigation and External Equipment Upgrade. The upgrade was launched in 2020 and reportedly includes improved radar, sensors, EW and communication systems, although it is unclear if further modifications were made from the experience and lessons learnt in the nearly three-year-long war.

The Su-57, meanwhile, remains elusive at best. Earlier in June 2024, a parked Su-57 came under attack from a Ukrainian drone strike at 600 km from the front, in the Astrakhan Oblast, and reportedly sustained some damage. The jet then made its debut at China’s Zhuhai Air Show in November. Two weeks ago, images emerged of one of its prototypes (T-50-2 “052 Blue”) sporting a stealthy flat 2D thrust-vectoring nozzle for testing, as The Aviationist had reported.

This latest Su-57 delivery also presumably appears to be a single airframe. Plopsky added in the thread that only two known deliveries of Su-57s were announced in 2024, in September and November. While the September batch appeared to show two to three Su-57s, it is unclear how many were part of November’s delivery.

In the same thread, responding to a query, Plopsky also added he believes that the Su-57s being delivered so far are possibly still flying with the older AL-41 engines, with the advanced Al-51 (or Izdeliye 30) power plants to begin appearing on the jets being delivered from 2025 onwards.

UAC description

Russia apparently does not rely on the Su-57 for its operations over Ukraine, with all air defense, combat air patrol and surface-strike missions undertaken by the Su-34, Su-35S, Su-27, Su-30SM and MiG-31K jets. Any employment of the fifth gen aircraft has been extremely sparing to check certain technologies that were refined as the war progressed, and these can be assumed to be critical data networking and electromagnetic sensing capabilities.

UAC said the “Su-57 multifunctional frontline aviation complex was created to solve a wide range of combat missions,” including “hitting air, land and sea targets,” in “difficult weather conditions and in a complex jamming environment.” UAC’s CEO went as far as defining the Su-57 the “king of the sky” and the “only aviation complex in the world that has proven its right to be called a fifth-generation fighter,” being able to “destroy the enemy even in the face of counteraction from modern air defense systems.”

The Su-34 fighter-bomber, meanwhile, has been described as designed to destroy SAM (Surface-to-Air Missiles)-defended ground targets and infrastructure “located at significant distances from the base airfield,” able to operate in presence of “enemy fire and information counteraction,” in all weather conditions in day and night . The “information counteraction” mention translated from the Russian text might simply mean heavy jamming, spoofing and electronic defenses.

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