Key Points and Summary – New photos (see image at the top) from Russia appear to show a flyable Sukhoi Su-75 “Checkmate” prototype on the ramp at KNAAPO, igniting fresh speculation that flight testing could be imminent.
-Moscow pitched the single-engine stealth fighter in 2021 as an export-friendly answer to the F-35, but early showpieces were part mockup, part non-airworthy shell.
Su-57 and Su-75. Image Credit: Artist Rendering/Creative Commons.
Su-75 Checkmate. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-The latest imagery suggests progress—yet massive obstacles remain: sanctions that scare off foreign partners, a defense industry short on skilled labor, and competing production lines for Su-34M, Su-35S, Su-30SM2, and Su-57.
Russia’s Su-75 Checkmate Is Out in the Open
WARSAW, POLAND – The appearance of purported photos of the Russian Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate fighter aircraft has created a stir in the combat aviation community. Images show what appears to be the preparation of a flying prototype for a flight test on a tarmac. That facility is assessed to be the factory aerodrome of the Komsomolsk-na-Amure Aviation Production Association (KNAAPO) in Khabarovsk Province, Russian Far East.
Articles in both Russian and English state that the photos were released by the United Aircraft-Building Corporation (OAK) and that this is an actual flying prototype being prepared for flight testing.
What We Know
Russia first introduced the Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate fighter aircraft in 2021. It was billed as a single-engine lightweight fighter to be sold primarily for export. It was additionally offered as an opportunity for other nations to enter the program as developmental and/or production partners.
There were some complications, however. One was that the aircraft, first shown at the Moscow Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) in 2021 and then again later that same year at the Dubai Air Show, was not actually a real flying machine.
It was actually a half-prototype, half-mockup that would never be capable of flying. A walkaround of the item presented in Dubai revealed that a significant portion of the rear hemisphere of the aircraft was made of nothing more than plywood.
Su-75 Checkmate. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Su-75 Checkmate and Su-57. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Changing Sets of Partners
The other issue was determining the customer base for such an aircraft. At the time of the program announcement, a promotional video—which has since been taken down and the YouTube account deleted—was released, coinciding with the MAKS air show, which featured pilots from the four countries projected by the Russians as the most logical partner nations.
These pilots from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Vietnam, and Argentina all join up at one location in response to a return-to-base signal.
The four then all unite with a group of other pilots from a dozen other nations at an aerodrome where the Su-75 is rolled out of a hangar. The clear message is that the Su-75 will be another multinational program, similar to the American F-35, from which all partner nations will benefit.
Competing Narrative
However, the problem with this narrative at the time was that the countries Russia was considering as potential partners—with the exception of the UAE—were nations in the marketing crosshairs of the Saab team, which was promoting the export sales of the JAS-39E/F Gripen.
Saab not only has far more experience with cooperative production and offset programs, but the Gripen is an aircraft that has been in production for decades. Very little, if anything, about the E/F-serieaircraft’s’s design is speculative or requires much in the way of vetting. These are two attributes the Russian aircraft program cannot lay claim to.
One of the Russian-language sites writing about the Su-75 emphasizes how the aircraft is a single-engine derivative of the Su-57 Felon, the latter billed as Russia’s latest air superiority stealthy fighter:
“Whatever one may say, the Russian fifth-generation Su-57 fighter is already being produced in small batches, at a rate of about 10-12 fighters per year. Currently, despite this information being classified, [it is known] the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) have received approximately 40 of the first, domestically produced fifth-generation fighters. Next year, the Aerospace Forces plan to receive another ten.
“However, this is a drop in the bucket. Its main competitor, the American F-35 Lightning II, is produced at a rate of approximately 150 units per year. The author of this article [below] argues that the Su-75, which has only just begun testing, will reach this rate of production much faster. You can read the author’s arguments.”
What We Know About the Photo
The photo of the Su-75, recently published on Russian social media sites and military blogs, as shown above, has generated a great deal of interest. It appears to show the Su-75, a single-engine, lightweight fighter, but the date of the photo is unknown. The Russian aerospace rumor mill reports that this is the first of two flight test aircraft—both of which are expected to be manufactured by the end of 2025.
The Russian language material about the program, which is written by an analyst familiar with the aerospace industry in Russia, makes the following comparison between the Su-75 and the Su-57:
“Designing and fine-tuning the configuration of the Su-57 was a lengthy and complicated process, characteristic of any pioneering development. It was all done from zero: new-age materials, engines, radar-absorbing coatings, and a complicated avionics configuration. It was a necessary educational process, or as the Chinese say, purchasing technology for reproducing it—(xuéfèi or tuition fees)—which is now paid for [by the R&D [process].”
The Su-75 is the first beneficiary of this investment. The design team at Sukhoi OKB (design bureau) did not have to begin from a blank piece of paper, but instead adopted the concept of unification (of existing technology).”
All the Rumors
There are also rumors of flight tests of an “Su-75-like aircraft” that have been circulating on the internet since the Autumn of 2024. Some very blurry, long-distance footage of an aircraft that was too far off in the sky to identify was also posted online at the time, supposedly photographed over the same KNAAPO facility.
However, two factors in the present day make the Su-75’s movement forward very problematic. One reason is that there is no chance that any of the countries once considered potential partners for the program would enter into a project like this with Russia now, fearing sanctions from the US and the EU.
The only nation being discussed as a potential partner now is the former Soviet republic of Belarus. While this nation has some talented engineering manpower still available, its industry has been chronically underfunded for decades. Using Belarus enterprises to co-produce this aircraft might require investment to “make the tools to make the tools” necessary to work with these advanced technologies.
More Problems
Another factor is that Russia’s defense sector is experiencing an increasing shortage of qualified personnel. The VKS has suffered considerable losses in the Ukraine war to date, and the industry is complex at work building the new, upgraded Su-34M frontline bomber, the Su-35S and Su-30SM2 fighters, and more fifth-generation Su-57 combat aircraft. It remains to be seen whether there is any capacity left to continue developing and then create a production plan for the Su-75, in addition to all the existing programs.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
More Military
A $6,000,000,000 Nuclear U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier ‘Sunk’ by $100,000,000 Diesel ‘AIP’ Sub
Russia’s ‘New’ Mach 4.3 MiG-41 Stealth Fighter Will Never Fly Off the Drawing Board
The Royal Navy’s Big Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier Mistake Still Stings
2,960 Warplanes Built: The A-4 Skyhawk Has a Message For Any Military on Earth
Big Equipment Losses in Ukraine Mean Russian Troops Move Ammo With Donkeys
angelo corbin
October 7, 2025 at 6:50 pm
Russia and china can make their so call stealth aircraft look like americas, but they will never have the capability as America, Ukraine shot down so many Russian latest planes. Remember, looks can be deceiving.