Russian news outlets reported early on Wednesday that the Sukhoi aircraft design bureau had started work on the country’s first single-engine stealth fighter.

The single-engine, low-observable fighter would fly as fast as Mach 2. with a Maximum take of weight (MTOW) of 18 tons that could put it little over India’s 17.5 tons Tejas Mk2 and 16.5 tons of the Saab’s Gripen-E creating the first stealth fighter jet in this niche sub-20 ton fighter jet category that is often called as Medium weight. The new fighter, which apparently does not yet have a designation, is an internal initiative at Moscow-based Sukhoi.

Russia currently has a twin-engine supersonic stealth aircraft, the Su-57. The Sukhoi-made multirole air-superiority fighter is double the weight of the new single-engine light tactical fighter currently under development.

Another Russian state-owned aircraft maker, Mikoyan, is also developing a supersonic stealth aircraft as a successor to the MiG-31 “Foxhound” interceptor. 

Photo UAC