Russia's Sukhoi Su-57 Equipped With Hypersonic Missiles And Explores, His Longest Shooting Range In The World

JAKARTA - Russia's fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet will become the fighter jet with the furthest firing range in the world, including outperforming Western fighter jets, as two new weapons are added.

Chief of the Main Staff and First Deputy Commander in Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces Lieutenant General Alexander Maksimtsev said, Su-57 was equipped with hypersonic missiles

"In accordance with the state defense order, the Russian Air Force receives advanced and modern weapons systems every year. The fifth generation Su-57 aircraft delivery rate continues to increase, along with modern airstrike systems and hypersonic weapons," he explained in an interview, quoted from TASS Aug. 5.

Military Watch magazine states that the hypersonic missile class in question is still very uncertain, although it has been confirmed that the derivative of the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile launched from the air currently used by surface ships and submarines of the Russian Navy is under development.

Integrating Zircon into the Su-57, which combines a very far range with advanced stealth capabilities, could significantly increase threats to enemy targets.

A number of advanced new missile classes have been developed for Su-57. State media reported in October 2023 that a new class of very long-range cruise missiles based on Kh-101/102 equipped for strategic bombers had been integrated into the fighter. The missile is smaller than Kh-101/102, but retains the same range, which is estimated at around 3,500 kilometers.

This will provide the furthest Su-57 combat range among all combat aircraft classes in the world, and is achieved through a "significant reduction in the size of new ammunition thanks to folding wing design and refined internal layout, as well as the use of a new small bypass turbojet engine," according to Military Watch Magazine.

The Zircon 3M22 hypersonic missile (NATO: SS-N-33) is a scramjet-powered missile that can fly at Mach 9 or nearly 9,600 kilometers per hour, quoted from Defense Security Asia.

The Zircon missile, originally aimed at naval platforms such as Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates and Oscar-class submarines, has now been adapted into an air launch variant capable of being fired from high-speed aircraft at high altitude, making interception nearly impossible.

The Mach 9 speed tightened the response time of the enemy's air defense system to just a few seconds, and the plasma layer made it almost invisible to the radar system.

This rate of speed, stealth and accuracy fundamentally changes the balance in every operating theater, both in Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and the Arctic.

In addition to the Zircon variant, the Su-57 is also equipped with a family of Kh-101/102, long-range cruise missiles, with Kh-102 as a nuclear-capable version offering an intercontinental range of up to 3,500 kilometers.

Meanwhile, Kh-102 presents the second layer of strategic prevention of the Su-57 arsenal.

Designed to avoid radar and fly at low altitude to penetrate deep into enemy territory, Kh-102 can carry a thermonuclear warhead and operate in an environment without GPS.

These missiles, previously used only by Russian strategic bombers such as the Tu-95MS Bear and Tu-160 Blackjack, are now adapted to be carried externally and internally by the Su-57, a change that changes the dynamics of the global nuclear posture.

This makes Su-57 the only stealth fighter aircraft operating around the world capable of carrying hypersonic and nuclear payloads, as well as becoming a new precedent in the evolution of fighter jet warfare.

Currently, neither the F-22 Raptor nor the US F-35 Lightning II fighter jets yet have operational hypersonic missile capabilities, and no Western stealth fighter aircraft have been certified for nuclear cruise missile shipments.

The US Air Force has announced plans to upgrade its B-1B Lancer bomber with external poles for future hypersonic weapons, but the plan is still under development and is far from combat ready.

Meanwhile, China's J-20 Mighty Dragon has been proposed as a future hypersonic weapons platform, but there has been no official confirmation that the aircraft has achieved operational hypersonic attack capabilities, especially with weapons such as DF-17 or potential variants launched from the air.

Russia's ability to integrate direct revolutionary missile technology into stealth fuselage is said to have enormous implications for regional theaters.

In Europe, NATO air bases operating on the front lines, critical command centers, and logistics centers in Poland, Germany, and Baltic countries are all within reach of the Su-57 attack from within Russian airspace.

While in the Indo-Pacific, the Su-57 armed with Zircon could project power across a large maritime zone - including the South China Sea, the Japanese Sea, and potentially up to Guam or Diego Garcia - without ever breaking the ALLied air defense perimeter.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the Su-57 operated by Syria-based Russia or supplied to allies such as Iran could bring the interests of Israel, the Gulf, or the US into direct hypersonic range.

Military strategists believe this makes the group of aircraft carrier attackers or command infrastructure deployed at the forefront vulnerable in a way previously threatened only by ballistic missile systems.

What makes this even more effective is the delivery method: a stealth fighter that avoids radar flying below the detection threshold to the launch of weapons.

The combination of stealth, speed, range, and multi-charge capabilities marks a new paradigm in the strategic prevention and war of precision attacks.

Analysts at NATO command and US STRATCOM have begun to revise scenario modeling to take into account the expansion of Su-57 operational threat coverage, particularly in contested areas such as the Baltic, the Black Sea and the Arctic Circle.