Stories
F-35 vs Su-57: A Deep Dive into America's and Russia's Fifth-Gen Fighters
- •The F-35 Lightning II and Su-57 Felon are leading fifth-generation fighters, both featuring stealth, advanced sensors, internal weapons, and supersonic performance, but with distinct design philosophies.
- •The F-35 prioritizes information superiority, acting as a sensor and information hub that integrates data into a single tactical picture for the pilot and shares it across a wider network.
- •The Su-57 emphasizes combining stealth with high maneuverability and a large internal weapons capability, designed as a multirole aircraft for air, ground, and sea targets, even in challenging conditions.
- •F-35 boasts a more mature stealth ecosystem and a significant advantage in publicly documented sensor fusion and network integration, crucial for complex air battles.
- •While the F-35 has a larger global fleet, operational maturity, and extensive weapons network, the Su-57 continues to evolve with ongoing upgrades, including a new Product 177 engine for improved performance.
Key Questions Answered
The F-35 is developed as a multirole family of fighters focusing heavily on sensor fusion, information sharing, and acting as a networked tactical hub. In contrast, the Su-57 emphasizes a combination of low observability with high maneuverability, agility across flight conditions, and traditional multirole performance against air, ground, and sea targets.
Both aircraft feature low observability measures such as internal weapons bays and shaped airframes to reduce radar detection. However, detailed numerical radar cross-section figures are not publicly available for either fighter, making direct comparisons difficult. The F-35 currently features a more mature stealth and support ecosystem backed by extensive operational fleet data.
The Su-57 made its first flight equipped with Russia's newer Product 177 engine in December 2025 to increase thrust and upgrade flight performance. Additionally, the United Aircraft Corporation delivered a new batch of Su-57 fighters featuring updated onboard systems and weapon packages to Russia's Defence Ministry in May 2026.
