The twin-seater variant of Russia’s Su-57 Felon fifth-generation fighter has made its first appearance during a ground run, photographed by local sources.
Russian social media account, Fighterbomber, shared the first photo of Su-57’s twin-seater variant during what appears to be a taxi test. The twin-seater variant of Su-57 has been thought to be on hold due to the production and improvement of the baseline single-seater variant taking priority, and the financial challenges from the ongoing war with Ukraine.
The twin-seater variant adopts a similar canopy structure to the Su-30 multi-role fighter, with a distinctively high elevation for the WSO sitting behind the main pilot.
A twin-seater fighter, by a rule of thumb, has a lighter workload on the crew due to sharing the piloting and weapon/targeting system operation parts. In the last few years, beyond the operation of aircraft equipment, countries working in the MUM-T field have started regarding the second pilot as a commander for unmanned combat aircraft and supporting UAVs as well.
Thus, it is understood that the twin-seat Su-57 might be intended as a command for S-70 Okhotnik-B UCAVs. It is no secret that Russia has had plans to pair its freshest fighter with the low-observable UCAV in a similar manner to Western countries.
China has done a similar work with the J-20S, the twin-seater variant of its fifth-generation frontline fighter, explicitly planned to control various unmanned platforms, including GJ-11 UCAV.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor:Özgür Ekşi
