Russia’s state-owned Rostec revealed the unmanned modification of the fifth-generation Checkmate light tactical aircraft for the first time on Monday.
Sergey Chemezov, CEO of Rostec, said during the show that three prototypes of the Checkmate will be built by 2023, the year Russia is targeting for its first flight. He considers Chinese-Pakistani JF-17, Chinese J-10 and American F-16 fighters to be a competitor for the Checkmate in foreign markets. “Only the F-35 can boast of comparable capabilities, which is more expensive both in terms of price and service cost,” he added.
Russia considers countries of Africa, India and Vietnam as potential customers for the fifth-generation Checkmate single-engine fighter. It comes with an attractive price tag of around $25-30 million. As per Russian media reports, there will be further reduction in the jet’s cost after unification with the Su-35s and Su-57s.