dollars and from importing semiconductors from the European Union.Īs Peter Suciu notes, there is at least an outside possibility the Checkmate could gain some Middle Eastern buyers, namely the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran. Among other things, Russia is forbidden from trading in U.S. Overseas sales prospects for the Su-75 are further hampered by international sanctions. It is indeed because of its antipathy for Beijing that Vietnam has been bolstering its own ties with its former worst enemy, the United States of America, and I imagine a decision to purchase a major new Russian system would not help U.S.-Vietnamese relations. As for Vietnam, though this is strictly an educated guess on my part, I imagine that Hanoi’s senior leadership is none too comfortable with Russia’s increasing ties to Vietnam’s longtime adversary, the People’s Republic of China. While India preserves a certain degree of amity with Russia, they seem content to focus on their homegrown MWF and AMCA warplane programs. But it will need to arrive in time and offer enough capability to woo the Indian Air Force away from the AMCA and MWF projects.”įast-forward to the present day, with Russia bogged down in its “special military operation” in Ukraine, and those would-be foreign buyers have yet to materialize. “The Checkmate is not expected to be ready in time to compete for an Indian Air Force requirement to buy 114 combat aircraft that is being pursued by companies in the US, Russia and Europe. This includes the Medium Weight Fighter (MWF), a single-engine fighter based on the Tejas, and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), which is a heavier twin-engine aircraft with stealth features. The demand for these aircraft is quite high, it is estimated at least 300 aircraft in the near future.”Įven then, the unnamed author indicated significant obstacles for the Su-75’s hopes of winning the approval of the Indian Air Force: “In addition to the possibility of cost overruns and likely difficulties in development, the Indian Air Force will also have to factor in indigenous projects that are in development. For example, in July 2021, Indian news magazine The Week published a story that included this quote from Russia’s then-Deputy Prime Minister, Yury Borisov (now director general of Roscosmos): “First of all, it will indeed be oriented towards African countries, India and Vietnam. Indeed, the plane was garnering a fair amount of buzz in the Indian media. When my initial writeup on the Su-75 was published in June 2022, there was a fair-to-middling possibility that the Checkmate was going to gain some significant foreign customers, particularly India and Vietnam. Notional specifications include a fuselage length of 49.2 feet, a wingspan of 32.8 feet, a height of 16.4 feet, an empty weight of 36,156 pounds, max takeoff weight of 51,588 pounds, and a max airspeed of 808 miles per hour (Mach-1.06). While the Checkmate is meant to be a sophisticated, ultra-high-tech aircraft, Justin Bronk, a research fellow at British think tank Royal United Services Institute, described it as a “somewhat low-observable spiritual successor to the MiG-21.” Mind you, the MiG-21 “Fishbed” debuted in 1959. For three decades, the Russian Air Force and Navy have mostly used twin-engine fighter aircraft primarily based on the Su-27 “Flanker” and MiG-29 “Fulcrum” designs. The Checkmate is Russia’s first effort to develop a new single-engine fighter since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mockups of the aircraft were first unveiled at the 2021 Dubai Airshow, replete with a sparkly marketing campaign that included bottling Checkmate perfume to wow the crowds. The Su-75 has yet to make its maiden flight. Sukhoi Su-75 “Checkmate” Early History & Specifications Let’s take an updated look at the Sukhoi Su-75 “Checkmate” fifth-generation stealth fighter. So naturally, I find it a tad annoying that the Russians saw fit to apply the number 75 to a warplane that is so far proving itself to be a boondoggle, if not an outright piece of junk. And last but not least, 7575 was the retired LAPD badge number of my late USC football tailgating buddy Kenny Smith, who was both a colleague and a personal friend of LAPD Detective Sergeant turned bestselling novelist Joseph Wambaugh. I am also quite fond of the Czech-made CZ-75 9mm semiauto pistol. Meet the Su-75 Checkmate: I must admit I am somewhat partial to the number 75.įor starters, I was born in 1975.
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