After announcing the order of 76 new generation Su-57 fighters passed in 2019, then that of more thanaround fifty (between 48 and 76 according to sources) of Su-34 tactical fighter bombers, it is the turn of the multi-purpose fighter Su-35s to be commanded by the Russian air force. According to the tvzvesda.ru website dedicated to the Russian armed forces, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigou, has indeed announced the order, by the end of the year, of new Su-35s, for an amount of 70 billion rubles, or a little less than $ 1 billion. This amount indicates that the order will relate to around forty new aircraft, in addition to the hundred aircraft of this model already in service with the Russian Air Force.
In all probability, the production rate of the Su-35s having been fixed for several years at around ten aircraft per year, this order will therefore be executed on the 2019-2027 GPV, the Russian equivalent of a programming law. ten-year military, as for the Su-57 and Su-34 previously mentioned. In 2028, the Russian air force will therefore have nearly 400 very modern Su-57 (76), Su-35s (138) and Su-34 (180) fighter bombers, to which will be added the few 160 Su-30SM which are gradually modernized to the SM2 standard, very close to that of the Su-35s, and an as yet undetermined number of heavy stealth combat drones S70 Okhotnik-B, the device to enter service from 2024 and gradually replace the fleet of Mig-29 still in service. The replacement of the hundred or so Mig-31 interceptors still in service will only take place beyond the current GPV, probably at the beginning of the year 2030, if by then the PAK-DP program is not canceled, for budgetary reasons.
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