Markings suggest Russia’s new stealth fighter might be designated the Sukhoi Su-75 “CheckMate”.
Some new interesting images of the new Russian 5th generation aircraft, the “CheckMate” have started to appear online ahead of MAKS 2021 airshow which kicks off next week. As we reported on Jul. 15, 2021, the jet, covered by black canvas, was first spotted as it was moved to the static display fuelling various theories around the shape of the “CheckMate”, believed to be developed by the Sukhoi bureau with an eye to the international market.
We finally have a better idea of the “CheckMate” thanks to photos which started circulating online on Jul. 18, 2021, thanks to Chinese Aviation subject matter expert and author Andreas Rupprecht:
Here it is the Sukhoi LTS “CheckMate”
(Images via @Сообщений / Paralay-Forum) pic.twitter.com/xKhyGS8lsM
— @Rupprecht_A (@RupprechtDeino) July 18, 2021
Our contributor Alex Snow worked on a composite image based on the photos Rupprecht found on a Forum and created a single, wide view of the “CheckMate” that allows us to gather additional details about the mock-up and the design concepts it embeds.
We already knew it is going to be a single engine aircraft with canted tails; now we can clearly see that is going to be a single seater featuring a delta wing and a ventral inlet (whose shape and position reminds the one of the X-32 prototype). Interestingly, the aircraft seems to have a side bay that might be similar to the side weapons bay of the Su-57 Felon.
Besides the digitized camouflage, one interesting thing is the registration, RF-00075 with bort number 75 Blue, that seems to point towards the designation Su-75 for the new type. However, it’s worth remembering that for the moment, the aircraft is just what is is: a mock up.
As already explained in our first article on the type, the concept might be designed for the export market and this would be the reason why Rostec released an ad teasing the jet that clearly pointed to UAE, India, Vietnam and Argentina as potential customers.
We will have two correspondents at MAKS 2021 and we will provide multiple updates from the airshow on this and other interesting projects.
