After a week of entertaining hype, Russia officially unveiled its second fifth-generation fighter jet. The ‘Checkmate’ fighter is designed to go head-to-head with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, both in the skies and in the export market. However, the sale price of the plane and the rapid development program seem too good to be true according to US media.
Russia and United Aerospace Company, an umbrella corporation that includes the famous Mikoyan-Guervich (MiG) and Sukhoi design offices, presented the fighter plane at the MAKS-2021 airshow in Moscow on Tuesday with President Vladimir Putin present to personally inspect the plane.
The fighter jet features an unusually pointed nose and an engine inlet below the cockpit. The Checkmate also has an internal weapons device designed to preserve its anti-radar shape and can carry both air-to-air and air-to-ground artillery, including infrared and radar guided air-to-air missiles, air-to-air land and anti-ship missiles. Guided and unguided bombs and unguided rockets.