Photographs Show Russian Su-57 Fighter Carrying Short-Range Missiles Inside Shelter

Photographs have emerged showing a Russian Sukhoi Su-57 fighter carrying a pair of R-73/R-74 series short-range air-to-air missiles on underwing pylons. One image also shows a targeting pod mounted below the left engine nacelle. The aircraft sits inside a large shelter at an airfield.

The photos surfaced on the TikTok platform. Teenagers appear in the images posing alongside the jet, with one seated in the cockpit. Russian military bloggers identified the configuration as one suited to hunting and shooting down Ukrainian drones.

The shelter matches those installed at Akhtubinsk airfield in Russia's Astrakhan region, more than 350 miles from the front line. Ukrainian drones struck the airfield on 8 June 2024, severely damaging or destroying a Su-57 parked in the open. As of early 2023, Russia had approximately nine series-production Su-57s in service along with less than a dozen pre-production and prototype aircraft.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence stated that Su-57s have been used in Ukraine since at least June 2022. The Su-57 can carry the Kh-69 stealthy cruise missile with a range of over 180 miles and the Kh-58UShK anti-radiation missile with a maximum range of around 150 miles.

It is also armed with the R-37M air-to-air missile with a range of 124 miles and the R-77-1 air-to-air missile with a range of 68 miles. The jet is the only operational Russian fighter available in meaningful numbers with an active electronically scanned array radar consisting of five separate AESA arrays and carries a 30 mm single-barrel cannon supplied with 150 rounds.

Multiple Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles struck locations across Moscow in one of the largest attacks on the Russian capital during the conflict last month.