When Sukhoi unveiled the Su-75 Checkmate at the MAKS 2021 air show, the company pitched it as a bold counter to the world’s most costly fighters—a single-engine stealth fighter with fifth-generation performance at the elephantine price tag of an F-35 or Eurofighter. The sales pitch was straightforward and unmatchable: cutting-edge performance at the elephantine price of a B-35 or Eurofighter. But year by year, the Checkmate’s tale was a stumbling, unwilling ascent toward reality from the dazzling start it seemed to threaten. Midway through 2025, the dream was still earthly, caught up in technical issues, shrinking budgets, and the whimsical crosswinds of global politics. On paper, the Su-75 had it all.
It was to operate at close to Mach 1.8, carry payloads of over seven tons, and engage in combat missions up to 3,000 kilometers from home base. Its internal bay would be fitted with a tremendous variety of missiles—most of which were to be taken from successful Su-35 and Su-57 aircraft. With its narrow V-tail, wedge-shaped fuselage, and aerodynamically shaped airframe lines, the fighter had a dipped radar cross-section and an extremely contemporary appearance.
Internally, designers envisioned a cockpit complemented by artificial intelligence to assist pilots in sensing targets, navigating, and making decisions in advanced air combat maneuvers. Sukhoi engineers boasted that the Checkmate was the first Sukhoi aircraft to be constructed largely by means of supercomputer modeling—a low-cost method designed to reduce design time and pack every available curve.
But the most persuasive aspect of the Checkmate was not its technology; it was affordability. Sukhoi wanted to create a stealth fighter that wouldn’t bankrupt its customers. Early estimates put the cost at $25 to $30 million per aircraft and operating cost of about $6,000 an hour—the loose change of any country that expects world-best performance without world-best expense. To capture additional market share, Sukhoi even proposed three variants: a one-seat for frontline planes, a two-seat for training or mission complexity, and an unmanned that could fly solo.
It was a gamble, but gameness was insufficient. Checkmate’s journey to production has been rocky. The plane’s maiden flight, scheduled in 2023, has consistently been pushed back, now to 2025, and serial production is improbable before 2027. Official reports are still optimistic, but with each postponement piling on the doubts over the project’s viability. Some of the problem lies in the general strain on Russia’s aerospace industry.
The war in Ukraine has caused the defense industry to focus on immediate battlefield needs at the expense of diverting money, engineers, and capital from long-term technological development. Although the war produced a need for an affordable, lightweight fighter, it wasted precisely the resources to produce one.
Overseas partnerships were to be cost-sharing. The United Arab Emirates was initially considered a serious investor, with initial enthusiasm and even co-development talks. But with deadlines elapsing and the political tide turning, the enthusiasm dissipated soon enough. The UAE slipped away quietly, leaving a funding shortfall that is still unfilled to this day. Other nations have shown interest—India included—but none of them have signed on the dotted line.
Sanctions have compounded the issue, cutting off sources of high-tech electronics and precision parts that used to be imported from overseas. The engineers struggled to find substitutes, but re-establishing those supply lines on land has been tricky and slow. Analysis of captured rounds in recent wars by forensic technicians uncovered how dependent some Russian systems were upon foreign microelectronics—and uncovered a more fundamental issue that gnaws deeper than one airplane program.
Behind it all, Sukhoi has not ceased to sell the dream. The Checkmate re-emerges at defense shows as a fighter that can equip small nations with lofty aspirations. Catalogs offer co-production rights, technology transfers, and attractive discounts. It is a smart move, one which speaks to global fighter cooperation where shared development equals shared cost.
But euphoria is suspended. Until there is a functional prototype flying high, defense customers are keeping their wallets closed, waiting for proof. The bitter and agonizing début of the Su-57 is still fresh in everyone’s memory, hanging over new expectations. On paper, Checkmate is a bargain—affordable stealth with versatility and pizzazz. In life, it remains an idea waiting to be taken on. For the moment, the Su-75 Checkmate is both a project of aspiration of Russia’s air and aerospace and a reminder of what it is still attempting but not yet achieving.
It is creativity and determination against adversity—but also the harsh, unforgiving reality that even the most aspirational of designs at some point in time must fly. Whether or not the Checkmate is a player to be reckoned with in the world fighter market or the newest entry in the very, very long list of concepts that never made it out of the drawing room will depend less on its blueprints and more on whether or not its ambition, resources, and timing are in sync.