Preparations have begun for the production of the first Checkmate fighters in Russia

Preparations have begun in Russia for the production of the first samples of light fighters of the fifth generation Checkmate. This was reported by the press service of the Rostec state corporation on the eve of the Dubai Airshow-2023 exhibition.

“Today, the design documentation has been transferred to the manufacturing plant, preparations for the production of the first samples have begun,” the state corporation reported (quote according to RIA Novosti).

The fighter was presented in Russia at MAKS 2021, and abroad at the Dubai Airshow 2021. Rostec noted that after this, changes were made to the project, including its cost and certain technical solutions. Because of this, the timing of the first flight was adjusted.

Checkmate has an intra-fuselage compartment for air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons. The payload mass of the vehicle is 7 tons, speed is Mach 1.8, combat radius is 3000 km. The aircraft can simultaneously hit up to six targets. It was initially assumed that the first flight of the Checkmate would take place in 2023, and serial production would begin in 2025. The key features of the fighter are stealth, low cost per flight hour, open architecture and high performance in terms of cost-effectiveness.