Russia’s Radical Sukhoi S-37 Fighter Plane Goes Up Against Our F-22 Russia’s fabled Sukhoi Design Bureau builds the S-37, a 21st century fighter to go head-to-head with our F-22. A bold, new combat aircraft designed by the new russian single engine fighter Sukhoi Design Bureau and now undergoing tests in Russia has taken aim at America’s next-generation fighter, the F-22. First word of the S-37 leaked to the West in 1997, and took Western defense analysts by surprise.

Now, after more than 120 test flights at the secret Zhukovsky Flight Test Center near Moscow, it is clear that there is nothing like this bird flying anywhere in the world today. Its creator, the Sukhoi group, is considered to be Russia’s premier combat aircraft producer. Named Berkut, which translates to mean Golden Eagle or Royal Eagle, the S-37 bears an “S” rather than an “Su” designation because it is an experimental rather than production aircraft. Design of the aircraft, originally known as the S-32, began around 1983, and drew on many years of FSW research that had commenced in the former Soviet Union during the 1940s—initially using captured Nazi technology. The S-37, however, is almost twice the size of the X-29, with a markedly different configuration. It has a length of 74 ft. D-30F6 turbofans, each developing 34,177 pounds of static thrust with afterburners—but without a thrust-vector ring.