The highly anticipated Dubai Airshow 2025 became the stage for a significant revelation concerning Russia’s stealth fighter, the Su-57E. After years of fervent speculation and hushed discussions within the defense community, the prototype finally offered a public demonstration of its side weapons bay in operation. This groundbreaking display, showcased in a video released by UAC on November 21, 2025, and subsequently replayed during the flying display in Dubai, definitively laid to rest questions surrounding the fighter’s close-in air-to-air armament capabilities. The footage captured the export-configured T-50-9 gracefully opening a fuselage-side bay located at the wing root, extending a missile on its launcher, and then seamlessly retracting it back into the sleek airframe.
This latest unveiling builds upon earlier UAC footage, meticulously analyzed by Army Recognition prior to the airshow, which had focused on the forward internal bay, impressively loaded with two Kh-58UShK anti-radiation missiles. Even that earlier material had subtly hinted at the in-flight exercise of the side bays. By strategically shifting the spotlight from the strike-optimized forward bay to the quick-launch side bay and its short-range missile, the recent imagery provides an unprecedented and remarkably clear perspective on how the Su-57 is designed to masterfully combine stealth, suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), and crucial dogfight self-protection within a single, versatile load-out. This holistic view confirms the Su-57’s multi-role ambitions and its intricate design philosophy.
The feature that UAC so prominently highlighted was less about breathtaking aerobatics and more about the precision and efficacy of the weapons bay’s mechanical sequence. In both the rehearsal video and the captivating airshow display, the Su-57E rolled past the cameras, allowing observers to witness one of its distinctive canoe-shaped fairings at the wing root swinging open along a narrow hinge line. Following this, a sophisticated launcher system smoothly drove a missile body—understood to be an inert mock-up precisely corresponding in size and mass to the R-73/R-74 family—out into the roaring airflow. Crucially, the missile remained firmly secured on its rail throughout this extension, before being drawn just as smoothly back inside the airframe, with the doors closing with seamless precision. This demonstration unequivocally confirms that the side compartment is not a mere conventional pylon cunningly concealed behind a panel. Instead, it is a purpose-designed quick-launch bay, engineered to present the missile to the slipstream for only the fleeting seconds required to acquire a target and initiate a launch. For long-time observers who had previously been limited to examining still photos of empty side bays from earlier airshows, or a fleeting, cropped clip of a launch from a 2020 Russian MoD montage, the Dubai sequence marked a pivotal moment. It offered the first clear, continuous, and comprehensive view of the full open-extend-retract cycle, all performed under the realistic maneuvering loads of flight. Furthermore, it firmly established that the export-market Su-57E retains this critical capability, a clear indication that Moscow intends prospective customers to perceive the aircraft as a complete, fully integrated stealth weapons system, rather than simply a demonstrator for long-range munitions.
Every piece of information gleaned from Russian documentation and recent analytical studies consistently points to a single primary occupant for this side bay: the infrared-guided R-74M2, also known by its designations K-74M2 or izdeliye 760. Russian sources meticulously describe the Su-57’s sophisticated weapons architecture as comprising four beyond-visual-range missiles nestled in the tandem main internal bays, complemented by one short-range missile housed within each side bay. These sources explicitly identify the R-74M2 as the optimized short-range munition specifically designed for internal carriage. The R-74M2, a deep upgrade of the venerable R-74/R-73 family, reportedly features a reduced-cross-section airframe and cleverly clipped fins, allowing it to perfectly fit within the Su-57’s compact 320 × 320 mm bay. Beyond its physical adaptations, it boasts an improved rocket motor with an extended burn time and a cutting-edge Karfagen-760 imaging infrared seeker. This advanced seeker is meticulously engineered to match or even surpass the capabilities of Western high off-boresight missiles, such as the formidable AIM-9X and ASRAAM. Published range estimates for the R-74M2 vary, typically falling between approximately 30 and 50 km, depending on specific launch conditions, firmly positioning it at the upper echelon of modern short-range air-to-air missile performance. The missile airframes observed in UAC footage and rehearsal stills from Zhukovsky demonstrably correspond to the distinct proportions and nose geometry attributed to the R-74M2. Moreover, Russian analytical reports consistently identify the side-bay load on the T-50-9 as a pair of R-74M2-class short-range air-to-air missiles. Therefore, the combination of the bay layout, the launcher’s innovative design, and the overwhelming visual evidence makes the R-74M2 the most probable operational weapon concealed within the Su-57’s side bays, with inert R-74-type dummies occasionally employed in demonstrations to safely illustrate the mechanism.
Beyond merely confirming the specific missile type, the Dubai demonstration provided invaluable insights into the fundamental rationale behind Russia’s significant investment in this side weapons bay concept. By cleverly tucking its short-range missiles into the sleek wing-root fairings and employing the advanced VPU-50-series launch rails to briefly extend them into the airstream, the Su-57 can maintain its infrared dogfight missiles in a state of immediate readiness. This ingenious design circumvents the need for external pylons, which would inevitably compromise the aircraft’s stealth characteristics and introduce undesirable drag. The quick-extension mechanism is a stroke of engineering brilliance, allowing the missile’s seeker head to acquire and lock onto a target either just before or immediately after launch. Crucially, the clamshell doors remain open for the absolute minimum possible time, thereby severely limiting any temporary spikes in the aircraft’s radar cross-section. In essence, this innovative side bay endows the Felon with a stealth-compatible equivalent of a traditional wingtip or under-wing rail. This preserves instantaneous close-in engagement capability, even while the main internal bays are fully loaded with heavy ordnance, such as Kh-58UShK anti-radiation missiles, Kh-69 cruise missiles, or the formidable R-77M and izdeliye 810 long-range air-to-air weapons. This capability is particularly pertinent for a multirole platform that is explicitly marketed as being able to penetrate dense air-defense environments, effectively prosecute ground emitters, and still possess the means to survive if unexpectedly engaged by enemy fighters or surface-launched missiles at short notice. Consequently, the side bay transcends being a mere technical curiosity; it stands as a pivotal enabler of the Su-57’s advertised blend of stealth, multi-axis maneuverability, and substantial internal payload capacity.
The public unveiling of the Su-57’s side bay operating sequence at the Dubai Airshow 2025 carries profound strategic and tactical implications. It perfectly complements the earlier disclosure of the forward bay, impressively armed with twin Kh-58UShK missiles, collectively presenting the most complete public view to date of the fighter’s internal load-out. This comprehensive configuration seamlessly integrates a robust suppression-of-enemy-air-defenses module with short-range air-to-air missiles for essential self-protection. This configuration unequivocally underscores Russia’s strategic intent for the Su-57 to function as a formidable first-wave SEAD/DEAD platform, fully capable of independent action. Such a capability is undeniably attractive to air forces grappling with advanced air defense networks across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. By selecting the high-profile Dubai Airshow as the venue for this significant revelation, Moscow is strategically signaling its ambition to appeal to a broad spectrum of foreign procurement authorities, extending far beyond its traditional domestic market. This includes nations previously linked to potential acquisitions, such as Algeria, Iran, and Ethiopia. Moreover, the demonstration of live in-flight sequencing, featuring fully functional hydraulics and realistic missile mass, unequivocally confirms the Su-57 program’s progression far beyond static prototypes. Concurrently, it subtly yet powerfully conveys to NATO and other regional observers that Russia is prepared to reveal intricate details of the aircraft’s internal systems, thereby reinforcing its export credibility and confidence in the platform’s maturity.
The synergistic combination of pre-show UAC footage showcasing the forward bay fitted with twin Kh-58s and the subsequent Dubai Airshow 2025 demonstration of the side bay’s full operating cycle offers the most comprehensive public insight into the Su-57’s intended combat employment. Earlier reporting thoroughly documented the aircraft’s internal strike role and unequivocally confirmed that the forward bay is capable of accommodating substantial anti-radiation missiles. The new side-bay reveal further demonstrates that the same advanced airframe can ingeniously keep a pair of R-74M2-class short-range missiles seamlessly concealed at the wing roots while maintaining their immediate availability for deployment.
This rapid-deploy side bay is far more than an airshow novelty; it is an operationally meaningful feature that profoundly impacts the aircraft’s concept of operations. It implies a strategic approach where the Felon can approach contested airspace in a fully low-observable configuration, effectively open a corridor against enemy radars using its internally carried SEAD weapons, and crucially, retain a credible within-visual-range deterrent without resorting to the drag-inducing and stealth-compromising external pylons. For both prospective customers evaluating their next-generation fighter options and competitors closely monitoring Russian defense advancements, the Dubai sequence is significant not merely for its spectacle, but for its definitive confirmation. It substantiates that the export-configured Su-57E/T-50-9 possesses a fully functioning, stealth-compatible close-combat bay, which almost certainly carries one of Russia’s most modern and capable short-range air-to-air missiles. This revelation fundamentally alters the perception of the Su-57’s operational versatility and lethality.
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