Key Points and Summary – Despite a strategic partnership, Russia has not rushed to Iran’s aid during the recent Israeli air assault for several key reasons. President Vladimir Putin has stated that Iran has not requested military assistance and that their agreement includes no mutual defense clause. Weapons like the Su-57 Felon fighter, while driving headlines, won’t help Iran in its present situation.
-Furthermore, Putin cited Russia’s deep ties to Israel, calling it an “almost Russian-speaking country.”
-Practically, Russia is constrained by its own war in Ukraine and the technological and production problems plaguing its Su-57 stealth fighter program.
-The Su-57 suffers from questionable stealth capabilities and very limited production numbers, making any potential delivery to Iran an unviable and ineffective gesture.
Russia’s Su-57 Felon Fighter to the Rescue for Iran? Hardly
Earlier this year, a lone T-50, the designator for prototype Su-57s, landed in Iran at the 9th Tactical Air Force Base in Bandar Abbas, following AeroIndia 2025, an air show, due to what was thought to be engine problems.
Images of that fighter in Iran have raised the question of, in light of the extensive attacks on Iran, why has Russia not shipped more of the fighters to Iran?
And, from here, the questions grow. Why has Russia not run to Iran’s aid, despite the two countries’ deep military ties as well as their shared geopolitical adversary — and all this despite signing a strategic partnership with Iran just this year?
TASS, a Russian state-owned news agency, recently posed the question and offered the following answer as an explanation.
“During his conversation with news agency heads, [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin was asked whether Russia would provide military assistance to Iran and replied that, first of all, Iran has not asked us for such aid, and, moreover, the framework of our existing agreement with Iran itself does not include any clause on mutual military aid in such situations. There are no such provisions,” the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.
Strategic Ambiguity? Or Hands Tied?
In a recent dialogue with reporters, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered some insight into why Moscow does not seem to be rushing to Tehran’s aid. Israel is “almost a Russian-speaking country,” Putin said in comments given during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that almost two million people from the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation reside in Israel. It is almost a Russian-speaking country today. And, undoubtedly, we always take this into account in Russia’s contemporary history.”
The Kremlin’s tepid response to the United States and Israel’s intense bombing not only of a wide variety of military targets across the country but also Iran’s nuclear infrastructure can be attributed to the lack of cards in the Russian leader’s hands.
With a war of attrition underway in Ukraine — and considering Russian forces have already begun their anticipated summer offensive — Russia simply does not have many good options to support the Ayatollah and his forces in Iran.
Conversely, Iran has played a significant role in aiding Moscow’s forces in Ukraine. In particular, Iran has supplied Russia with kamikaze drone technology, and played a pivotal role in helping Russia build a formidable Geran-2 drone fleet, based on Iran’s Shahed drone design.
Russia has launched increasingly large drone swarms against Ukrainian cities, targeting civilian infrastructure, including power substations and apartment buildings, part of a strategy to saturate and drain Ukraine’s air defense resources.
Su-57 Problems
Though much vaunted domestically, Russia’s Su-57 fighter has received a more muted response abroad.
The twin-engine jet is a large, multi-role fighter but lacks some of the characteristics of other, more mature stealth platforms, such as the United States F-22 Raptor or F-35 Lightning II jets.
In particular, the Russian jet’s stealth coating probably trails that of its American or Chinese counterparts.
The Su-57’s rear-aspect stealth almost certainly lags behind that of the F-22 or F-35, given its engine nozzles are virtually identical to those of most fourth-generation, non-stealthy fighters.
“Effective stealth design reduces an aircraft’s radar cross-section (RCS), allowing it to avoid detection and gain the upper hand in longer-range engagements. However, the Felon reportedly has a radar profile similar to that of fourth-generation non-stealth aircraft,” the Center for European Policy Analysis explained, suggesting the combat jet is a “fraud.”
Further complicating the jet’s prospects for the future are production problems, despite United Aircraft Corporation, the Russian aerospace conglomerate, opening new production facilities last year. Russia has only ordered 76 of the new jets, and experts estimate only around one-third of that number have been delivered to the Russian Ministry of Defense, if that.
In addition to avionics, developing new jet engines and their integration have proven to be significant hindrances to Su-57 development.
No Su-57 Felon Stealth Fighter for Iran?
Even if Russia could quickly resolve the production bottlenecks that have plagued the jet, simply shipping the jets to Iran would hardly solve Tehran’s air problems.
Iran would need a robust maintenance and support training pipeline, alongside a pilot training regime, to field a credible Su-57 fleet.
Given the complete and overwhelming air supremacy currently enjoyed by Israel and the United States, that would be unlikely in the extreme to happen anytime soon, if ever.
Simply fielding a platform does not immediately solve the problems of any embattled regime, particularly one as complex as a jet fighter. Given the steep obstacles to that jet’s roll-out with the Russian armed forces, it is exceedingly unlikely that Iran will field the Su-57 anytime soon.
Even if production bottlenecks can be overcome, the jet’s ability to survive and aid Tehran anytime soon appears, to all intents and purposes, a pipe dream.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. sHis work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
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