Not Obsolete Anymore: Russia’s Su-35 Fighter Just Got a Huge Upgrade For Air-to-Air Combat

The Russian Aerospace Forces have for the first time been confirmed to have operationalised the R-77M active radar guided air-to-air missile, with a recently published photo showing two of the new missiles being carried by a Su-35S fighter aircraft. The next generation missile class’ entry into service has been anticipated for over a decade, with reliance on the older R-77-1 as the primary air-to-air armament for Russian fighter units having left them at a distinct disadvantage compared to their American, Chinese and even European counterparts. The new missile is considered a direct counterpart to the Chinese PL-15 and the American AIM-120D, with an engagement range of approximately 200 kilometres. The fact that the missile has entered service a decade behind its foreign counterparts is largely a result of the limited investment the Russian Defence Ministry has allocated to tactical combat aviation since the end of the Cold War.

To place the R-77M’s capabilities in perspective, the older R-77-1 had an engagement range of only 110 kilometres, making it broadly equivalent to the American AIM-120C-5 and Chinese PL-12. With the R-77-1 having entered service only around 2014, it was approximately ten years behind its top foreign counterparts. The lack of up to date air-to-air missiles had previously left even higher end Russian fighters such as the Su-35S at a significant disadvantage, which was thought to be a major factor limiting their appeal on foreign markets. The new missile is expected to largely bridge the gap in performance with foreign rivals, andis reported to use an AESA radar in its homing head for greater immunity to jamming and a longer target lock on range. It is also reported to use active phased array antenna technology to provide the missile with a fuller and wider angle picture of its target making it far more difficult to evade, as well as a new dual-pulse rocket motor. The implications of this for the combat potential of the Su-35 are revolutionary.

The R-77M is visually distinct from its predecessors due to its use of conventional cropped cruciform tail fins and its shorter cruciform control surfaces, which were necessary to allow it to be accommodated in the internal weapons bays of the new Su-57 fifth generation fighter and in any future stealth fighters or interceptors which Russia may develop. After having faced very considerable delays in development, the R-77M’s entry into service may have been accelerated as a result of ongoing hostilities in the Ukrainain theatre and the significant rise in tensions with NATO members in Eastern Europe, the Arctic and the Pacific. Not only has Russia remained far behind China and the United States in bringing fifth generation fighters into service, with its first regiment formed only in 2024, where the Soviet Air Force had been scheduled to do so in 2001, but the capabilities of its advanced fourth generation fighters have increasingly lagged behind due in large part due the lack of high performing radar guided missiles. This makes the new missile’s service entry particularly important to prevent Russian fighter units from being left effectively obsolete in the face of NATO’s growing fifth generation fighter fleets.

The R-77M is expected to allow fighters such as the Su-35S and Su-30SM that form the backbone of the Russian fleet to much more effectively challenge Western Bloc and allied air power, while further widening the advantage that Russian fighter units already enjoy in the Ukrainian theatre. Senior fellow for Military Aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank Douglas Barrie has been among the analysts to have highlighted a significant possibility that the missiles could be combat tested in the Ukrainain theatre, adding that it “should offer a notable increase in range, seeker performance, and countermeasures resistance” compared to older Russian air-to-air missile classes. With Russian industry having achieved tremendous increases in the production rates of Russia’s three primary fighter classes the Su-34, Su-35 and Su-57, demand for the new missiles may be significantly higher than was previously the case for older R-77 variants.

A leading uncertainty regarding the R-77M remains the scale on which the Russian Defence Ministry will finance procurements to equip frontline units, as while the Russian fighter fleet remains far smaller than those of China or the United States, financing for procurements of new generations of air-to-air weapons has consistently been limited since the USSR’s disintegration. The baseline R-77 was notably not procured in any meaningful numbers, despite being built for export from the mid-1990s, while the limited procurements of the R-77-1 meant fighters continue to widely rely on its Cold War era predecessor R-27ER/ET to this day. The significantly greater security security challenges Russian faces today, however, raises the possibility that the R-77M will fully replace its predecessors in production.