Key point: Russia’s industry has trouble building and maintaining a large stealth fighter fleet.

Russian airpower is inferior to U.S. airpower, according to one Russian news site.

But is this a genuine fear, or a marketing ploy to goad the Russian government into buying a stealth fighter that it doesn’t really want?

The article appeared on Vzglyad, Google English translation here), a Web news site founded by a Russian tech entrepreneur who reportedly told the Russian government how to troll on social media. But the piece was hardly complimentary to the government’s defence policy.

In particular, it took aim at Russian boasts that its Su-57 stealth fighter is better than the U.S. F-22 and F-35. To which writer Mikhail Bolshakov offered a practical rejoinder: America is flying hundreds of F-22s and F-35s, while Russia has cancelled mass production of the Su-57.

“By the end of 2018, Russia does not yet have a serial Su-57, while the United States has already released 187 serial F-22s and more than 320 serial F-35s,” Bolshakov writes. “In other words, even if we take for granted the assertions that Russian fighters are better than American ones, the United States has at least these fighters in service. And Russia does not.”

The Russian Air Force has ordered a dozen Su-57s, enough to form a squadron that will become operational in 2019. Russia has touted the videos of the twin-engined, Mach 2 Su-57 flying a couple of combat missions in Syria, or performing aerobatic maneuvers. But that’s a far cry from mass production of an aircraft that was supposed to replace Cold War Su-27 and MiG-29 fighters, and take on the American F-22 and F-35 stealth.

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