Ethiopia receives its first Russian-made Su-35 fighter jets

Ethiopia has taken delivery of its first 12 Russian Su-35 fighter jets and will also receive four batteries of the S-400 long-range air defense system, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on social media on Oct. 28.

Abiy said the jets arrived under an earlier agreement with the Russian government and a year ahead of the agreed schedule, and he thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for the early delivery. He did not disclose the value of the deal, its terms, or when the S-400 batteries will arrive, Addis Standard reported.

“In accordance with our prior agreement with the Russian government, we have today taken delivery of the first twelve Su-35 4++ Generation fighter jets,” said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The announcement came while Abiy was in Russia for the third Russia-Africa Summit, according to Ethiopian state broadcaster Fana Media Corporation, which reported that he witnessed the official handover of the aircraft. Abiy described the purchase as a major boost to the defense forces and said it puts Ethiopia in the lead among Sub-Saharan African nations.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends a ceremony marking the handover of Su-35 fighter aircraft to the Ethiopian Air Force.

The Su-35 is Russia’s most advanced fighter in export service after the Su-57. It is a single-seat, twin-engine multirole jet built for both air combat and ground attack, with thrust-vectoring engines that let it maneuver sharply and a long-range Irbis-E radar. Sukhoi calls it a “4++ generation” aircraft, meaning a heavily upgraded fourth-generation design that stops short of the stealth features of fifth-generation fighters.

The S-400 is a long-range surface-to-air missile system designed to shoot down aircraft and some missiles. A battery typically includes radars, a command post and several launcher vehicles.

Ethiopia’s interest in the Su-35 first surfaced a year ago. In October 2025, a hacker group called Black Mirror published internal files from Russian state defense conglomerate Rostec that listed Ethiopia as having signed a contract for six Su-35s, alongside larger orders for Iran and Algeria. Neither Rostec nor the Ethiopian government commented at the time. The 12 jets Abiy announced are double the number in the leaked documents, and his description of them as the “first” twelve suggests more could follow, though he did not say how many Ethiopia has ordered in total.

The new jets will join an air force that has flown Russian Sukhoi fighters for more than 25 years. Ethiopia received Su-27s in the late 1990s and used them in its 1998 to 2000 border war with Eritrea. In January 2024, it inducted Su-30K fighters, believed to come from a batch originally built for the Indian Air Force, along with Turkish Akinci drones.

Only a handful of countries have received the Su-35 for export. China took delivery of 24 aircraft between 2016 and 2018, and Algeria received its first units in March 2025, Army Recognition reported. The S-400 is in service with China, India and Turkey, and Turkey’s purchase led the United States to impose sanctions on its defense procurement agency in 2020 under a law targeting significant arms deals with Russia.

Tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea have risen this year, and Russia has offered to host talks between the two countries, Addis Standard reported. Abiy said the new equipment would allow Ethiopia to deter aggression and support regional stability.