"To some degree the T-50/Su-57 is a misunderstood aircraft," Rogoway wrote Monday.
First, the plane has side-mounted active electronically scanned array X-band radars, while similar planes feature this add-on on its nose. The radar enhances the Su-57 fighter's situational awareness while allowing it execute specialized aerial maneuvers such as ‘beaming' "better than nearly other fighter around," according to an article published in The War Zone Monday.
The aircraft also features advanced 101KS ‘Atoll' infrared search and track sensors above the nose to allow the pilot to better detect and engage hostile aircraft.
The Su-57 has "turrets that fire modulated laser beams at an incoming missile's seeker to blind it and throw it off course," the War Zone added.
Like its Russian aircraft predecessors, the Su-57 is well-suited for taking off and landing from rugged airfields.
The engines on the plane are capable of 3D thrust vectoring. Introducing thrust vectoring with workable engines has proven difficult for Chinese engineers, who have yet to field indigenous thrust-vectoring engines onto the J-20.
Finally, the internal weapons bay appears to hold between four and six medium-range air-to-air missiles, or perhaps a smaller number of larger-payload guided bombs. But that may not be the only location for internal weapons storage. "Maybe a specialized missile with a smaller diameter profile is intended for those bays sometime in the future," Rogoway wrote of the possible missile extra internal weapons bays near the wing roots.