MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. Russia’s fifth-generation Su-57 fighter jet has proved its worth during combat mission in Syria, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Sunday.

"The Su-57 has successfully accomplished the first stage of state trials and proved all of its designated flight characteristics. It proved its worth not only on testing grounds but also in real combat operations," Viktor Bondarev, chairman of the defense and security committee of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house, told journalists.

He recalled that Su-57 pilot prototypes were sent to Russia’s Hmeymim airbase in Syria six months ago.

The Su-57 "has a huge potential for modernization that will be enough for fifty years," he said, adding that the plane’s onboard radionics is built on the principles of open architecture.

"As a matter of fact, this fighter jet has everything necessary to be later developed into a fully automatic unmanned warplane," Bondarev said.

President of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Yuri Slyusar said earlier in the day UAC and Russia’s defense ministry plan to sign a contract for the first batch of Su-57 fighter jets by the end of this summer, at the 2018 Army forum.

The Russian fifth-generation Su-57 fighter jet features stealth technology with the broad use of composite materials, is capable of maintaining supersonic cruising speed and is furnished with the most advanced onboard radio-electronic equipment, including a powerful onboard computer (the so-called electronic second pilot), the radar system spread across its body and some other innovations, in particular, armament placed inside its fuselage. The plane’s onboard control system is capable of following up to 60 targets and opening fire at 16 of them concurrently. These planes are expected to arrive for the troops in 2019. The pilot batch will comprise 12 Su-57 planes.