Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the purchase of 76 of the latest Su-57 fighters by the Ministry of Defence, which are to enter service with three aviation regiments by 2028.

There have been several successive announcements of Su-57 orders, but none has been followed by production deliveries. This time Putin’s announcement worth’s a 170-billion roubles.

The contract, according to Kommersant, is estimated at up to 170 billion roubles (approx. $2.4 billion), which makes it the largest in the history of Russian aviation. The agreement may be signed in the presence of the President at the MAKS aerospace show.

Work on the Su-57 fighter began in 2002. Two years later, the plane was presented to the president in a layout. In 2010, Mr. Putin said that about 30 billion roubles were spent at the first stage of creating the aircraft, and the same amount was required to complete the work, he said.