Posted on 08/24/2007 9:20:31 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Russia aims to sell India 40 fighters in Sept -Ifax
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia hopes to sign a contract next month to sell India 40 Sukhoi fighters, the president of the Irkut warplane maker said on Friday, Interfax news agency reported.
"We hope to sign a contract in September to deliver another 40 Su-30MKI fighters to India," Irkut president Oleg Demchenko told Interfax.
The Su-30MKI is a long-haul Sukhoi fighter specially modified for the Indian air force. Indian officials had said they planned to sign a deal to buy 40 Sukhoi fighters by the end of March.
India's air force, one of the biggest in the world, also plans to buy 126 new combat aircraft to upgrade New Delhi's fleet which includes ageing Russian MiG-21s, Mig-23s and MiG-27s.
The 126-plane deal has attracted interest from European players like France's Dassault, which is promoting its Rafale fighter, and Sweden's Saab, eager to sell its JAS-39 Gripen.
Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin's F-16 are also competing for the contract.
Irkut's Demchenko said the firm had built an order book of 242 Su-30 fighters, adding that those orders would keep the enterprise working at full capacity at least until 2012.
"The portfolio of orders on the Su-30 is colossal -- 242 aircraft," he said, Interfax reported. "We will have to produce 30-35 aircraft a year."
He said the main purchasers of Sukhoi aircraft were India, Algeria and Malaysia.
Irkut, one of Russia's most modern aircraft producers, makes the Sukhoi-30 range of fighter jets and the Be-200 Multipurpose Amphibious Jet. European aerospace and defence giant EADS has a 10 percent stake in Irkut.
Irkut is now part of the state controlled United Aviation Corporation, which was set up by President Vladimir Putin last year to pool Russian aircraft producers under a plan to restore the country's former strong position in aviation.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20070824/74337963.html
India may increase foreign defense tender to 200 combat jets
19:17 | 24/ 08/ 2007
NEW DELHI, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - India could order another 80 aircraft in addition to the 126 fighters it wants for its Air Force, increasing the value of the deal to an estimated $16 billion, a Defense Ministry official said Friday.
India announced last month its largest-ever international tender for 126 multi-role combat aircraft, estimated at $9-10 billion. Experts say the additional planes will help India meet its needs for modern aircraft to replace its obsolete fleet of mostly Russian-built MiG-21 Fishbed and MiG-23 Flogger models.
Award criteria for the tender require that the aircraft must stay in service for 40 years with a full maintenance and service package. The supplier will also transfer to India the license and production technology.
Principal bidders include the Russian Mig-35, the French Dassault Rafale, the U.S. F-16 and F/A 18 Super Hornet, the Swedish Gripen, and the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Although India has designed and flown its own modern fighter, the Tejas, its adoption has been delayed for at least another four years, according to Indian officials.
Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who previously served as defense minister, said in January that Moscow had a good chance of winning the Indian fighter tender with its MiG-35 aircraft.
Russia’s MiG-35, an export version of the MiG-29M OVT (Fulcrum F) is a highly maneuverable air superiority fighter, which won high acclaim during the recent Le Bourget air show in France.
The fighter is powered by RD-33 OVT thrust vectoring engines. The RD-33 OVT engines provide superior maneuverability and enhance the fighter’s performance in close air engagements.
The bad news is that half the Russian avionics won’t work and the turbines will all need early overhaul. Russian QC still sucks.
I assume you work with the Indian Airforce on maintaining these aircraft.
These Sukhois use Indian, European and Israeli avionics.
No, but I have recent experience with Russian QC in the matter of some of their AK shotguns. These were supposed to be some of their top-line product and the QC was just abominable.
Well,I know folks who have seen the IAF’s Su-30s & they are working fine indeed.Russian QC is still behind the west,but it’s improved esp for top-end products.
Specifically, the barrel lengths were inconsistent (among other minor problems). Check out the Saiga-12 forums at forums.saiga-12.com - one of the recent shipments received in the US was very strange.
I should also mention that I recently looked through a shipment of Russian night vision gear - and about half of them didn’t even power up.
should check out the truth in disclosure clause
They'll NEVER have to face the best of the western aircraft...and these Russian airframes are durable and reliable.
Why spend the extra bucks? The potential adversaries are Chinese and Pak air forces...
The Indians will be upgrading the avionics over time...with US and European goods...possibly even the weapons packages with their own designs.
Hell, the US would do well to buy 500 of these planes at $20mil apiece. Buy spare parts for another 500...and put in all US avionics and weapons.
Cheap at twice the price...damn fine aircraft.
Um.. They’re going to be facing nearly identical aircraft in much larger numbers with perhaps better avionics if they go up against the Chinese Air Force.
The Chinese don’t have access to the kind of avionics the IAF Sukhoi MKIs use.
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/military-aviation/4278-su-30mki-vs-su-30mkk.html
Su-30 MKK - China
Su-30 MKI - India
What is the difference between Su 30 MKK and Su 30 MKI? Which is better?
http://www.flymig.com/forum/posts/1082932305.htm
Su-30MKI currently is in service in 2 major configurations. One uses canards and thrust vectoring and is considered more advanced then the Su-37 due to its 2 seat configuration. The other is closer to the original Su-30 but has upgraded avionics, radar etc. and will in time be upgraded to the Super Flanker variant.
The Su-30MKK is yet to be seen as a Super Flanker (however there are already 3 variants known). The first variant was Russian made and had the above mentioned avionics and radar advances. The second variant was Chinese made, with Russian produced engines (with 50% more payload capacity).
Meanwhile the third variant was manufactured for China’s Naval Air Force and there is no photograph’s available of it yet I believe so speculation is all you’ll find on this aircraft.
I think however that the first variant has been upgraded with new engines, the old engines been used perhaps in the Chinese J10 fighter.
And I assume that all Chinese Flankers will be Super Flankers in less then 10 years.
The MKI is a superior fighter. It has a better radar, better avionics and superior mauverability. Amongst the improvements are canards along with the appropriate leading-edge wingroot extension. The canards can move from +10 to -50 degrees and provid much improved control authority at high angles of attack.
New “AL-31FP” engines with 142.2 kN (14,500 kgp / 32,000 lbf) afterburning thrust each, and two-dimensional thrust vectoring. The exhausts can move 15 degrees above and below the central thrust line.
A new FBW system that makes the best use of the canards and thrust vectoring.
Russian-built weapons control systems, including a new Tikhonravov NIIP Bars (Panther) N011M multimode radar; an OLS-301 optronic sighting system; and a Sura-K helmet-mounted sight. There was really no choice but to use the Russian systems in these cases, as they were tied closely to the airframe and armament. Changing them would have been difficult and expensive, and as they seemed capable enough, there was no need to do so.
The Bars N011M radar has an electronically steered phased array antenna and a range of 150 kilometers (93 miles). In air combat, it can track 15 targets simultaneously and engage four of them at once. In surface attack, it can spot and track ground or naval targets, and guide terrain following flight. The electronically steering beam can track air and ground targets simultaneously.
A cockpit display system developed by Sextant Avionique of France, with the front cockpit featuring a wide-angle HUD and three 12.7 x 12.7 centimeter (5 x 5 inch) color flat panel displays; and a 15.2 x 15.2 (6 x 6 inch) color flat panel display and three 12.7 x 12.7 centimeter color flat panel displays in the rear cockpit. Sextant Avionique also integrated a Totem inertial navigation system / global positioning satellite receiver system.
A central processor system supplied by DRDO of India.
A countermeasures system supplied by Elta of Israel and built around the Elta EL/M-8222 jammer system. The Su-30MKI is also able to carry the Israeli Rafael Litening external targeting pod.
In comparison, the Chinese MKK varient has the following additions to the base MK design
The Su-30MKK is a two-seater multirole aircraft with inflight refueling, twelve stores attachments, and the capability of carrying the latest Russian AAMs and smart weapons, but it does not have the canards or vectored-thrust engines of the IAF Su-30MKI. The Su-30MKK has a modernized Russian-built avionics suite, including:
A Tikhonravov NIIP “N001VE” radar, an updated export version of the original N001 radar with air-to-air, air-to-ground, and navigation modes.
An OLS-30 optical sensor system and Sura-K helmet-mounted sight.
An L-150 Pastel ELINT set to provide radar warning and emitter targeting capabilities. Incidentally, one of the few distinctive recognition features of the Su-30MKK is that the tailfins have been increased in height and have flat, not angled, tips, with antennas for the Pastel set mounted in near the top rear of the tailfins.
An A-737 satellite navigation receiver, compatible with both the US GPS and Russian GLONASS satellite navigation systems, linked into a comprehensive navigation system. The Su-30MKK also carries modern radios, a datalink, and a video recorder system.
A glass cockpit, with a wide-angle HUD and two 15.8 x 21.1 centimeter (6.2 x 8.3 inch) flat panel displays for the pilot, and two similar flat-panel displays for the back-seater.
The avionics is linked together with considerable processing power using a digital databus scheme, with the aircraft’s fire-control system integrating the radar, optical sensor system, helmet-mounted sight, and IFF interrogator. The Su-30MKK also has slightly increased internal fuel tankage, as well as stronger landing gear and airframe reinforcement to handle increased takeoff weight.
Well,it’s too big for one thing!!!The Russians don’t seem too concerned about trivial things like adding composites to reduce weight of their aircraft.
“They’ll NEVER have to face the best of the western aircraft...and these Russian airframes are durable and reliable.”
What does Pakistan fly?
“Cheap at twice the price...damn fine aircraft.”
Build 5000 drones and arm them with advanced radar and AA missiles.
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