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.
A handful of F-16s(around 30) along with a 100 Mirage-3/5s & almost 300+ Chinese Q-5,F-6 & F-7 fighters.
A ratio which will remain the same when they get 30 more F-16s along with 200 more Chinese jets.
So, in this deal, India doesn’t co-build?
I think we should buy the airframes for the Navy, then put our engines, flight controls and avionics in them. Better range and more performance potential than the Super Hornets.
Yes,it does-the contract was for building around 140 SU-30MKIs in India-a few have been built already.The total is for 40 SU-30K(first batch)+10(orig. for Indonesia)+140+40(current deal).Ever since the SU-30MKI entered service in 2004,the Russians allowed India to return the SU-30K variants in exchange for newly built MKIs.
Actually no, India is not manufacturing any parts of the aircraft. They are assembling knock down kits delivered from Russia.
Anyways, the Su-30MKK is no longer the premier aircraft for the PLAAF, it is now the J-11B, which is a locally developed variant of the Su-27 actually manufactured in China.
Another one of the Chinese fakes that your countrymen are famous for no doubt. We’ll see how well your reverse engineered fakes fly. Won’t be surprised if you put lead paint and call it “Stealth”...sure is stealth in a different way. Wont even be surprised if it just disintegrates and falls of the sky. Thanks China!! The IAF will definitely kick PLAAF a$$ without having to fire a missile!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.