Tell about Sukhoi ?

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At a time when the Russians have offered to sell 40 more Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft to India, it seems that the Air Force is not keen to add more of these heavy weight and expensive to maintain fighter jets in its inventory.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) already has more than 220 of these Russian planes in its fleet and has plans of inducting all the 272 planes ordered by it over the years by the end of 2020.

"The Russians along with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which assembles the planes in India, have offered to sell 40 more of these planes to the Air Force but the Air Force does not seem to be very keen on acquiring them due to the heavy cost of maintanence which makes them very expensive to manage in the long run," government sources told Mail Today.

The Air Force also feels that it has already acquired the required number of fighter planes in the heavy weight category as almost 50 per cent of its fleet comprises the Sukhoi-30s and the plane would be the mainstay of the force in the next few decades, the sources said.

On the claims by the vendors that the Sukhoi-30s cost almost one-third of the French Rafale 36 of which would be joining the force in 2019, sources said the Russian plane costs three times more for maintenance than its existing western origin plane taking into account the man hours required for keeping the plane serviceable.

The orders for Russian Sukhois have been placed by the previous governments in different blocks due to the delays in the induction of the indigenous LCA and failure in acquisition of a medium weight multirole combat plane in the last two decades.

The Air Force at the moment is facing a shortage of almost 12 squadrons from its sanctioned strength of 42 which it feels would be required to meet the requirements of a two-front war.

The maintenance of the Russian Sukhois has been a cause for concern for the Air Force as the serviceability of the planes has hovered around 50 per cent mark in many years.

NEW DELHI: The world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, BrahMos, was on Wednesday successfully flight-tested for the first time from the Indian Air Force’s frontline fighter, Sukhoi-30MKI. The missile was tested against a sea-based target in the Bay of Bengal.

The latest test of the multi-platform weapon completes the tactical cruise missile triad for India, as it is now capable of being launched from land, sea and air.

The missile was gravity dropped from the aircraft and the two-stage missile’s engine fired up and propelled it towards the intended target.

“The successful maiden test firing of BrahMos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) from the Su-30MKI will significantly bolster the IAF’s air combat operations capability from stand-off ranges,” the defence ministry said. The air force said the test was a major achievement.

Claims and counterclaims are flying thick and fast over India’s deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft as the Congress-led opposition is relentlessly raising questions over the financial terms of the agreement and alleging crony capitalism while the government is rubbishing the accusations.

A Sukhoi SU-30 MKI fighter jet crashed near Nashik in Maharashtra while on a sortie this morning.

There were no casualties and both the pilots ejected safely before the aircraft hit ground, official sources said.

The under-production Sukhoi Su-30MKI twinjet multirole air superiority fighter of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) crashed at around 11.05 am at Wavi-Tushi village near Pimpalgaon Baswant town, around 25 km from Nashik, police said.

Sukhoi Su-27, also called (NATO designation) Flanker, Russian air-superiority fighter plane, introduced into the air forces of the Soviet Union beginning in 1985 and now one of the premier fighters of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, India, China, and Vietnam. Versions of the plane are built under license in China and India.

Work on the Su-27 began at the Sukhoi design bureau in 1969 in direct response to the development of the F-15 Eagle fighter of the United States. While early prototypes were seen as inferior to the F-15, chief designer Mikhail Simonov gradually molded the Su-27 into what was arguably the finest air-superiority platform of the 20th century.

Like its Cold War counterpart, the Su-27 developed into a large long-range interceptor, powered by twin turbofan engines and displaying a remarkable agility for its size.

It is capable of flying at more than twice the speed of sound, has a service ceiling higher than 18,000 metres (59,000 feet), and has a flight range of more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles). Armament includes radar-guided or infrared-homing (“heat-seeking”) air-to-air missiles, unguided air-to-ground rockets, conventional bombs and cluster bombs, and a gun firing 30-mm exploding shells.

The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a super-manoeuvrable twinjet air superiority fighter which is manufactured under license from Russia by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the Indian Air Force.

The constantly evolving Sukhoi Su-30MKI has provided the Indian Air Force an upper hand in matters of air superiority. Here are some fascinating facts about this indigenously built aircraft:

The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a super-manoeuvrable aircraft, meaning it can do various manoeuvres which are not possible from a pure aerodynamic angle.

The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a super-manoeuvrable aircraft, meaning it can do various manoeuvres which are not possible from a pure aerodynamic angle.