Indian MKIs and Chinese MKKs

* In 1996 the Indian Air Force (IAF) ordered 40 "Su-30MKI" fighters at a cost of $1.8 billion USD. The Su-30MKI was to be based on the Su-30MK but with major enhancements, such as further updated avionics, including a much improved radar and a high proportion of non-Russian kit; canard fins; and thrust-vectored engines. The Su-30MKI would definitely be "new wine in new bottles", amounting to a true next-generation Su-27. The deal also included the latest Russian missiles for the new fighters.

The sales agreement was complicated in form and implementation. The full-specification Su-30MKI did not even exist at the time the deal was cut, and so the 40 aircraft were delivered in what amounted to "blocks" of increasing capability, with early aircraft to be upgraded to full specification later. The initial block was punctually delivered in 1997 and consisted of eight "Su-30K" machines, which were basically similar to the Russian Su-27PU / Su-30 (and no relation to the navalized Russian Navy Su-27K / Su-33 carrier fighter). The Su-30Ks were brought in by Antonov An-124 jumbo jet cargolifters, with each flight carrying two Su-30Ks in knocked-down form. The IAF accepted the first Su-30K into formal service on 11 July 1997.

While these deliveries were in progress, the Sukhoi organization was putting together the first Su-30MKI prototype, a conversion of an Su-27PU / Su-30, with this aircraft performing its first flight on 1 July 1997. It was essentially an airframe demonstrator, featuring:

* Canards along with the appropriate leading-edge wingroot extension. The canards could move from +10 to -50 degrees and provided 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 were able to move 15 degrees above and below the central thrust line.

* A new FBW system that made the best use of the canards and thrust vectoring.

The original Su-27 was agile for its size, but these improvements took the agility to a new level. Test pilot Vyacheslav Averyanov flew the prototype at an airshow in Bangalore in December 1998, wowing the crowd with its thrust-vectored maneuverability, but the demonstrator was lost in an accident in June 1999 in an appearance at the Paris Air Salon. Averyanov got a little confused in his maneuvers and bounced the aircraft off the turf. It went back into the sky, but not for long. Averyanov and his back-seater, Vladimir Shendrick, ejected safely before the aircraft fell back down and was destroyed. However, a second Su-30MKI prototype, another conversion of an Su-27PU / Su-30, had performed its first flight on 23 March 1998, and the loss of the first prototype did not delay the program. Averyanov performed a magnificent display in the machine at the Moscow MAKS airshow in August 1999.

Delays were accumulating on the Indian side, however, since the IAF was slow to determine the exact configuration of the avionics suite for the Su-30MKI. The avionics specification was finalized in March 1998, with the primary elements including:

* Russian-built weapons control systems, including a new Tikhomirov NIIP Bars (Panther) N011M multimode radar; an OLS-301 optronic sighting system, basically a glorified IRST; 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 since they seemed capable enough there was no need to do so.

The Bars N011M radar had an electronically steered phased array antenna and a range of 150 kilometers (93 miles). In air combat, it could track 15 targets simultaneously and engage four of them at once. In surface attack, it could spot and track ground or naval targets, and guide terrain following flight. The electronically steering beam could 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 was to also integrate 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 would also be able to carry the Israeli Rafael Litening external targeting pod.

The rest of the avionics was Russian, and overall integration of the avionics suite was to be performed by a Russian subcontractor, RPKB Ramenskoye.

There was also a change in the delivery plan. Instead of moving through successively improved blocks of machines, the IAF wanted to go straight from deliveries of the Su-30K configuration to deliveries of the full Su-30MKI configuration. Since the full configuration wasn't ready at that time, in the fall of 1998 India ordered another ten Su-30Ks, similar or identical to the original batch of eight, with the new batch delivered in 1999. This new batch was in addition to the original order for 40 machines, bringing the total to 50.

The first preproduction Su-30MKI performed its initial flight on 26 November 2000, with three more preproduction machines completed in 2001, with all four used in test, trials, and evaluation. A fifth preproduction machine was built but only used for ground tests. The first full production Su-30MKI performed its initial flight in late 2001, and the first batch of ten was delivered by An-124 in the summer of 2002. Deliveries of all 32 Su-30MKIs are now complete. The schedule for upgrading the 18 Su-30Ks to full Su-30MKI specification is unclear.

On 28 December 2000, well before the delivery of the first Su-30MKI to India, the Russians signed an agreement with India giving Hindustan Aircraft LTD (HAL) the right to license-build up to 140 Su-30MKIs. Initial production will be from kits provided by the Russians, but HAL intends to eventually handle complete fabrication of the aircraft. By 2020, ignoring attrition, the IAF will have 190 Su-30MKIs in service, giving India a formidable air combat capability, based on first-class combat aircraft that combine excellent performance with tactical flexibility and, with inflight refueling, long range. The deal, which also included 200 T-90 main battle tanks, was worth $3.3 billion USD, and was the biggest single arms agreement ever signed between Russia and India.

* There have been other export successes for the modernized Su-27s. The ten Su-30MKK machines obtained by China in 2000 were mentioned in the previous chapter. These machines are not actually all that similar to the Indian Su-30MKI, amounting to something of a separate and more conservative branch from the original Su-30MK demonstrators.

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 Tikhomirov 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 RWR 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.

Following the flight in March 1999 of a modified Su-27PU / Su-30 prototype to evaluate the new avionics suite, the first production Su-30MKK performed its initial flight on 19 May 1999, with Averyanov at the controls. The first ten machines were delivered in a block on 20 December 2000, being ferried to China and greeted with considerable fanfare. The remaining 28 in the order were delivered through 2001. The Chinese were very impressed with the fact that the contract had been fulfilled so well and quickly, and a year later China ordered 38 more Su-30MKKs, which were delivered during 2002 and 2003,

These 76 Su-30MKKs were for the Chinese air force. In January 2003, the Chinese navy ordered 28 more, with a modified radar and fire-control system for launching the Kh-31A antiship missile. These machines were given the designation of "Su-30MK2". Deliveries may have begun in 2003 and more may have been ordered. All the Chinese Su-30MK derivatives are candidates for upgrades, such as improved radar or engines.

* In the spring of 2003, the Malaysian government signed an agreement to obtain 18 "Su-20MKM" fighters similar to the Indian Su-30MKI, with initial deliveries in mid-2006. They are much like the Su-30MKI, with canards and thrust-vectoring engines, but with a completely or largely Russian-built avionics suite. Vietnam has also expressed interest in obtaining an advanced Su-30MK variant.

A deal to sell Indonesia an improved single-seater, the "Su-30KI", with much of the new kit of the Su-30MK, fell through. This configuration had been evaluated with an Su-27S modified as a "Su-27SMK" demonstrator in the mid-1990s. Indonesia did obtain four Su-27-type aircraft in 2004 and hopes to obtain a total of 16, but the details of this deal remain obscure.