India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has completed production of all 222 Su-30MKIs built locally at Nasik in Maharashtra state since 2000 following several extensions to the original framework license agreement with the Russian IRKUT plant.
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he last aircraft will be handed over to the Indian Air Force (IAF) this year, but HAL is still expecting some additional orders for the large multi-role fighter aircraft and is therefore leaving the production line in place for the time being. The Indian Su-30MKIs had a pre-production run of 18 Su-30Ks without thrust vectoring nozzles and canard slats and 32 MKI’s from Russia respectively. Militär Aktuell experienced the Su-30K during a Garuda exercise with French Mirage-2000/5, the statement of a frustrated Mirage pilot was memorable: “Mon Dieu, those huge beasts are agile …!” Incidentally, this pre-series was later returned to Russia and has since landed in Angola after being overhauled. The author was later able to receive a detailed briefing on the final MKI version in Yelahanka as a speaker at the Aero-India Forum in Bangalore.
USAF F-16 and F-15 pilots were also given a taste of the even more agile two-seaters at Cope India in India and then at Nellis AFB thanks to the 3-axis pivoting afterburners and the canard slats. The Indian datalink – which, for example, enabled older MiG-21 Bison to approach silently – also reportedly caused quite a few surprises. Of course, here too the American/Western air combat philosophy clashed – quite passionately – with the Russian one, according to which the latter would always end up fighting within visual range. Due to the local framework combat conditions and advanced EloKa countermeasures. Nevertheless, the IAF is of course introducing a medium/long-range weapon, the indigenously developed Astra-BVR missile. According to conversations in Bangalore, they were disappointed with the Russian R-77. HAL recently built around 80 percent of the Su-30MKI, with the major exception of the AL-31F2 engines. The state-owned company achieved a turnover of more than 21,100 crore (just under 3 billion euros) for the 2019/20 financial year ending March 31, 2020 and quotes the IAF a price of around 65 million euros for a Su-30MKI.
Despite this – and also despite the 34 Dassault Rafále aircraft due to be delivered this year – the IAF and Indian parliamentarians have been complaining for years about a shortage of more than 250 fighter jets. They see themselves “encircled” between China and its ally Pakistan and are calling for a force of 42 squadrons of 18 to 20 aircraft each. However, following the withdrawal of the MiG-21 and MiG-27, the number of the latter has fallen to less than 30 at present. A year ago, during the last clash with Pakistan’s air adversary, not only a MiG-21 but also a Su-30MKI is said to have been shot down by PAF F-16s. The latter is denied, but Lockheed people in Dubai reported to the author from Pakistan about a victory monument with a Su-30 wing, there are also various “victory patches” which PAF crews also distributed in Dubai.
Separately, 40 of India’s Sukhois have been beefed up to carry the Mach-3 BrahMos-A stand-off missile, which was first air-launched in 2017. And while HAL – in light of the shortfall due to India’s protracted procurement and development processes – is proposing 72 more Su-30MKIs for just under 5 billion euros, IAF commander Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria only wants to include 12 to 18 more as a requirement in the next budget estimate for the time being. In parallel, a so-called “Super 30 upgrade” has been initiated for the entire fleet since 2017 – but not much more has happened yet. In contrast to the Chinese J-11, -15 and -16 variants, the Indian aircraft are “refined” with components from French, British and Israeli sources.
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