Russia to sell off 18 fighter planes that India rejected

Minsk : Russia is to put up for sale a batch of 18 Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighter aircraft, rejected by India on concerns about their engines and returned to Russia in 2003, a defense official said Wednesday.

"The 18 Su-30s previously used by India and then returned, are in an aviation repair plant in Belarus and are on sale to potential buyers," said Alexander Fomin, deputy director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation. He added that the aircraft could be modernized before being sold on.

The Su-30MKI is India's lead fighter aircraft, and around 140 have been produced under license by HAL Aeronautics in India. The Indian Air Force is expected to buy a total of around 280 during the next decade.

Development of the Su-30 began in the 1980s for the Soviet armed forces, based on the Su-27UB conversion trainer.

The first batch of 18 Su-30s delivered to India were Su-30MK and Su-30K standard, and were built to a lower specification than the later Su-30MKI. This meant that they did not have thrust-vectoring engine nozzles or canard foreplanes, enabling extra maneuverability.

Their avionics systems were also built to a lower specification than the later Su-30MKIs built by HAL, which included a high level of Israeli and French-built systems.

India readies to select mid-air refueler

New Delhi : India is readying to select the winner of the $2-billion tender for six mid-air refuelers for its air force, with both the contending planes from European consortium EADS Airbus and Russian Ilyushin clearing the flight trials.

According to informed sources, the Indian defence ministry is now considering the bids to arrive at the lowest bidder in the tender issued in September 2010. India is looking for six refuelers.

The tender had been reissued by the government after the Airbus' A330MRTT was selected by the Indian Air Force as the winner of an earlier tender in 2009.

But the finance ministry objected to the "high cost" for the A330MRTT. So the tender was cancelled in January 2010.

"After three trials in November, we have been informed that we are compliant with the specifications mentioned in the tender," Airbus Defence Capability Marketing vice president Ian Elliot told reporters here.

Ilyushin too has been found complaint, the sources said.

Asked about the finance ministry objections during the previous tendering process, Elliot said the concerns were relating to "capital investment cost."

But now, the lowest bidder for the tender will be worked out on the basis of life cycle cost of operating the plane over several decades.

During flight trials, Airbus had demonstrated midair refueling of Indian Air Force's Sukhoi-30 and Jaguar combat planes on its A330MRTT.

It also similarly demonstrated refueling of Mirage-2000s while contesting the United Arab Emirates tender. India has a fleet of nearly 50 Mirage-2000s. India also has a six-aircraft fleet of IL-78s.

Sukhoi Su-30SM: An Indian Gift to Russia’s Air Force

Russia’s Defense Ministry has ordered 30 heavy Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter planes. Given that the same model has been exported to India for more than 10 years, this choice seems both logical and pragmatic.

Thirty 30’s

The Defense Ministry and the Irkut Corporation, an affiliate of the United Aircraft Corporation, have signed a supply contract for 30 Su-30SM multirole fighter aircraft, a Defense Ministry spokesman told journalists Thursday, March 22. “Under the contract, Irkut Corporation will build for Russia’s Ministry of Defense 30 planes of this type by 2015,” he said.

Rumors that Irkut, a long-standing exporter, may supply several dozen fighter aircraft to the Russian Air Force began circulating late last year. Now the rumor has become a reality – a contract in black and white.

But why did the Defense Ministry choose the Su-30’s? After all, they have been mostly supplied to customers abroad rather than to the Russian Armed Forces, where just a few planes of this type are in use.

The Su-30, properly speaking, is an entire family of aircraft and the most famous Russian-made (not to be confused with Soviet-made) fighter plane outside of Russia. It was developed in the Soviet Union on the basis of the Su-27UB combat trainer aircraft as a command plane for Air Defense air regiments flying ordinary Su-27 interceptor aircraft.

In 1993, its export version, the Su-30K, was developed, sparking record demand and the sale of several hundred planes.

The family is further subdivided into two parts: the “Chinese” Su-30MKK/MK2, which were produced in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and exported to Venezuela, Indonesia, Uganda, Vietnam, and of course China; and the “Indian” Su-30MKI, manufactured in Irkutsk and purchased by India, Algeria and Malaysia.

The model ordered by the Russian military is a “localized” version of the “Indian” Su-30MKI. Earlier, Komsomolsk-on-Amur delivered to the Air Force four “localized” Su-30MK2’s.

A flying multi-tasker

As a basic platform for the multirole heavy fighter aircraft, the Su-30MKI is remarkable primarily for its universality. It boasts a so-called “open architecture”, making it relatively easy to add new systems in the basic electronic equipment and to use advanced guided weapons (supplied by different manufacturers).

The Su-30MKI sports a Russian radar and optic locator, French navigation and heads-up display systems, Israeli EW and weapon-guidance systems, and Indian computers.

The “Chinese” line is based on a different logic that prescribes parallel installation of new systems that fall short of full integration.

Most likely, the military is attracted by how easy it is to add different weapons and equipment to the Su-30MKI, transforming it into an attack fighter-bomber, a heavy interceptor aircraft, or something else.

Who placed the order?

It is hard to pinpoint who exactly ordered these 30 aircraft. The contract was signed by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Irkut President Alexei Fedorov. After the signing ceremony, Serdyukov commented that the planes would “increase the Air Force’s combat power.”

By contrast, Fedorov went on record as saying last summer that the Defense Ministry was going to order 40 aircraft. Later the press reported, citing the Irkutsk aircraft plant’s general director Alexander Veprev, that the deliveries were likely to be made in two installments: the first 28 aircraft were intended for the Air Force and another 12 as an option for naval aviation. Air Force C-in-C Alexander Zelin confirmed the figure of 28 in fall 2011.

As we can see, the first batch of Sukhoi-30’s has been purchased. The remaining 12, as some military sources intimated to the press, were intended for the Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation.

Given that naval aviation has seen cuts in combat aircraft, it seems logical to reinforce it with heavy Su-30SM two-seaters that are efficient both in air-to-air combat and against ground and surface targets.

Thus far, however, there is no mention of plans to buy the Su-30 for the Navy. Possibly the option will be realized later.

Exporters’ courtesy

There is another simple explanation for choice of the Su-30MKI. Irkut has been churning out these planes for 10 years thanks to its completely streamlined production method. This means that its products are of high quality, relatively cheap (which pleases the Defense Ministry in particular) and will be supplied on time.

It is one thing if, in order to make 30 aircraft, you have to breathe life into an idling plant, to fine-tune (or develop anew) your technological method, buy additional equipment, and – still worse – hire personnel. But it’s quite another if you have been manufacturing standardized aircraft for years and years and can easily divert your workforce to produce an “improved” modification for your own country’s Air Force. The cost of this batch on the side is dramatically lower.

This approach (buying quickly and on the cheap what can be produced immediately) has been growing in popularity in the Russian military. We have mentioned the Su-30M2 combat trainer aircraft intended for the Russian Air Force. The same goes for the carrier-based MiG-29K, which in its present form was developed for the Indian Navy.

This approach is logical in its own way. The military expects certain fundamentally new models that are being tested with some degree of success. The Air Force is eying the T-50, the fifth-generation fighter aircraft, and the Navy has been trying to get into shape its Lada project involving the construction of non-nuclear submarines. The Land Forces have boycotted the purchases of all currently existing armor models, urging manufacturers to invent something totally new.

In the meantime, the Armed Forces will buy cheap, mass-produced, well-equipped, if ordinary, military hardware, like the Su-30SM.

IAF set to induct 6 LCA squadrons

First two Tejas aircraft will be stationed in TN

Giving a big thrust to the indigenous fighter jet programme, Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to induct six squadrons of Tejas light combat aircraft over the next 10 years, which will allow the IAF to pack more punch in its aerial strikes.

“IAF plans to induct six LCA squadrons by the end of the 13th Plan,” minister of state for defence M M Pallam Raju said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The development phase for LCA (light combat force) began in 1983 and the first technology demonstrator flew in 2001. Four years later, IAF placed the first order of 20 Tejas at a cost of Rs 2,700 crore. Subsequently, it placed order for another squadron.

The first two squadrons – 40 aircraft – of LCA, are first generation Mark-I version. The additional four squadrons would be Tejas Mark-II aircraft with a higher powered engine.

Raju indicated that money would not come in the way of LCA development. The Centre sanctioned Rs 11,845.2 crore to Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) till date while the total expenditure incurred so far is Rs 5,051.46 crore, he said.

Only last week, the penultimate developmental aircraft Tejas limited series production - 7 (LSP-7) successfully undertook its maiden flight from HAL airport. The LSP-7 aircraft, along with LSP- 8 will be offered to the IAF for user evaluation trials.

The LSP-7 flight is also the first time that a LCA maiden flight was not accompanied by the customary chase aircraft, which is an indicator to the level of confidence defence scientists and IAF have in the machine, defence research and development organisation stated. IAF plans to station the first two LCA squadron at Sulur near Coimbatore and Kayathir near Tuticorin.

Indian Air Force has initiated process of inducting 'Tejas': Defence Ministry

The Indian Air Force has initiated the process of inducting Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) 'Tejas' and has placed an order for 40 aircraft with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Defence Ministry told the Rajya Sabha today.

In written reply to a question on development of LCA, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju said, "Action for induction of Tejas into IAF has been initiated. IAF has placed orders for 40 aircraft on HAL... Initial Operational Clearance-1 (IOC-1) for the aircraft was achieved in January, 2011."

On development plans for advance version of the aircraft, Raju said, "Tejas Mark-II aircraft is under development with an alternate higher powered engine with considerable improvements. Final cost assessment will be available only after the development phase of Mark-II is completed."

On cost assessment of Tejas Mark-I, he said the scope for its cost reduction has been examined and the same is assessed as not feasible in view of limited quantities.

Rs 11845.20 crore has been sanctioned by the government to Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) for development of Tejas, and so far a total expenditure of Rs 5051.46 crore has been incurred.

IAF plans to induct six LCA squadrons by the end of the 13th Plan.

While replying to a question on deployment of IAF helicopters in foreign countries, Defence Minister A K Antony said the the information can not be divulged in the interest of strategic concerns.

HAL likely to handover 1st batch of Tejas to IAF by next year

The first batch of the country's indigenously developed light combat aircraft (LCA) "Tejas" was likely to be handed over to the Indian Air Force by next year, a senior Aeronautical Development Agency official said today.

"As far as LCA is concerned, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is the prime agency. Last year they have started production. I hope from next year onwards they (the LCAs) will start entering the service..", Kota Harinarayana, Dr D S Kothari DRDO Chair, ADA, Bangalore, told reporters here.

In the first batch, IAF had placed orders for 40 LCAs. "Airforce has committed about 80 aircraft. Navy also wants similar aircraft", he said.

Harinarayana, former Programme Director for the LCA project at ADA, also mooted integration of auto component companies with HAL.

"See, HAL should not manufacture from bottom to top..that is from pin to aircraft. Pins should be made by pin-specialist. HAL can concentrate on integration. The problem is, there are no Tier I and II companies (to support other products for the construction of an aircraft)..we have to bring in that technology and innovation.", he said.

"The real challenge is we have to bring in technology at low costs which are globally competitive. We should be able to sell it elsewhere in the world", he said.

Earlier, addressing a seminar at the third edition of Tamil Nadu Manufacturing Summit, organised by CII, he said the global aerospace market was estimated to be USD 100 billion and dominated by US and European Union based industries.

In the next 20 years, India would need more than 1,200 aircraft worth USD 100 billion, he said.

He was of the view that Indian companies can enter into an agreement with Tier-I companies of the world so that there could not be any difficulty in bringing such technology to India.