The SU-30MKI version of the SU-30MK multi-role fighter has been specially developed 'only' for the Indian Air Force and will not be sold to any other country, chief designer of the Sukhoi aircraft, Mikhail Simonov has said.Simonov made the statement amidst reports of Indonesia showing interest in buying SU-30MK fighters from Russia.
According to Simonov, the latest issue of Financovie Izvestia reported that negotiations are currently on for the transfer of SU-30MKI technology to India for their indigenous production under the Russian licensee.
Under the Indo-Russian 'Sukhoi' contract signed last November, New Delhi is to buy 40 multi-role strike aircraft worth $1.8 billion.Russia has already delivered eight fighters of the earlier SU-30MK series, which would be upgraded to MKI version at a later stage. The first aircraft of the MKI series has also made its test flight and the second in the series is to take to the sky shortly.
Simonov had said that the SU-30MKI, tailor-made for the IAF, would outsmart the SU-37 fighter under development for the Russian Air Force since it would be fitted with more advanced French, Israeli and Indian avionics and electronic systems for engine thrust vectoring.
The Russian Air Force and IAF will be inducting the latest Sukhoi warplanes simultaneously towards the end of the century, though with different model numbers, a senior official of the Russian arms exporting agency Rosvoorouzhenie said.
'This is unprecedented in the world practice, since the arms exporter country first equips its air force with the latest planes and only after developing a newer version its export begins to other countries,' he said.
The Russian official said that China had been given only SU-27 fighters, much inferior to SU-30MKI for India or its Russian equivalent SU-37.
