Indian Su-30MKI: News

George1 wrote:India inducts Su-30 MKI into frontline 221 Squadron

miketheterrible wrote:Not standard conventional rockets or artillery but by srbm it can easily be hit. Hence why I don't see point moving large long range jets closer to borders.

Isos wrote:

Pinto wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:Not standard conventional rockets or artillery but by srbm it can easily be hit.  Hence why I don't see point moving large long range jets closer to borders.

and India has many squadrons of su30mki at many forward bases with pak that too when su30 has immense range and can be stationed at some back bases, very odd doctorine o move this one . its another thing that pak wont try this gamble to attack

If they are under bunkers, it's ok. You need something very precise to hit them (5m accuracy) and one missile per bunker. But if they are parked outdoor, they can be destroy by just one hit ... and India doesn't have S-300 to protect them, no ?

Isos wrote:https://sputniknews.com/military/201805191064607135-chinese-stealth-jet-detected/

Indian su-30 Mki have detected and tracked chinese j-20 stealth fighter/bomber from indian air space during chinese exercices.

IAF not keen on getting more Sukhoi fighter jets

   Ajit Kumar Dubey
   New Delhi
   June 13, 2018
   UPDATED: June 13, 2018 06:35 IST

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.

   "The Indian Air Force does not seem to be very keen on acquiring 40 more Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft due to the heavy cost of maintenance which makes them very expensive to manage in the long run."

- Government sources

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.

During its recent exercise Gaganshakti held across the country, the force carried out extensive flying with the Sukhois where the cost of operating the Russian planes was higher than the other western origin planes in terms of per hour of flying.

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.

American F-18 and F-16, Russian MiG 35 and the Swedish Gripen are considered to be the serious contenders in a new Air Force project for which a request for proposal is likely to be issued by the defence ministry before the end of this year.

Milind Naik185 points
a day ago

This is signal for US and European lobbies became strong now in New Delhi. Indian government supposed to give more focuse on to induct indeginious arms in Indian forces then to be get in trap of those western countries prominently US.
One can not deny SU 30 is best fighter IAF has. Now those whilte skins want to create confusion in Indian public by putting such news.
Its open secret that any US arms most expensive in world and maintainance of thhose US equipments even more expensive. Mind well US economy based on armament sell and its development.

Isos wrote:Indian are famous for saying bullshit to have more for cheaper. It never worked.

The issue with russian fighters if I'm not wrong is that for big problem they need to be send back in russia for repair. The spare parts are also made in russia and it takes time to ship new parts to india. They should have asked to build more simple parts for the engines and other things instead of trying to get sensitive ToT they could never manage to put in production in India.

50% servicibility is very good. Germans can use 4 or 5 typhoons out of the hundred they have ...

Concerning cost per hour, su-30 are bigger and newer than the rest of the fleet so its kinda normal that they pay more than for mig 29 or mirage. Rafale will cost them much more than mirage too.
Western always lie about those numbers. The leaks from swiss evaluation of grippen proved that Saab has lied on this cost per hour number. The actual number was 2 times higher.


Indians think that westerners will help them be independent in aeronautics by sharing technology from f-16 or f-35 or rafale. The thing is that this won't happen anyday soon because they see india as a big market and nothing more. They want them be depedent of western companies. Russia proposed them indian made FGFA for less than 10 billion investment but those clowns want to pay more than 20 billion for 100 rafales ... and now they will pay probably the double than for rafales for mighty f-16 that china knows evrything about thanks to Pakistani.