Su-30 for Russian Air Force #2

Nº86, one of the last batch delivered
https://russianplanes.net/id318778

Su-30SM of the "Russian Knigths" Squadron in a combat mission
It is impressive to see how radar tricks are played. A Su-30SM flies alongside 2 Mi-28 "Havoc" helicopters.
The radar operator will think that there are 3 helicopters, he will send 1 response, he will give away his position, and he will be counterattacked by the Sukhoi's missiles.

...not a  combat mission... SU has no weapons...m28 and SU in combat will never fly in so close formation(stupid from tactical point of view) also your imagination of how the combat mission works is very naive...sorry...

Oink oink oink, troll alert!

That was tremendously impressive.  Just goes to show one of the many incredible capabilities of the Su-30SM.  Flying at such low speed and at what appears to probably be its maximum allowable angle of attack without a hint of stalling or even showing any signs of the need to constantly make adjustments.  The aircraft's attitude was just as steady as can be which is amazing in of itself.  That's pretty much the reason why this specific maneuver is one of the most popular ones showcased at almost every airshow with all different types of aircraft.   

The one in Canada with the RCAF F/A-18 that was training for an upcoming airshow and as soon as he slowed down and went into that high AoA, the jet suffered a flameout in the portside engine from a bird ingestion I believe and went down in less than 1.5 seconds.  Miracle that the pilot ejected safely.



I think everyone remembers the great Anatoly Kovutchur having the same exact thing happen to him in 1989 at the Farnborough air show in Paris.  This was one of the first times the west was able to see the MiG-29 up close and everyone had eyes glued on this demonstration which was incredible.  Kovutchur flew that thing like it was no one else's business then same thing, slowed down and went into that high AoA maneuver, and the same thing happened to the MiG with a bird ingestion.  This is the best example of the closest to the ground safest ejection ever.  It looked like his parachute canopy opened fully 1-1-millionth of a second before his feet touched the ground.



As far as the combat aspect, it's certainly a viable tactic, why not?  That's what HARM missiles are specifically designed for so why not create offensive tactics to facilitate the destruction of enemy radar sites.  That's pretty much the entire reason the USAF designated entire air force regiments in the Wild Weasels was to attack enemy radars and air defense sites.  

Get into that formation with the helicopters quickly, move into the designated sector while the aircraft's RWR picks up the enemy's GC radar location, break off at the appropriate stand-off distance and fire a couple of HARM missiles and retreat.  Makes perfect sense and it's only reasonable to see such a tactic being conducted in a training exercise like this one.

...not a  combat mission... SU has no weapons...m28 and SU in combat will never fly in so close formation(stupid from tactical point of view) also your imagination of how the combat mission works is very naive...sorry...

Pretty sure they are not suggesting this video was a combat usage of the tactic... more like it is perhaps testing the idea and seeing if it would work.

Of course the irony is that Russia has a range of anti radar missiles including old Kh-25MP and similar types (called AS-12 I believe) as well as Kh-31 which could be carried by their Ka-52 helicopters to hunt down and destroy radars exposing themselves.

I think everyone remembers the great Anatoly Kovutchur having the same exact thing happen to him in 1989 at the Farnborough air show in Paris.

It did display at Farnborough in 1988, but the crash was in Paris in 1989.

GarryB wrote:It did display at Farnborough in 1988, but the crash was in Paris in 1989.

That's what I meant to say. 

New batch of Su30 and Yak130 issued to VKS

Here is a video of the Su-30SM delivery plus Yak-130 delivery as well.
https://twitter.com/vicktop55/status/1730850490844344810

Do we have any information on su30sm2 upgrade contract?

MOD has been releasing when a "new batch" of su35 or su34 is released, and takes care to blur out numbers and not give away numbers of new aircraft

When it comes to upgraded aircraft I think we are even more blind

How would we know if these things aren't rolling off the line like cakes?

Serious upgrades were planned for Su-34, S-35 and the Su-57 before serial prodcution started.
Why should the Su-30 be an exception?
They will bring them up to the standard of the Su-35 in the coming years.

The point of this "upgrade" is more about standardisation than anything else, though it is certainly an upgrade it is more about unifying the Su-30 and Su-35 so they use the same engines and the same radar to make support and maintenance and training easier and cheaper.

I would suspect changing the engine makers and radar makers to make one type instead of two types makes things easier and cheaper and faster too.

Upgrades are ongoing things so this wont be the last... eventually they will probably upgrade the flankers with the new engines for the Su-57s too... to increase performance in the Su-30 and Su-35 and Su-34.

Just take a closer look at the latest ideas coming from the USA.
No matter what we consider about their MIC and some of the ideas - objectively speaking they are world biggest airpower that mastered air operations for a last age.
They are coming back to the conception of a bomb/missile truck, and seriously discussing getting back to the 50s-70's approach.
Su-30 can achieve the role perfectly well, while Russia is closer to the idea of rolling progress than they are now.
I guess that the UkroWar will bring some new concepts, but ... let's wait and see.

lancelot wrote:
Is the upgrade even worth it? We don't even know if the Su-30SM2 has the Irbis radar and AL-41F1 engines as originally planned or not. I keep hearing that it uses the same AL-31FP engines.

I think it has Irbis, given that SM-2 have that Leading Edge L-band radar, something which earlier SM does not need as N011M Bars already have IFF integrated in the main array.

Stealthflanker wrote:

lancelot wrote:
Is the upgrade even worth it? We don't even know if the Su-30SM2 has the Irbis radar and AL-41F1 engines as originally planned or not. I keep hearing that it uses the same AL-31FP engines.

I think it has Irbis, given that SM-2 have that Leading Edge L-band radar, something which earlier SM does not need as N011M Bars already have IFF integrated in the main array.

L band radar does not necessairly mean IFF. It could very well be that IRBIS already has IFF integrated in the main array or that there is a separate small array in the aircraft for IFF work, it does not justify the two big jumbo size arrays on the wing edges.

The entire Su-30 branch of the Flanker family was about a two seater fighter with a rear cockpit guy for directing traffic and watching the radar screen for the PVO.

The unification of resources and assets makes sense in this case, there is no advantage to the Su-30 and Su-35 having different radar in their noses.

The Su-30SM2 over Crimea was first seen carrying R-37M missiles (air-to-air, range up to 300 km), previously only the Su-35 and MiG-31 had such missiles.

https://t.me/jnb_news/48805

One of the features of the R-37M was that it was intended for all new fighters... which included 4+ gen fighters ...the Su-27M (Su-30/Su-35), MiG-29M (MiG-29KR/MiG-35) and Yak-141 as well as the obvious MiG-31 and upgrades.

It was also intended for all 5th gen fighters too.

The R-37 family of missiles are designed to engage fighter type targets as well as cruise missiles and bombers, but even on a MiG-35 it can be used to max range against targets like AWACS and JSTARS and large aircraft including inflight refuelling platforms and troop transports.

A curious thing about the Su-30SM2, as well as the 34 by extension is the lack of optical MAWS like on the Su-35.
Like, how are they supposed to know if a IR missile is locking them up? Or is it not in within their intended purpose?