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contracts and deliveries | in brief
Irkut makes first Su-30MKA jets for Algeria
The Irkut corporation will have delivered
the first six Sukhoi Su-30MKA
multirole fighters to Algeria before
year-end, Irkut President Oleg
Demchenko said at MAKS 2007. The
deliveries will be in compliance with the
contract landed by Rosoboronexport
last year. Under the deal, the Irkutsk
aircraft plant will make 28 Su-30MKAs
and deliver them to the Algerian Air
Force in 2007–09.
Sukhoi derived the fighter from the
Su-30MKI and Su-30MKM exported
30
to India and Malaysia respectively,
from which the derivative differs
only in certain avionics. The high
degree of commonality with the
production Su-30MKI/MKM enabled
the Su-30MKA developer to skip
making flying prototypes, launching
full-rate production instead.
Following factory tests, new-build
warplanes will be shipped to the
customer at once.
According to Oleg Demchenko,
the first two Su-30MKAs flight-tested
by Irkut’s test pilots were ferried this
summer to the Sukhoi design bureau
for flight trials. They have been flown
at the Defence Ministry’s Flight Test
Centre (GLITs) in Akhtubinsk. Three
more aircraft were built in September.
They are designed for converting the
first team of Algerian Air Force pilots
who are having ground school at
Sukhoi’s training centre in Zhukovsky
(Moscow Region), with the flight
training phase to take place there as
well. To this end, three Su-30MKAs
were ferried from Irkutsk to Gromov
LII’s airfield in Zhukovsky.
“Following the flight trials
and training the Algerian crews,
the aircraft will go to Algeria,”
Demchenko is quoted as saying
by the Interfax-AVN news
Venezuelan Su-30 deliveries on schedule
The contract on delivering 24
Sukhoi Su-30MK2 multirole fighters
to Venezuela are right on schedule,
Sukhoi Director General Mikhail
Pogosyan said late in September.
“We have shipped as many as eight
aircraft to Venezuela this year and
will have delivered four more by
the end of the year”, he said, “The
Sukhoi company has always done
its utmost to meet its contractual
obligations”.
The deal for 24 Su-30MK2 fighters
was clinched with Venezuela
in July 2006. The first four aircraft
arrived in Venezuela as far
back as late last year. Su-30MK2s
are made at KnAAPO plant in
Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Then
An-124 Ruslan heavylifters bring
them to the customer two fighters
per sortie. Once in Venezuela, they
are assembled and check-flown by
Russian pilots and then accepted
by the Venezuelan Air Force. The
service will have had as many as 16
Sukhoi jets by late this year, with
the remaining eight to be delivered
by KnAAPO next year. This done,
Rosoboronexport expects to snag
a new Venezuelan contract for 24
fighters more. If this goes to plan,
Hugo Chavez might be offered more
sophisticated Su-35s that should
be ready for delivery in 2009–10. At
present, Venezuela is regarded as
a most probable launch customer
for the Su-35. Rosoboronexport
Director General Sergey Chemezov
agency. The Irkut president also
said the plant in December would
assemble one more production
Su-30MKA that would be shipped
to the customer at once. Under
the contract, the Russian company
will have delivered the first
Su-30MKA six-ship tranche to
Algeria by early next year.
The remaining 22 aircraft will
be delivered during 2008–09, after
which a new deal might be clinched,
Irkut’s president admits. The current
contract provides for an option for
28 Su-30MKAs more. “The deal
under the option may be finalised
based on the result of operating
the aircraft to be delivered under
the first contract”, Oleg Demchenko
said at MAKS 2007.
confirmed this, talking to the media
in Komsomolsk-on-Amur late in
September.
take-off novermber 2007 www.take-off.ru