The results of the work of the domestic aviation industry in the last fifteen years indicate that the most successful Russian product on the combat aviation market has become the aircraft of the Su-30MK family. After the start of deliveries of the first aircraft to China in 2000, 269 fighters of the family have already been shipped to customers and are being prepared for shipment in 2009. For comparison, from 1992 to 2007. Russia delivered 437 new combat aircraft to foreign customers, 256 of them in the period 2001-2007.
However, despite the success of the Su-30MK family on the world market, the time is not far off when the demand for 4th generation vehicles will begin to fall. But they have already prepared a replacement in the person of the "transitional" Su-35, which should occupy the export niche of the Sukhoi company before the fifth generation aircraft appears on the market, which is scheduled for the first half of the next decade. According to experts, the appearance of the Su-35 will help maintain the competitiveness of Russian heavy fighters over the next 10-15 years.
The ancestor of the family was a fighter, created under a contract with India. The history of this machine is quite remarkable, many aspects of the creation of the Su-30MKI are characterized by the word "for the first time".
It all began in the winter of 1991 at the Aero India exhibition, where representatives of the Indian Air Force showed interest in the Su-27. Three years later, in 1994, an active negotiation process began, during which both sides, in cooperation, formed the future face of the new fighter. By that time, Delhi had clearly formulated their requirements: the country's air force should receive a multifunctional fighter that has the best characteristics in the world among the 4th generation aircraft, capable of further increasing its combat effectiveness by the forces of Indian scientists and specialists. At the same time, a requirement was put forward for the deployment of licensed production in India of the bulk of the aircraft required for the Air Force.
Russian enterprises offered their most advanced products, such as the radar with a phased antenna array RLSU-30MK developed by NIIP im. V. V. A. Lyulka-Saturn , the REP system developed by KNIRTI.
At the same time, according to the plan of the Indian Air Force, the new fighter was supposed to have equipment that was not produced in Russia at that time. Therefore, in avionics it was proposed to introduce systems of French, Israeli and Indian production. We are talking, in particular, about an inertial navigation system based on laser gyroscopes with a GPS satellite navigation system, multifunctional liquid crystal displays, and a thermal imager. And the management of Sukhoi Design Bureau took the risk, for the first time in the history of domestic combat aviation, to conduct R&D in the interests of a foreign state with the direct participation of its specialists, as well as with the participation of firms from third countries. Thus, the Su-30MKI multipurpose two-seat fighter became the first Russian combat aircraft with an open avionics architecture.
As a result of the painstaking work of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the most successful Russian production fighter to date was born. Among the distinctive design features of the Su-30MKIIt should be noted for the first time in the world that the engines with controlled thrust vector and the remote control system installed on a serial aircraft are included in a single control loop, which ensured the implementation of super-maneuverability modes for the fighter. The Su-30MKI became the first production aircraft in the world to be equipped with a radar with a rotary HEADLIGHT ("Bars" developed by the V. V. Tikhomirov NIIP). In addition, the aircraft was equipped with new ejection seats K-36D-3, 5 and a number of other new systems of domestic development. The range of Su-30MKI aircraft weapons includes RVV-AE air-to-air missiles, Kh-29L / T / TE air-to-ground missiles, Kh-31 A / P, Kh-59M, KAB-guided bombs. 500 and KAB-1500.
At the recent air show in the Indian city of Bangalore, the Su-30MKI program was recognized as the best program of military-technical cooperation between India and foreign countries in the field of military aviation. Mikhail Pogosyan, General Director of JSC Sukhoi Company, was awarded a prize awarded by Sukhoi Design Bureau for the development of the Su-30MKI.
In addition to India, this fighter has been supplied to other countries in recent years. A batch of aircraft in the Su-30MKM version was adopted by the Malaysian Air Force. At present, Sukhoi continues to fulfill a contract with Algeria for the supply of 28 Su-30MKA fighters to this country. The technical face of the Malaysian and Algerian aircraft is very similar to the Su-30MKI.
The second main member of the family of the most successful "dryers" is the Su-30MKK, which has been developed since 1997 for the PLA Air Force. For the serial construction of fighters of this type, the plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAPO) was chosen. The new version of the two-seater aircraft was created with extensive use of the design groundwork for the Su-27SK and for the single-seat Su-27M fighter. As a result, the Su-30MKK used practically no design modifications: the center section, wing consoles, air intakes, tail booms, empennage and landing gear from the Su-27M and the tail section of the fuselage from the Su-27SK.
The Su-30MKK is equipped with modernized Russian-made equipment. The avionics include an upgraded version of the base radar - N001M, which provides target designation and mapping, OLS with a target illumination mode with a laser beam, satellite navigation system, color multifunctional LCD. The main point of the avionics modernization (in addition to the need to update the systems created 30 years ago), as in the case of the Su-30MKI, is to give the aircraft the ability to "work" on ground and surface targets. The Su-30MKK can carry the same weapons as its Irkutsk "relative".
Further development of the ideas inherent in the design of the Su-30MKK led to the emergence of the Su-30MK2 aircraft, which differs from the basic one in terms of the equipment of avionics and the composition of weapons. In this configuration, KnAAPO built fighters for Vietnam, Indonesia and Venezuela.
It should be noted that the popularity of fighters of the Su-30MK family in the world market is determined not only by the relatively lower cost of Russian aircraft compared to competitors and, in some cases, by certain political reasons influencing the choice of weapon systems. Sushki are objectively the best 4+ generation heavy fighters on the market. This is evidenced by the results of training battles between the Su-30MKI of the Indian Air Force and the American F-16 and F-15, carried out during the joint exercises, as well as the computer simulation of the air duel of the American 5th generation fighter F-35 and Su-35, held in the summer 2008 US Air Force specialists came to the conclusion that Russian aircraft have a number of advantages over the F-35. This news, which hit the Australian media, caused a storm of emotions on the Green Continent, where the feasibility of purchasing one hundred F-35s for a total of $ 16 billion was then discussed, and even the opposition's demands to prefer Russian fighters to the American ones. Such a development of events - the purchase by Australia, one of the main military-political allies of the United States, of Russian combat aircraft seems completely unrealistic, but the existence of proposals of this nature and their discussion in the local media is in itself quite symptomatic.
The Su-30MK can be called an “anti-crisis” fighter. Thanks to him, the Irkutsk aircraft plant, which is now included in the KLA, actually survived. And the rapid growth of the Sukhoi holding company and its current status are also largely due to the Su-30. The story develops in a spiral. The current situation in the Russian economy, caused by the global financial crisis, is beginning to resemble the mid-1990s. And the plane that will help the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) that has united the Russian aviation enterprises "fly over the abyss" may well become the Su-35, which inherited the best features of the Su-30MK family.
