Republic at a crossroads
The situation around the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of the Republic of Belarus as a whole is extremely similar to the one that we see in the example of other post-Soviet countries, in particular, Ukraine. Among patriots and nationalists (at least Ukrainian), the thesis is popular that "Russia took the best for itself." But he only demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the essence of the issue. The same Ukraine, after the collapse of the USSR, got 19 Tu-160 strategic bombers out of 35 built machines, which included eight prototypes.
Even if the economy “bloomed”, it is quite obvious that the country would simply not be able to keep them in a combat-ready form. In turn, Belarus inherited from the USSR a large fleet of Su-27s: expensive and redundant for a small state. Now RB no longer exploits them. But there are several dozen MiG-29s, which form the basis of the Belarusian Air Force. At the moment, they are being upgraded to the level of the MiG-29BM: such an aircraft (at least on paper) can use old Soviet guided air-to-surface weapons, in particular, the Kh-29 and Kh-25 missiles. In general, it turned out to be a cross between the fourth generation and the four-plus generation (we apologize for such a pun). But the main disadvantage of the MiGs in their current form is their resource. Soviet cars have never been famous for this. Now the old fighters need to be replaced with something.
First deliveries
On August 18 this year, the blog of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies bmpd showed the first Su-30SM fighters for the Republic of Belarus. “At the events held on August 17, 2019 in Irkutsk on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant (IAZ, a branch of PJSC Irkut Corporation), the first two Su-30SM fighters built for the Air Force and Air Defense of Belarus were seen on the territory of the enterprise”, - In the photo, one could see a Su-30SM with tail number "01 red" (presumably serial number 10MK5 1607), as well as an aircraft with serial number 10MK5 1608. The cars were painted the same: somewhat lurid blue-gray-white camouflage. on the other hand, even such a quasi-Soviet style looks good after Serdyukov's gray-blue fighters.
On November 13 this year, Interfax reported that the first batch of Russian Su-30SM fighters arrived in the Republic of Belarus. “The first pair of Su-30SM combat fighters out of the planned twelve arrived in Belarus,” the Belarusian military department said at the time. Recall that in the summer of 2017, Russia and Belarus agreed on the supply of four new "Sushki": in total, the Republic of Belarus should receive twelve of these machines. The deliveries are planned to be completed within three years.
"MiG" against "Su"
Perhaps it is worth mentioning what the new cars provide. Formally, the Su-30SM is one of the newest Russian fighters; it made its first flight in 2012. In practice, we are talking about a Russified version of the Russian-Indian (primarily, of course, Russian) Su-30MKI, which first took off back in 1997. For its time, the car was more than successful, which is confirmed by the almost incredible number of cars delivered to India by modern standards: now the country operates about 250 such aircraft. For comparison, for all the time "Sukhoi" has delivered to foreign customers only 24 Su-35S aircraft: they were bought by China for the AL-41F1S engine. And the Su-57 of the fifth generation has not yet been ordered by any other country in the world.
Recall also that at the end of the 90s, no one had the fifth generation, just as the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale generation 4 ++ were not in service. Therefore, the vehicle with a good combat radius, high maneuverability and the N011 Bars radar with a passive phased antenna array looked really good.
But it is worth repeating, that was then. Today, the Su-30SM / MKI can hardly be called modern, which demonstrates the limited interest in it from the strong and wealthy countries of the world. The plane did not get into the famous Indian MMRCA tender at all, although there were no fifth generation fighters there and Russia's competitors were the familiar Typhoon, Rafal, Gripen, as well as the American F-16 and F-18.
In the case of RB, the new MiG-29s were almost always seen as the main alternative to Sukhoi. Especially when you consider that its development in the person of the MiG-35 has on-board electronics, advanced by Russian standards, in particular, an on-board radar with an active phased antenna array. What the Su-30SM (at least for now) does not have. However, the 35th has its drawbacks and this is probably well understood in Belarus too.
However, even with this in mind, it was far from the Belarusians who were ready to accept the Su-30 as the main fighter. Perhaps, the Belarusian independent social and political newspaper “Svobodnye Novosti. SNplus "in a recent article" Su-30 SM: counting money and asking questions. " The author made an emphasis not on the obsolescence of the machine, but on the fact that such an aircraft is too expensive to operate. At the same time, he draws a parallel not even with the Soviet MiGs, but with Western machines.
“The fact is that Soviet / Russian aircraft engines are traditionally inferior to Western ones not only in terms of fuel efficiency, but also in terms of overhaul and assigned resource. The Polish Air Force operates in parallel the Soviet twin-engine MiG-29 fighters and the American single-engine F-16. It is assumed that the American fighter will fly off all 35 years with the same engine that was originally installed on it. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the MiG-29: eight engines will have to be replaced over the same period, Snplus writes.
If we talk specifically about the Su-30SM fighter, then, according to the author, Andrey Porotnikov, one such aircraft will "eat" six AL-31FP engines during its life cycle. It is worth adding to this the high price of the machine itself: if the upgraded MiG-29 (but not the MiG-35!), With all its disadvantages, is relatively cheap, then the price of the Su-30MKI announced earlier in open sources is $ 80 million. That is, almost like the F-35A. “Now let's summarize the price of the machines, maintaining their serviceability and upgrading. We get an amount from 185 to 210 million dollars for each (!) Car in the next 35 years. And for the squadron, respectively, from 2.22 billion to 2.52 billion dollars. The amount is considerable,”the author adds.
It is difficult to say how exactly these calculations are correct, but there is a sound grain in these arguments. As in the thesis that "dryers" have an excessive combat radius for the Republic of Belarus. It should not be forgotten that the length of the country from north to south is 560 kilometers, and from west to east - 650 kilometers. At the same time, the Su-30SM fighter has a practical range of 3,000 kilometers and a combat radius of about 1,500.
What is the bottom line? You need to understand that everything has its own term. If earlier the Su-30 could be called a relatively modern machine, now this is no longer quite the case. At the same time, the aircraft is quite expensive: both in nominal terms and in terms of operating costs. In this regard, Belarusian experts are absolutely right when they say that their country would be better suited to new-built MiGs or, say, the Swedish Saab JAS 39 Gripen, despite their limited combat capabilities. In the end, Belarus is unlikely to be at war with any of its neighbors.
