Su-30 upgrade restricts Indian air force fleet
Indian air force efforts to bring its fleet of around 70 Sukhoi Su-30 fighters to a common standard appears to have degraded the service's available number of aircraft to fewer than 50.
With its initial batch of 18 Su-30Ks having been retired after less than a decade of use, and licensed production of the Su-30MKI taking place at Hindustan Aeronautics' Nasik facility at a current rate of around 13 a year, standardisation work to around nine early Russian-built MKIs has restricted India's frontline fleet. The work includes avionics and thrust-vectoring performance modifications, and replacement of the aircraft's mission computer with an indigenous design.
Full story
http://www.flightglobal.com/article...upgrade-restricts-indian-air-force-fleet.html
Indian air force efforts to bring its fleet of around 70 Sukhoi Su-30 fighters to a common standard appears to have degraded the service's available number of aircraft to fewer than 50.
With its initial batch of 18 Su-30Ks having been retired after less than a decade of use, and licensed production of the Su-30MKI taking place at Hindustan Aeronautics' Nasik facility at a current rate of around 13 a year, standardisation work to around nine early Russian-built MKIs has restricted India's frontline fleet. The work includes avionics and thrust-vectoring performance modifications, and replacement of the aircraft's mission computer with an indigenous design.
Full story
http://www.flightglobal.com/article...upgrade-restricts-indian-air-force-fleet.html