That my friend, is one of the reasons for the recent spate of incidents affecting the Su-30MKI. The Russian doctrine usually calls for 150 flight hours per annum, while we are generating close to 250-275 hours. Unfortunately for us, the manual being followed still follows the Russian schedule of maintenance, with the age of the aircraft getting priority over the flight hours accumulated.
What this has resulted in is increased rate of ageing of the components of the aircraft, and by extension, that of the fleet itself.
By the Russian schedule, our first MKIs are already 33 years old, 10-13 years past the point at which the aircraft are usually ordered for complete overhaul. But as the article points out, overhaul has only just begun on the fleet.
We should've preempted such a situation when the flight hours were raised from the 150 hours a year to 250.
