India to swap 18 Su 30 MK for new Su 30 MKI versions

[HAIDER]

Moscow: India will exchange 18 Sukhoi-30MK aircraft it had earlier purchased from Russia for a more sophisticated version of this long-range fighter jet, Su-30MKI.

Russia's Irkut manufacturer of Sukhoi warplanes said it planned to sign the deal next week. Under an earlier agreement, the SU-30MK planes were to be upgraded to the SU-30MKI version in India.

Irkut head Oleg Demchenko said 12 of the 18 planes were already assembled in the company's factory in Irkutsk. The remaining six would be delivered in December.
License accord

Irkut will also bring the supply of knock-down kits to assemble 140 SU-30MKI aircraft under licence in India. "Responding to a request from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, we have reached an agreement to fulfil the licence accord in 2012 instead of 2014," the Irkut chief said.

Last week, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had rapped the HAL for huge cost overruns in the production of SU-30MKI under Russian licence.

He said the SU-30MKI kits would be supplied to India in a high degree of assembly. "They will be almost fully assembled aircraft," Mr. Demchenko said.

 

[HAIDER]

New Delhi: Licensed production of multi-role Sukhoi-30MKI fighters in the country is running into huge costs overruns and some of them in the latest batch are flying without some advanced critical airborne systems.

To add to this, the indigenous manufacture of the Russian frontline fighters is working out to more than the cost of imports, according to the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) placed in Parliament today.

Three critical airborne systems of the fighters-- electronic warfare system, reconissance system and direction finding modular radar have not not been integrated with the latest batch of aircraft delivered by the Russians under the November 1996 contract, the report said.

"There has been sharp slippage in delivery schedules and the fighters delivered had custmization only partly ", the CAG has pointed out.

Rapping the Government for huge cost esclation risks in the project, the CAG said the total cost of 140 aircraft projected by the Ministry in 2000 was Rs 22,122.78 crores at the 2000 price level, while a detailed project report prepared by HAL in july 2005, the amount shown was Rs 39,224.9 crores, almost a hundred price rise.

"Even this is open ended as the 2.5 per cent cost esclation agreed to by India is applicable only till 2007", the report said.