Indonesian Air Force gets two Sukhoi jet fighters, waits for four more

[indian_foxhound]

Two out of the six Sukhoi Su-30 MK2 jet fighters
ordered by the Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU)
arrived at Sultan Hasanuddin Air Force Base in
Makassar late on Friday evening.A spokesman
from the base, Maj. Muliadi, said on Saturday the
two jet fighters were part of an order of six Su-30 MK2s arriving in batches. “The remaining four jet fighters will arrive in
June and July,” he said. The Russian-made jet
fighters arrived onboard An-12-100 Ruslan
strategic transport aircraft in disassembled
condition and without engines. The engines are
scheduled to arrive on Feb. 27 for the entire six jet fighters, totaling 12 engines. In addition to the
two jet fighters made by Komsomolsk-na Amure
Aircraft Production Association (KNAPO), 17
technicians from the aircraft manufacturers will
assemble the jet fighters. Muliadi said the assembly process would take
two weeks to complete, including test flights.The
Su-30 MK2 is a twin-engine, dual-seater jet
fighter with a range of some 3,000 kilometers
and is able to carry a payload of some eight tons.
As with previous shipments, the jet fighters do not come with weapons, other than internal
cannons. “The weapons will be purchased
separately after the jet fighters are assembled,
just like other batches,” Muliadi said. Defense analysts have criticized the separate
acquisition of the jet fighters, which do not
include weapons such as bombs and missiles.The
government, however, said budget constraints
had limited its ability to buy a complete
package.With the two jet fighters, now Indonesia has six single-seater Su-27 SKMs and
six Su-30 MK2s.The Su-27/30 jet fighters are
known as “Flankers”.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/...-two-sukhoi-jet-fighters-waits-four-more.html

 

[Dragi]

I have to say it's really strange to see a country operate modern Russian and US fighters at the same time. I've seen cases where older soviet stuff is being phased out, and US made planes brought in, but never both purchased and operated together. This has to be very expensive, you can't share spare parts, ground support equipment, tooling, flight simulators, everything is different so you have ot have twice as much of each.
Do you know why they're doing this ?

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Here's another F-16 being readied for Indonesia