Malaysia adapts Russian-built jets to drop US-made bombs

[hassamun]

Malaysia has adapted its Russian-built Sukhoi Su-30 multi-role combat aircraft to drop U.S. laser-guided bombs, with a successful release of a live weapon at the end of last year.

A video by the Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia, or Royal Malaysian Air Force, to celebrate its 59th anniversary showed a brief clip of a Su-30MKM dropping a 500-pound GBU-12 laser-guided bomb, with the accompanying caption stating that the event happened in November 2016 at the service's weapons range at Kota Belud in the state of Sabah, Malaysia.

The segment of the Su-30 dropping the GBU-12 has since been deleted from the video.

It was unclear how the Air Force guided the weapon during the successful weapons release. Malaysia possesses the Thales Damocles surveillance and targeting pod for its Su-30MKMs, which it uses in conjunction with the Russian KAB-series of laser-guided bombs and Kh-29TE air-to-surface missile.

Alternatively, Malaysian special forces on the ground are able to designate targets using hand-held designators.

The country also acquired six Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared pods in 2012 under a capability upgrade program for its eight Boeing F/A-18D Hornets.

Malaysia operates a fleet of 18 Su-30MKMs alongside its Hornets as the Air Force's primary combat aircraft. The service's Sukhois are fitted with a mixture of Russian and Western systems, while Malaysia’s Hornets have previously employed the GBU-12 successfully against armed militants from the southern Philippines who had taken over the town of Lahad Datu, Sabah, in 2013.

http://www.defensenews.com/articles/malaysia-adapts-russian-build-jets-to-drop-us-made-bombs

 

[Hamza913]

Buys Russian jet

Uses American bombs anyway

 

[Gomig-21]

Starts at minute 1:30.

 

[Jugger]

Excellent development by malaysia, you got a great multirole russian fighter so using american bombs on it will increase its versatility.
Actually one should buy russian fighters, put israeli gadgets on it and use american bombs. It's a perfect combination.

 

[The Accountant]

No man

Excellent development by malaysia, you got a great multirole russian fighter so using american bombs on it will increase its versatility.
Actually one should buy russian fighters, put israeli gadgets on it and use american bombs. It's a perfect combination.

Its a logistic nightmare and prone to failure ...

Dont russian have their own percision guide weapnay available for Malaysia

Malaysia has adapted its Russian-built Sukhoi Su-30 multi-role combat aircraft to drop U.S. laser-guided bombs, with a successful release of a live weapon at the end of last year.

A video by the Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia, or Royal Malaysian Air Force, to celebrate its 59th anniversary showed a brief clip of a Su-30MKM dropping a 500-pound GBU-12 laser-guided bomb, with the accompanying caption stating that the event happened in November 2016 at the service's weapons range at Kota Belud in the state of Sabah, Malaysia.

The segment of the Su-30 dropping the GBU-12 has since been deleted from the video.

It was unclear how the Air Force guided the weapon during the successful weapons release. Malaysia possesses the Thales Damocles surveillance and targeting pod for its Su-30MKMs, which it uses in conjunction with the Russian KAB-series of laser-guided bombs and Kh-29TE air-to-surface missile.

Alternatively, Malaysian special forces on the ground are able to designate targets using hand-held designators.

The country also acquired six Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared pods in 2012 under a capability upgrade program for its eight Boeing F/A-18D Hornets.

Malaysia operates a fleet of 18 Su-30MKMs alongside its Hornets as the Air Force's primary combat aircraft. The service's Sukhois are fitted with a mixture of Russian and Western systems, while Malaysia’s Hornets have previously employed the GBU-12 successfully against armed militants from the southern Philippines who had taken over the town of Lahad Datu, Sabah, in 2013.

http://www.defensenews.com/articles/malaysia-adapts-russian-build-jets-to-drop-us-made-bombs

 

[Beast]

Malaysia may switch to China weapon soon with Najib and China developing deep r/s in economy and investment. American are now investigating 1MBD case. Thailand, Myanmar and Iraq are switching huge number of weapons to Chinese.

 

[Godman]

Its a logistic nightmare and prone to failure ...

Most countries have platforms that use weapons designed in different countries.Su-30 export variants like MKM and MKI were designed to be compatible with non-Russian weapons

 

[Penguin]

The Su-30MKM is an advanced Su-27 variant, whose performance involves considerable improvements over Chinese Su-30MK/MKK fighters.

Sukhoi Su-30MKK (NATO reporting name: Flanker-G) is a modification of the Sukhoi Su-30, incorporating advanced technology from the Sukhoi Su-35 variant. It uses more advanced composite materials and a different aluminium alloy for weight reduction and features larger twin composite rudders that are used for additional fuel tanks. The capacity of the fuel tanks in the wings is also increased. A twin nose landing gear replaced the single nose landing gear to accommodate the increased weight. The maximum take-off weight and weapon load are increased. Many new avionics and upgrades of current avionics were specially developed to meet the Chinese requirement, other measures include - importantly - an open architecture software design. The development of avionics for the Su-30MKK was assisted by 12 Ukrainian factories, based in Kiev. The Su-30MK2 is a further improvement to Su-30MKK with upgraded avionics and maritime strike capabilities. The MKK and MK2 are currently operated by the People's Liberation Army Air Force, Indonesian Air Force, Vietnam People's Air Force, Venezuelan Air Force and the Ugandan Air Force.

The Su-30MKM was developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau, based on the Su-30MKI of the Indian Air Force. The Su-30MKI is derived from the Sukhoi Su-27 and has a fusion of technology from the Su-37 demonstrator and Su-30 program, being more advanced than the Su-30MK and the Chinese Su-30MKK/MK2. The Su-30 is a Su-27UB modified with avionics appropriate for fighters. Along with its ground-attack capabilities, the series adds features for the air-superiority role, such as canards, thrust-vectoring, and a long-range phased-array radar. Its derivatives include the Su-30MKM, MKA, and SM for Malaysia, Algeria, and Russia, respectively.

The MKI integrates Indian systems and avionics (RWR system developed by India's DRDO, called Tarang/Wave) as well as French and Israeli sub-systems (French SAGEM Sigma-95 integrated global positioning system and ring laser gyroscope inertial navigation system; Israeli Elbit Su 967 head-up display and multifunction displays, Israeli LITENING targeting pod, ELTA El/M-8222 Self Protection jammer Pod). From 2010, indigenously designed and built HUDs and Multi-Function Displays (MFD) were produced by the Delhi-based Samtel Group Display Systems.

Both aircraft (MKI & MKM) have common airframe, thrust vectoring engines and digital fly-by-wire system. However, the MKM version differs from the MKI mainly in the composition of the onboard avionics.

• Thales (France) supplies the Head-up display (HUD), navigational forward-looking IR system NAVFLIR and the Damocles targeting pod. The aircraft carries missile approach warning sensor (MAWS) and laser warning sensor (LWS) manufactured by Saab Avitronics (South Africa).
  
• The electronic warfare (EW) systems (KNIRTI SAP-518 jamming pods), NIIP N011M Bars phased array radars, optical-location systems with laser rangefinder were all produced by leading Russian manufacturers.

At the time, officers from RMAF formed a Su-30MKM Project Team which was based in Moscow; the team had actively participated in the integration of all the avionics systems.