AVIONICS MODERNIZATION OF THE SU-30MKI
September 27, 2002 at the Air Force base "Lohegaon" (Pune, about 100 km south-east of Bombay), officially handed over to the Indian Air Force first Su-30MKI. Air Chief Marshal Krishnaswamy India then said:
"Precision guided weapons systems - simply phenomenal. Generally, it is very unusual aircraft. No country in the world there is nothing like " .Responding to questions from journalists, Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said:
"Without a shadow of a doubt I want to emphasize that this transaction was made possible because we have close ties with Russia. No country in the world has been able to provide such opportunities to strengthen national security, as Russia " .
Weapon - a political commodity. On the side of Russia - a long positive history of military-technical cooperation with New Delhi, which began exactly 45 years ago with the delivery of the most modern in India at the time of the MiG-21.Moscow, unlike the West, did not use the PTS to provide pressure on Delhi and did not impose politically motivated arms embargo. Our countries are no contradictions in any of the significant military and political issues. Community of interest and intention to develop political, economic, military and military-technical cooperation were confirmed in December 2008 during the visit of Russian President in New Delhi.
Since then, it took ten years, and the creation of the aircraft began even earlier. In 1993, on the basis of fighter-interceptor Su-30 Sukhoi proposed the establishment of a new aircraft for tactical aviation. The first impression of the Su-30K in the Indian delegation was something like this: the machine is good, excellent stability and handling, engine completely satisfied, but avionics (avionics) would like to have a more modern, and the nomenclature used guided weapons is much broader. Although these requirements were not originally recorded in the minutes, but just a month after the delegation reported to the command of the Air Force, Sukhoi said that the Indian side proposes to think about the more modern "board".
April 20, 1994 in Delhi, a meeting of the Russian-Indian working group on cooperation in the field of aviation, which considered the possibility of the production of the aircraft in India. November 30, 1996 in Irkutsk signed a contract for the supply to India 40 Su-30K. The contract defines four stages of supply within five years. Stages defined terms of the contract, according to which the supply of aircraft to the customer should be carried out in separate batches, as appropriate systems and mining equipment, with a gradual build-up of the combat capabilities of the aircraft.
The first four Su-30K was sent to India in 1997. The contract provided that the Su-30K first batches will be a serial Su-30 with minor modifications in the navigation system and avionics, and by 2000 it was planned to move to the level of the machine is actually a new generation - Su-30MKI with a completely new avionics and engines with thrust vector control (UHT).
In the spring of 1995 on the basis of a preliminary protocol signed by both parties, the Sukhoi Design Bureau in the works on the subject, which was working designation Su-30I (I - "Indian"). In addition to structural changes associated with the installation of canards (PGO) and new engines, the aircraft was equipped with a new remote control system (CDS), with the engine running with UHT in total control loop. Clarity on the composition of the avionics was less clear was determined only type of radar, but for the first time in the history of domestic aircraft industry dealt with the installation of on-board and on the integration of the avionics equipment imported components. Generally, such integration is an extremely difficult technical problem.
When you create a Su-30MKI Russian designers had to look for ways to combine elements such as the Russian radar, French visualization and navigation, the Indian computer control radar, Indian reserve computer control of the aircraft, Israel's display on the windshield (HUD), thermal targeting pod LDP «Lightning» At the same time, India was not easy to get ready aircraft, but also hands-on development activities onboard systems. The Design Bureau in 1997, began the creation of the stand aggregation and HIL, which was later successfully performed bench testing of avionics, including with the use of real-time models. This will significantly reduce the time to perfect the equipment during the flight tests. Naturally, the entire responsibility for the creation of "international" on-board equipment and its compliance with the performance standards of the contract remained lying on the Sukhoi Design Bureau, and all the work on the integration of avionics instructed JSC "Ramenskoye Design Bureau" (CBSI).
It was here in RDC, in 1970 developed new generation of inertial systems and navigation systems, ensure the implementation of the basic functions of the integration of avionics, established the country's first navigation system fundamentally new type using physical fields of the Earth. In the 1980s, CBSI has developed several generations of different instruments, systems and avionics systems for many types of aircraft and helicopters. In 1990 RDC decided the task of creating complex multi-level integrated avionics systems based on bus-modular principle and the open architecture hardware and mathematical software for new and upgraded aircraft and helicopters, developed a number of onboard computers high performance on modern imported chips and own real time operating system. In 2000-2010 gg. the company was established competitive Avionics highly intelligent, made using the most advanced design solutions and advanced technologies, introduces the concept of "glass cockpit", in which were developed "smart" color multifunction liquid crystal displays (IFIs) and control panels, forming a single information-control Field of the aircraft.
Today JSC RDC works in international standards, including the NATO military standards MIL-STD, and products to its specifications at the level of the best world standards and are exported to many countries around the world. Many of these solutions have been successfully used in the development of the Su-30MKI, and opened up prospects for further modernization of aircraft and capacity of its combat characteristics and capabilities.
To date, the flight characteristics of the Su-30MKI rightly considered among the best in the world. This has been demonstrated on a variety of air shows and during the various exercises. But the combat effectiveness of the aircraft and its advantages over potential enemy today is determined not so much the aerodynamics and engine thrust, although, of course, it is also very important, as it avionics capabilities (and, of course, trained pilots).
As part of the licensed production of the Su-30MKI in the Indian HAL Corporation plant in Nasik November 28, 2004 ceremony was held, during which was raised in the first production of the Su-30MKI Indian assembly. Thus was created a plane that can be safely attributed to the generation of 4+. Its distinctive feature was the use of the AL-31FP with UHT and CDS included in a single control loop. Together this provides the possibility of implementing an airplane mode supermaneuverability. The use of high-power pulsed-Doppler radar with a rotating phased array provides long range detection and tracking, multi-channel, the opportunity to work on ground targets. The implementation of the principle of "glass cockpit" with the use of wide-MFI, - implementation of the principle of open architecture board provided by the use of multiplex channel of information exchange (ICEE), constructed in accordance with the standard MIL-STD-1553B, a broad integration of avionics systems imported and domestically produced allowed create a modern complex.
All coordination of complex avionics in Su-30MKI was assigned to the digital computer design CBSI. This information is drained of all complex systems, processed and then provided to the crew. Therefore, CBSI is primarily responsible for the aggregation of hardware and software and software of all equipment, as well as takes care of the integration of the avionics of the Su-30MKI. This is the problem of interaction and communication systems REP obschesamoletnyh systems, ACS, CDS management tasks weapon with thermal heads, laser-guided, unguided weapons, navigation tasks, the tasks of gathering information on board and transfer it to the display. And the most important task - is the task of building a cabin.
As part of the Su-30MKI avionics versatility radar display system for multi-color LCD displays with high resolution, the new opto-electronic multifunction sighting and navigation system based on modern computers with an inertial navigation system and a laser gyro with a satellite navigation system (GPS) and a radically new system of objective control with fixing not only the operating parameters of the aircraft, but also external tactical situation.
However, since the birth of the Su-30MKI was a lot of time and during this time there are new systems that will improve the combat effectiveness of the aircraft. Although it is worth noting that from the point of view of the urgent tasks of defense, a country like India, nothing better than the Su-30MKI, to date there. This confirms at least the fact that the options Su-30MKI won battles with modern teaching American fourth-generation fighter F-18E / F in Malaysia and the French fighter «Rafale» in Algeria.
Currently, there are negotiations with the Indian side of the further modernization of the Su-30MKI fighters for the Indian Air Force and they are in the final stages of determining the technical person and sourcing avionics. At the same time there is quite a tough competition (not only at the technical level) between the Russian, Indian and Western companies. It is worth noting that the use of the western component in the complex avionics existing Su-30MKI was interesting and while a necessary step, but today the Russian industry is able to offer the system in no way inferior to Western standards. It is necessary to bear in mind that the creation of a new version of the aircraft is not fast, and solutions incorporated today have to work, and work reliably for decades. The upcoming signing of the contract today means that the new aircraft will be in operation in about 2017.
It is worth noting that in a complex avionics everything is interconnected. If you need a locator with higher resolution, and new indicators are needed. The new indicators indicate that a new interface, and this leads to a change in a computer and as a result, the new complex units. Thus Design Bureau "leads" cabin makes computing, holds all the avionics integration, creates an interface using the multiplex and fiber optic channels, as well as new software. The structure of it is such that will enable additional tasks and build software "not breaking" of the entire system. Upgraded Su-30MKI will actually get a whole new set of avionics and all parameters will surpass all existing versions.
