India clears multi-bln dollar Sukhoi fighters deal with Russia
NEW DELHI. June 26. KAZINFORM India has finally cleared the 150 billion rupee (3 billion U.S. dollars) Sukhoi deal with Russia, considered to be one of the biggest defense orders of recent times, local media reported on Saturday, Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
The order for an additional 42 Sukhoi-30 MKI fighters will add up the total number of these modern Russian fighters for Indian Air Force to 272 and the Cabinet Committee on Security in India has cleared the deal in the first week of June, The Times of India quoted a senior official as saying.
When the entire Sukhoi-30 MKIs, including the 42, are delivered to IAF by around 2018, it would become the single largest type of fighters in service, marking a huge technological transition from the dominance of MIG-21 fighters today.
The Su-30 MKI was originally contracted in 1996, when the Russian military-industrial complex was in a shambles after the Soviet Union disintegrated. Its design and capabilities, however, continues to impress globally. The initial contract was for 50 fighters, at 1.46 billion U.S. dollars. Over the years, the numbers kept increasing.
The present order for 42 fighters was originally supposed to be 40, but two more were added to the order book to make up for the two crashed fighters, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com