India may proceed towards indigenous route for 'Super Sukhoi' program to upgrade 200 Sukhoi Su-30MKI jets
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| Indigenous plan for Super Sukhoi Upgrade |
The Indian Air
Force is looking to order 12 more Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets that might come
in assembly kit form. As direct supplies from Russia as nearly 400 Indian
manufacturers have stopped manufacturing about 6000 components, that go into
each Su-30 aircraft after the production line at Hindustan Aeronautics ended in
2019.
The procurement of components from Russian manufacturers is cheaper, due to mass production for domestic and export markets, if the Russian supply chain doesn't improve in next few months, it could ground large part of the Su-30 fleet in the long term on which several experts have said that the Indian Government should break away from the contract obligation and should let the Indian manufacturers start work on some of the Russian components, that is not allowed under the contract.
Officials in the Defence establishment have also urged the Defense Ministry that the Super Sukhoi upgrade of around 200 units should be done using Indian made components.
HAL has already proposed the indigenous upgrade program to the Indian Air Force early this year and has been pursuing with their headquarters for the project go ahead that includes indigenously built avionics and radars, electronic warfare jammers, upgraded cockpit layout along with indigenous weapons.
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