This aircraft is designed to win air supremacy and engage land and sea targets with guided and unguided missiles. The jets were flown by Malaysian pilots.
The contract to supply 18 Su-30MKM fighters to the Malaysian Air Force was signed in August 2003 during a visit to the country by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Su-30MKM (MKM stands for multirole, commercial, Malaysian) is a variant of the Su-30MKI (multirole, commercial, Indian), developed for the Indian Air Force.
Malaysia has already taken delivery of six such aircraft. The remaining 12 are to be supplied in two shipments before the end of 2008.
To judge from the results of a meeting of the Russian-Malaysian inter-governmental commission held in Moscow in November, both sides are satisfied with the way contractual commitments are being fulfilled.
It was in the early 1990s that OKB Sukhoi began a promotion campaign for the Su-30MK. The new model had two distinct advantages over the then exported Su-27SK: it had a crew of two and a mid-air refueling capability that increased its range and endurance.
The new fighter also possessed an impressive armory, including high-precision homing air-to-surface weapons.
India was one of the first to show interest in the new aircraft. In the course of negotiations Sukhoi proposed that the Indian side should not stop at the demonstration version, but go a step further and purchase a model with advanced combat capabilities.
These included an improved aerodynamic configuration with canard surfaces, a new remote control system, and, most important of all, a vectored-thrust engine. There were also plans to equip the fighter with phased-array radar.
The upshot of all this, it was argued, was that India would get a fighter unequalled in maneuverability and combat capability not only among its closer neighbors, but throughout the world.
India accepted the offer. Moreover, it agreed to subsidize research and work to develop a special or "Indian" version of the Sukhoi, which came to be known as the Su-30MKI.
At the same time, the Indian side set additional requirements for the fighter. The most significant concerned making onboard avionics "international." Alongside Russian systems the fighter was to use French, Israeli and Indian devices. The final decision on the Su-30MKI was taken early in 1998.
One of the distinctive features making the fighter unique is the use of the Russian-made Bars radar with electronic beam scanning.
In air-to-air mode this radar can track no less than 15 targets while passing, maintain the scan, count targets in a compact formation, and identify the type of target acquired. It can spot a fighter-type target up to 150 kilometers away in the forward semisphere.
In all, 32 Su-30MKIs were supplied to India between June 2002 and December 2004. Each succeeding shipment differed from the previous one by approaching the ultimate configuration set by the Indian Air Force.
Indian pilots were quick to master the new aircraft, including mid-air refueling. In 2004, in a joint Indian-U.S. exercise, Indian Su-30Ks won convincing victories over American F-15Cs. It is generally believed that if the exercise had involved Su-30MKIs, the result would have been even more impressive.
The Indian military and politicians liked the fighter so much that they ordered another 40 of them without any tender. New Delhi agreed with a Russian proposal not to upgrade the earlier supplied 18 Su-30Ks to the MKI version, but to replace them with the new model through a trade-in scheme.
It was a positive example of Russian-Indian cooperation, along with the Su-30MKI's unique characteristics, that proved the deciding factor in Kuala Lumpur's decision to equip the Royal Malaysian Air Force with Russian fighters. When choosing its new multirole fighter it opted for the specially upgraded Su-30MK over the American F-18 Super Hornet.
The Su-30MKM has a similar airframe to the Su-30MKI. The fighter is fitted out with a vectored-thrust engine and the latest digital control system.
The MKM version differs from the MKI mainly in its onboard avionics. The French firm Thales supplies the HVD windshield indicator, the NAVFLIR infrared system and LDP Damocles laser illumination container.
The fighter also mounts sensors from Avitronics (South Africa) to warn of laser exposure and an electronic warfare (EW) system. It is equipped with modern phased-array radar able to track 15 targets at once and engage four of them, and an optical-location system with a laser range finder developed by leading Russian defense companies.
The Su-30MKM is capable of fulfilling all its missions away from base, in any weather, by day and by night, and under intense hostile EW conditions.
Yury Zaitsev is an adviser at the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
