Russia to Deliver First 10 Fighter Engines to India by April

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, March 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia’s Ufa-based engine maker will deliver the first 10 of 920 AL-31FP engines for the Su-30MKI Flanker-H to India before the end of March, the manufacturer said on Friday.

The contract with India, the largest one with a foreign client in post-Soviet history, was signed last October, and engine deliveries are to be completed by 2022.

Under a 2000 general contract for licensed manufacturing of 140 Su-30MKI air superiority fighters and AL-31FP engines, India had an option of buying an additional number of aircraft engines.

In 2007, the Indian Air Force ordered an additional 40 MKIs. As of January 2013, the IAF had 157 Su-30MKIs in service and it plans to have a fleet of 272.

The Ufa engine manufacturing association is Russia’s largest aircraft engine producer. It produces aircraft engines for Su and MiG family fighters and spare parts, as well as engines for automobiles, gas pumps and turbines, and provides maintenance and support services.