DUBAI, November 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s state arms export monopoly said Friday that it will deliver 12 Su-30K fighter jets to a nation in southern Africa.
In the wake of a visit by a high level Russian delegation earlier this year, it was widely reported in Russian media that Moscow had agreed to supply 18 of the jets to Angola.
“These aircraft will be delivered to a South African country. For the first step, we are inclined to deliver 12 of the 18 units,” Mikhail Zavaliy, a top executive from Rosoboronexport told reporters, without specifying what country he was talking about.
The final six aircraft will be supplied at a later date, Zavaliy said.
The Su-30K fighters in question are a batch of aircraft initially supplied to India in the late 1990s, prior to Delhi receiving the more advanced multirole Su-30MKI variant. They were returned to Russia in 2007 and have since lain idle in a Belarusian repair plant, according to a report in Vedomosti newspaper last month.
Angola has close diplomatic and military ties with Russia that have endured since the Soviet era.
