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SUKHOI WILL OFFER FIGHTER AT EXPOSITION

RIA Novosti

NEW DELHI, February 9 (RIA Novosti, Natlia Shilo) - Sukhoi aircraft maker is featuring its Su-30MKI fighter and new SaM146 engine for regional RRJ airliners at Aero India 2005 in Bangalore, where the corporation is part of Russia's exposition.

Sukhoi's press service said the corporation intends to demonstrate all aspects of its activity at the air show, i.e. defense, civil and dual-purpose aircraft and equipment, as well as combat aircraft modernization and service maintenance options.

Sukhoi's stand focuses on a Su-30MKI and an experimental Su-47 aircraft.

India's armed forces have 18 Su-30Ks and 32 Su-30MKIs in their cache already, the press service noted. The contract for the supply of these Russian multi-purpose fighter jets was signed in 1996. The first batch of 10 combat aircraft was delivered to India in late June 2002. Another 12 fighters were delivered in 2003, while the last batch of 10 multi-purpose jets was supplied in December 2004.

On December 28, 2000, the two countries signed a general contract on the sale/purchase of the license for the production of Su-30MKIs, AL-31FP variable thrust vector engines, and onboard equipment. This was the largest Russian-Indian contract in the defense sphere, which was worth over $3 billion.

India launched the licensed production of Su-30MKIs in 2004. The first fighter jet made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was fielded in November 2004. Two jets were assembled by late December 2004. They were assembled in Russia and completed at HAL plants. India intends to build a total of 140 fighters. Indian aircraft makers are expected to build the first Su-30MKI independently by late 2007.

Sukhoi is also featuring its RRJs (Russian Regional Jets) as civil product examples.

The new family of regional jets is a project that has been implemented by Sukhoi's affiliate Grazhdanskiye Samolyoty Sukhogo (Sukhoi's Civil Aircraft, GSS), in cooperation with France's SNECMA and Russia's NPO Saturn that have worked over SaM146 engines. The volume of RRJ sales is expected to exceed $18 billion. The expected demand for RRJs in the international and domestic markets until 2020 will be about 800 airliners.

The Russian government has included SaM146 engine and RRJ aircraft development projects in the federal program entitled the Development of Civil Aircraft between 2002 and 2010 and until 2015.

The production of a pilot batch of RRJs has been scheduled for the first quarter of 2005. Test flights will begin in the fourth quarter of 2006. The first production 95-passenger aircraft will be delivered to a customer in the fourth quarter of 2007.