Indian Su-30MKI Upgrade To Cost Rs 10,920-Crore

Defence Minister AK Antony mentioned India’s proposed Su-30MKI upgrade in Parliament today. He said, “There is proposal to upgrade the SU-30 MKI aircraft of the Indian Air Force by M/s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with the support of the Russian Original Equipment Manufacturer. The current estimated cost is Rs 10,920 crores and the aircraft are likely to be upgraded in a phased manner from year 2012 onwards.”

23 thoughts on “Indian Su-30MKI Upgrade To Cost Rs 10,920-Crore”

  1. Shiv

    This covers how many Su-30MKI aircraft ?? Must be more than the Original 50 that came in Ph I……….any idea ???

    Looking forward to your "details" of the Mig-35 being out…….

  2. Shiv,

    Please can you share details of how many birds this covers, what the upgrade package would consist of and the timelines. Thanks.

    – Manne

  3. Would you happen to have the specifics to this upgrade program. I am not confident with HAL's expertise & the Russian adherence to timelines.

    It would be good if the Govt. & IAF look at the Israel Aerospace Industries to undertake this program.

  4. What will the upgrades cover? More details please. Please give us the good news that the upgrades include AESA radars for the select batch of MKI 🙁

  5. Shiv,

    This is a good way to demonstrate capabilities, even if those are futuristics.

    This creates cloud bursts in the pants the other sides..

    keep putting two more zeroes on every figure for exponential increase in those cloud bursts.

    Good !!

  6. We are paying the ruskies 150$ more for 42 jets. Now for another maybe 50 jets "upgradation" we will pay them another 11,000 crores? Are we crazy? In other words we are paying the Russians just bcoz their product has lost the MMRCA competition? I sincerely hope our netas and babus know what they are doing with nation's limited funds.

  7. At least we are not waiting for another 25 years and then start thinking of upgrading the jets when they are about to reach their last legs… hope this plan materializes

  8. The deal is approximately 20-25% of the amount of MMRCA.

    It may be fully appreciated only if it consists of at least AESA and Brahmos, I mean if not the stealth.

  9. I see lots and lots of bribery in this entire business.

    The best idea would have been to incorporate incremental 'block upgrades' of the Su-30MKI during the manufacturing process itself and then backfit the upgrades to previous production aircraft like the Eurofighter tranche upgrades.

    Let's hope the IAF remembers it owns the source code of the MKI and seeks avoinics from Israel and France instead of being fleeced by the Russians again. Specifically buy the Israeli EL/M-2052 AESA radar.

  10. This is the only way anyone will listen to our introverted leaders…question is will these su-30mki's be getting the NBC protection kit also?

  11. This deal is different from the 4.3 billion deal. This is new PROPOSED deal is to upgrade 230 MKIs(272-42).

    And for people who think the Russians are increasing the prices, the 4.3 billion for 42 MKIs are manufactured by HAL, not the Russian Irkutsk. Blame it on the incompetency of HAL for the price rise.

  12. Who started all this talk of AESA? Russia does not have a mass manufacturable AESA, certainly not one capable of matching the one in F-18. AESA requires sophisticated semiconductor and manufacturing technologies which only 'west' posseses, Russia is still years behind.

    To get a competetive AESA for Su-30 MKI we will have to buy them from Israel, once their product matures and enters second generation.

    Buying a first generation AESA from Russia is a recipe for disaster. They haven't even got AESA on their own a/c, they will use us to debug and test their product, refine it and then sell it to others.

  13. Like everybody else wondering how many are getting upgraded. My guess is all of them.Thats the only option that makes sense.

    My hope is the IAF made the smart choice by not going in for the SU-35BM offer dangled earlier and instead decided to upgrade the -30MKI to -35BM standards.

    While AESA would be great I think they are likely to go in for the IRBIS E which if I heard it correct India has invested some cash into.

    What I would really like to see though is the new OLS and most definitely the 117s engines.

    Super cruising flanker 🙂

    Not sure how far it would be possible but if they could increase the composites percentage as in the SU-35 there would be definite benefits in load/range. HAL is already quite competent with composites.

    Other possibilities include the FBO instead of the fly by wire.

    Could our decision makers really have done this right ?

    Oh well we can always hope.

    For the amount we are paying it better be as good as the -35BM.

    No reason I see that this can't be done as we are practically bankrolling Sukhoi/Irkut,investing in the -30MKI and T-50 amongst other things.

    Shiv would love to have any other details you could ferret out.

  14. Wasn't one of the main advantages of the MKI touted as the fact that India owned it's source code and that it had open-architecture systems to facilitate third-party upgrades? Why are we looking to the Russians to upgrade it again? Why not go for a more affordable Israeli package like we've done for past upgrade programmes? We are sure to get sucked high and dry if we keep up our dependency on Russia like this.

  15. it is good to upgrde the "most advanced" aircraft in the iaf's fleet but instead of buying 40 more of the same kind and upgrading it later y not go for more advanced su-37. y has the defence establishment have to be ALL eyes on 1 aircraft

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