IAF to acquire 40 Sukhoi-30 jets

Resorting to a fast-track approach to "fill in the inevitable gaps", the Indian Air Force (IAF) today announced the acquisition of a large number of fighters and other aircraft over the next few years, including 40 Sukhoi-30 fighter jets from Russia.

"The government has cleared the purchase of 40 more Sukhoi-30s.... We will sign the financial contract (with Russian manufacturer of the same name) within this financial year", IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi, said.

He said negotiations were still continuing and the delivery schedule, on which talks were going on, would be roughly about three years. The ballpark figure of the price of each of these aircraft is around $40 million.

On the acquisition of the 126 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA), Tyagi said there would be a global competition and only one foreign vendor would be selected for the entire order.

The selected vendor, which would supply one squadron of these combat jets of the shelf, would have to tie-up with Indian PSUs like Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) for licensed production of the remaining aircraft.

Tyagi, who was accompanied by air chief-designate Air Marshal Fali Major, said "our philosophy is that we will go to one (foreign) vendor for the sake of commonality". He, however, made it clear that this vendor would have to tie up with the Indian vendor for licensed production of the MRCA in India.