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Russia loses yet another fighter jet during a training exercise, as Ukraine strikes the Kerch bridge yet again. A Su-30 fighter jet crashed during a training flight on Saturday in Russia's Kaliningrad region, killing the two pilots on board, RIA news agency quoted the Defense Ministry as saying. "The Su-30 aircraft crashed in a deserted area. The flight was being carried out without ammunition. The crew of the aircraft died," the ministry said in a statement cited by RIA. It said the likely cause of the crash was a technical malfunction but gave no further information.

In little over a week, Russia lost its second fighter jet, Su-30, to an uncanny crash when it was carrying out a massive aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities and battling in the Kherson region. On October 23, an apartment building in Irkutsk, Siberia, was struck by a Russian Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker multi-role fighter, killing both crew members and starting a massive fire on the ground. Su-30 is a two-seat, twin-engine, highly agile fighter aircraft produced by Sukhoi Aviation Corporation of Russia. The Su-30s are manufactured at the neighboring Irkutsk Aviation Plant, where the jet is reported to have just taken...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:45 P.M.) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on Tuesday that Washington wants to extend the arms embargo against Iran in order to prevent them from purchasing new Russian and Chinese fighter jets. According to Pompeo, the arms embargo against Iran ends in October and this will pave the way for Tehran to acquire fighter jets like Russia’s Su-30 and China’s J-10. “If the @UN Arms Embargo on Iran expires in October, Iran will be able to buy new fighter aircraft like Russia’s SU-30 and China’s J-10. With these highly lethal aircraft, Europe and Asia could...

Venezuelan Fighter ‘Aggressively Shadowed’ U.S. EP-3E Over Caribbean By: Megan Eckstein July 21, 2019 8:32 PM U.S. Southern Command announced that a Venezuelan fighter harassed a U.S. Navy surveillance plane in the Caribbean Sea on Friday over international waters. In a pair of tweets, SOUTHCOM wrote that a “Venezuela SU-30 Flanker ‘aggressively shadowed’ a U.S. EP-3E aircraft at an unsafe distance July 19, jeopardizing the crew & aircraft.” Noting the ongoing relationship between Nicolás Maduro’s government in Caracas and Russia – in contrast to the U.S.-backed Juan Guaidó regime that claimed power in January after an election that Maduro says...

I-Derby-ER missile will replace Russian R-77 in the Indian Air Force fleet. NEW DELHI: In two years from now, the Indian Air Force's frontline Sukhoi-30 fighters may be re-armed with Israeli Derby air-to-air missiles after the jet's Russian-made R-77 missiles were found wanting in air combat operations over the Line of Control on February 27 this year. Sources in the Indian Air Force told NDTV, "We already have the missile as part of the SPYDER (Surface-to-Air Missile) system. Integration (with the IAF's Su-30s) is the next step.'' Retaliating to the IAF strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training facility in Balakot on...

China unveiled a set of photos of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s Su-30MKK fighter jets' first training in the new year on January 6, 2019. These photos "inadvertently" revealed a detail: a Su-30 MK2 fighter preparing to take off was mounted with a Chinese PL-12 air-to-air missile. This does not seem to be anything special, but it indicates that China has already been able to modify the Su-30MKK's fire control system to give it the capability to use China’s homegrown weapons. The last thing that aircraft carriers want to see is the Su-30 MK2 fighter jet carrying YJ-12...

A Chinese space force in Argentina, Russian control of Venezuelan gas and South American armies equipped with the latest Chinese and Russian hardware. Until recently, it might have sounded like the plot of a geopolitical thriller in a region once considered America’s backyard. But this is what Defense Secretary James N. Mattis faced on his visit this week to several South American nations, where economic and military posturing by Beijing and Moscow has been on the rise for the past decade. Analysts say Chinese loans in recent years have allowed authoritarian leaders to consolidate power in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua,...

The modernization of the Russian armed forces has taken another step forward with the delivery in 2016 of the first shipments of the modern multipurpose Su-30SM fighters. In the spring a squadron of eight planes was deployed to the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea while in the fall two planes were added to the fighter air regiment in the Rostov Region. Recently, a group of Su-30SMs was sent to a separate Russian Fleet attack air regiment in the country's north. In 2017 the fighters will also be delivered to Russia's naval aviation in the Baltics and by 2018 the Aerospace...

India tested today an air-launched version of the BrahMos-A supersonic attack missile on an Indian Air Force (IAF) Sukhoi Su-30 MKI aircraft. The missile was not launched on this test, as the carriage flight was designed to test the weapon’s aircraft integration. Following the initial flight tests on board the Su-30 MKI aircraft the first air-launch of the BrahMos-A missile is expected later this year. If successful, this planned flight test will verify the developer’s simulations, assuring the safe separation and initiation of the missile. “A single test-fire from the aircraft will be enough. BrahMos has demonstrated its capability multiple...

The imminent delivery of from Russia of two Sukhoi Su-30MK2 twin-seat versions to Vietnam will make the end of production for the “classic” version of the Flanker multirole fighter. But production of advanced “generation 4++” versions—the Su-30SM, Su-34 and Su-35—featuring markedly different airframes and more powerful engines will continue through at least 2020. Vietnam previously took delivery of 30 out of the 32 Su-30MK2s that it ordered in three batches during 2009, 2012 and 2013. Delivery of the final pair will bring its total fleet to 48, including Su-27SKs, Su-27UBKs as well as Su-30MK2s. Indonesia and Uganda were also recent...

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States would block the sale of Russian Su-30 aircraft to Iran under a UN Security Council (UNSCR) resolution that prohibits fighter jet sales, US Department of State Under Secretary for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon said Tuesday during a congressional hearing on Iran. "The sale of Su-30 fighter aircraft is prohibited under UNSCR 2231 without the approval of the UN Security Council and we would block the approval of any sale of fighter aircraft under the restrictions," Shannon told the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. When pressed, Shannon said the United States would veto any attempt...

The surprise visit of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to Tehran late February comes on the heels of rapidly intensifying high-level defence contacts between the two states. Even before this latest visit there was a flurry of speculation on impending Russian arms sales to Iran, in part touched off by Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan’s visit to Moscow barely four days before Shoigu’s visit to Tehran. Latest reports on Russia finally shipping the S-300 air defence system to Iran appear to lend credence to reports centred on substantial new arms sales, in particular the sale of Sukhoi Su-30 fighters. If...

Iran's defence minister General Hossein Dehghan confirmed he would sign a contract with Russia to buy the Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets as sanctions set up in the wake of the nation’s nuclear deal with the West start to loosen. But US officials have said they will raise the matter with Russia, sparking yet another potential dead-lock between the two international superpowers. The Obama administration issued an official statement to remind Russia that, after the Iran nuclear deal, Moscow are forbidden from selling the fighter jets to the Shiite Muslim nation as it fights proxy wars in the powder keg of...

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS-DEFENSE/. Russia has unveiled the export version of the Sukhoi Su-30SME (NATO reporting name: Flanker-C) multipurpose fighter jet at the Singapore Airshow 2016, a source in the defense and industrial sector said. "The Su-30SME aircraft [the export version of the Su-30SM fighter jet] has been shown on the international market for the first time," the source said. "Its development aims to offer foreign customers a fighter jet equipped with a Russian-made avionics suite," the source added. Unlike the Su-30MKI fighter jet, the avionics suite mounted on the Su-30SME aircraft’s version lacks French-made components, the source said. Russian-made...

Man, Boeing (NYSE:BA) just cannot catch a break. For a while there, 2015 was starting to look like the year Boeing defense got its wings back. In February, opining that "stealth may be overrated," U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert began laying the groundwork for the U.S. Navy breaking up with Lockheed Martin's F-35C fighter jet, and buying a bunch of Boeing F/A-18s for its carriers instead. Earlier this month, the Air Force floated a trial balloon of its own. In a controversial revelation, the Air Force suggested it was considering buying as many as six dozen cheaper...

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10, 2016: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has initiated the procurement of a fresh lot of 40 additional Su-30MKI air dominance fighters at an estimated $75 million apiece, reliable diplomatic sources disclosed to Arming India. The procurement is being taken up as a follow-on order to the 222 Su-30MKI fighters already contracted to be made under transfer of technology at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)'s Nasik division. Along with the initial 50 aircraft acquired in a flyaway condition from Russia in the late 1990s, the latest increment of 40 aircraft will take the total number of Su-30MKIs ordered...

Boeing Co. wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to keep something in mind as he looks to turn India into a defense manufacturing powerhouse: Size matters. With Modi planning to spend $150 billion to modernize military equipment over the next decade, the world's largest aerospace company sees an opportunity to grow its presence in India. Boeing lost out in 2012 to smaller French rival Dassault Aviation in what was then the biggest fighter-jet deal on record. "If India wants to jump start an aerospace economy, do you want to do that with Dassault -- that's about a $5 billion company --...

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan will probably sign a contract in his forthcoming trip to Moscow on Tehran’s purchase of Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, a Russian source announced Thursday. Sputnik quoted a source in Iran’s Defense Ministry as saying on Thursday that General Dehqan will go to Moscow on February 16 to discuss Russia’s delivery of S-300 air defense missile system to Iran as well as purchase of Su-30 Flanker multirole jet fighters. “Minister Dehqan is taking a number of the Defense Ministry’s representatives to the Russian capital to meet with their Russian colleagues...

A Russian Aerospace Forces regiment stationed in the country's Rostov region got its first three sophisticated Su-30SM fighters, according to the press service of the Southern Military District. The press service said that twenty more such warplanes will be delivered to the Rostov regiment before the end of this year. Experts from the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies have, meanwhile, argued that the regiment is the last Russian Aerospace Forces unit to still include the Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters. The experts referred to the unit as the 31st Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 1st Mixed Air Division of...

South Africa’s reputation as top gun when it comes to air power in the southern African region could be shot down by Angola and its powerful new Russian fighters. The west African country is set to take delivery of the first tranche of Sukhoi Su-30K fighters in the next six months and will have 12 in service by the end of next year. Gauteng Afrikaans daily Beeld approached military analyst Helmoed Heitman, retired SAAF and Indian Air Force pilot colonel Rama Iyer and a former officer commanding 2 Squadron for their views on how the SA Air Force’s (SAAF) Gripens...