Posted on 09/21/2017 9:52:00 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The first two of 12 Sukhoi Su-30K fighters Angola ordered nearly four years for $1 billion have arrived in the country, giving a country with one of the most formidable air forces in the region some of the best military hardware Russia has to offer.
Angola enters the club of African states possessing Su-30s along with Uganda and Algeria. The planes bounced around a lot before they got there.
In 2013, Angola inked the purchase with Russia for the fighters, which served with the Indian Air Force from 1998-2005 before returning to Russia in exchange for more modern Su-30MKIs. Via Russia, the Su-30Ks headed to Belarus for refurbishment and an upgrade to their radar and navigation systems, before heading to Angola.
The Su-30K — a commercial export version of the Flanker-C, per its NATO reporting name — is a highly maneuverable aircraft that fills a similar role to the U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle, capable of both ground attack and air superiority missions. Its range amounts to more than 1,800 miles and can boost to a maximum speed of Mach 2. The warplane’s maximum payload is 18,000 pounds of bombs, rockets and missiles mounted on 12 hardpoints.
And Angola is considering buying more.
Angola has long had one of the largest air forces in Africa, a fact which owes to the Angolan civil war from 1975-2002. During the 1970s and 1980s, enormous amounts of outside support poured into the country in an extended Cold War proxy conflict — a war which began to recede following the 1994 Lusaka Protocol.
The Soviet-backed MPLA, which prevailed in the war and rules Angola to this day, received aircraft, weapons and training assistance from the Soviet bloc and Cuba — the latter which sent its own warplanes and pilots to enter the fray. Zaire and Apartheid South Africa intervened on the side of the FNLA and UNITA, which both received support from the United States.
South Africa’s intervention and its heavy use of air power — bombing bases and strafing convoys — posed as one of the MPLA’s biggest threats.
The MPLA’s extensive support and heavy combat experience also meant Angolan pilots — schooled by Romanian instructors — became some of the best on the continent.
As of 2016, the Angolan air force numbers some 83 combat-capable aircraft, including six Su-27 Flankers, 26 MiG-23 Floggers of two variants, 20 MiG-21bis Fishbeds, 13 Su-22 Fitters and one Su-24 Fencer amounting to the fighters capable of air-to-air combat. Ten Su-25 Frogfoots are Angola’s only dedicated ground-attack jets, although 42 of its fighters have dual-roles. Angola has a fleet of 44 Hind attack helicopters.
It’s all very impressive, and the Su-30K purchase back in 2015 had set off alarms in the South African press that the state-of-the-art planes could pose a threat. But while the Angolan military is tough, it’s not as tough as the charts make it appear to be.
“On paper the army and air force constitute a significant force, but equipment availability and serviceability remain questionable,” the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based research institute, noted in its book-length Military Balance 2016.
Secondly, air-to-air fighting is about more than what an airplane is technically capable of doing. “For various reasons, the Angolans allowed their air force to lose much of the expertise it gained in the 1980s and with it their ability to keep up with the latest developments in air power doctrine and technique,” Darren Olivier noted in the African Defense Review in 2015.
Advanced training, buying deadlier missiles and sharper radars, and practicing with electronic warfare systems, modern data links and new techniques all matter greatly — and here South Africa has done a better job than Angola. For one, the South Africans have better air-to-air missiles — brand-new V3E A-Darters — on their Swedish-made JAS 39 Gripen fighters than the older Vympel R-73s to feature on Angola’s Su-30Ks.
Angola intervened in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1998 and aspires to be a more significant regional power.
The Angolan air force is also a matter of prestige for the authoritarian MPLA and Pres. José Eduardo dos Santos, the third longest-ruling leader in the world and who taps fossil fuel-rich Angola like his personal piggy bank. In a country with one of the world’s worst childhood mortality rates, he has still found time to enrich his family members and spend lavishly on the military in true autocratic style.
Su-30s help accomplish all of these goals, and helps keep the military happy — though without the training, maintenance and doctrine the practical utility for this splurging could be for naught. Which is still better than Angola actually using the planes for war.
Those only fly with Russian pilots.
Don’t kid yourself.
Are these ex Indian air force Su-30k airplanes?
They use them to root out meerkats.
I have no way of knowing, but that’s certainly not out of the question. You may be exactly right.
So it’s just the Russians getting bases in Angola?
They may look state of the Art”, but what’s bought from the Russians will still be the Monkey Model.
$80 million each for a used, out-of-date airplane?
“What the Hell Is Angola Doing With These State-of-the-Art Fighters?”
Angola needs to be able to defend itself from the murderous and genocidal South African ANC regime.
Cuba used Angola as a combat training ground for years.
They use them to deliver our foreign aid tax dollars.
Islam in Angola is extremely limited. It is not even registered as a legal religion as of 2016. Only 90k Sunni in a population of 25 million. Maybe I don’t mind Angola having decent weapons. Hm.
Is Angola just replacing worn out equipment? they got a lot of their planes used, and most of their fighters are long out of production.
Assuming they are sufficiently upgraded to be effective military hardware doesn’t necessarily give you an effective military. Ask Saddam Hussein about that.
I don’t follow Angola close enough to know. Hope someone else chimed in.
Oh dear oh my. This is getting deadly serious. The dreaded AU (alternative universe) Su-37 "Steampunk-ski" outfitted with the latest Japanese "anime" technology. Features include:
* Exposed tail gunner immune to both slipstream and high-g manuvers, and a clear field of fire to shoot up the boiler.
* 4" caliber Gatling cannon with "anti-physics" recoil compensation in the starboard inlet.
* Inverted gull wings because they look cool.
* Pre-rusted and pre-worn out parts to keep mechanics busy at all the wrong times.
Sorry, I couldn't resist a little humor. I only built a snap-together model van with my Dad as a kid, but I do appreciate the creativity in kitbashing.
Its too late for them to be the first to shoot down the plane carrying the Secretary of the UN. I guess they’ll have to settle for being the second.
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