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18 new Sukhoi fighters to replace old ones

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: India has signed a deal with Russia for replacing 18 used Su-30K fighter jets with an equal number of new Su-30MKI planes.

Under the $500-million contract, Russia will buy back the 18 Su-30K jets with limited capabilities, supplied to the IAF in 1997-1998, and replace them with the same number of more versatile and sophisticated Su-30MKI, the Moscow-based Kommersant daily reported on Thursday.

The Su-30K have exhausted their pre-overhaul flight limit of 1,500 hours and will be bought back by Russia at a price of $12 million an aircraft for possible resale to some African or Asian nations. The new Su-30MKI will cost India $40 million a plane. The Irkut aircraft corporation said earlier it had built 12 out of the 18 Su-30MKI planes bound for India.

The deal clears the way for the signing of another contract for supply of an additional 40 Su-30MKI semi-knockdown kits for licensed assembly at the HAL factory in Nasik, Kommersant said.

In a separate report, the paper said Russia was beginning deliveries to India 38 Smerch long-range surface-to-surface multiple rocket systems (MRSs) under a $450-million contract signed in December 2005. India has also signed a contract for purchasing another 24 Smerch MRSs for $300 million, the report said.

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