KUALA LUMPUR. April 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia's SU-30MK Flanker multifunctional fighter and the U.S. F/A-18 Superhornet have the best chances for winning the Malaysian contract for supplies of a batch of modern fighters.
"Arms purchase on the competitive basis is very popular in Southeastern Asia, and many nations of the region arrange tenders," Deputy Director General of the Sukhoi Military Aircraft Corporation Alexander Klementyev told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday. "If the tender is announced, our aircraft has good chances to win," he added.
"The military aircraft market in Southeastern Asia is very capacious," Klementyev went on. According to him, the SU-30MK is already competing for a Singaporean contract. The official declined to disclose terms of the competition saying that "we only comment on the fact of our participation in the tender, as we have agreed with the organizers."
Klementyev noted that the SU-30MK with front horizontal surfaces and thrust vector control was competing for the contracts.
Speaking about the plane's promotion on the Indonesian market, Klementyev said that the Russian party regretted not signing the contract with Indonesia as a result of a financial crisis in Southeastern Asia. "If the Indonesian party comes up with cooperation scenarios and they are backed on the political level, we are ready to start working out details, but the contract that we were elaborating earlier will no longer do," Klementyev said.
The official did not rule out "interesting variants of military-technical cooperation with the Philippines," but noted that "we are more restrained about this country."