IRKUTSK. May 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The supply of SU-30MKI multi- role fighters to India will begin in the first days of June, President of the Irkutsk Aircraft Production Association (IAPO) Alexei Fyodorov told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
All in all, ten jets will be delivered to India before the end of this year.
The contract is quite complicated from the technical point of view, Fyodorov said. "We had an idea of supplying planes ahead of schedule primarily to start training pilots in India, but we decided against jumping the gun," he said.
The planes will be delivered to India in knock-down form by charter flights, which is a peculiarity of the contract, the president said. That is why delivery of 10 planes will take some time.
Supplies under the contract will be completed in 2003, Fyodorov said. The licensed production of the SU-30 MKI will start in India in 2004.
"We have started transferring technical documentation," the official said. According to him, a considerable part of the technology will be transferred to India in the framework of the contract. Preparations for the transfer are underway both in Irkutsk and at other enterprises taking part in the SU-30MKI production, primarily at the Ufa engine building plan that manufactures engines for the fighters to be supplied to India.
IAPO has a huge experience in organizing licensed production of aircraft in India. Earlier it assisted India's HAL corporation in building 165 MIG-27 Flogger planes.
A contract on the licensed production of over 100 SU-30MKI multi-role fighters in India was signed in December 2000. The total cost of the deal is unofficially estimated at over USD3bn.