HAL as lead agency for Su-30MKI upgrade

“H AL will be the lead agency for the Sukhoi Su-30MKI upgrade programme, involving back-to-back contracts with Russian partners,” stated HAL CMD T Suvarna Raju at his press conference on 15 February 2017. The programme will be carried out in two phases, the first to be finalised “within 90 days.”

The Chairman also gave detailed statistics on aircraft production, with 183 Su-30MKIs produced as of January 2017, and the balance to be manufactured by 2020 at rate of 12 aircraft per year. It is understood that the IAF now have twelve squadrons equipped with the type, and one example each from Nos. 8 and 15 Squadrons took part in the daily flying displays at Aero India 2017.