Engine snags ground IAF Su-30 frontline fighters

Engine snags ground IAF Su-30 frontline fighters
4 September 2003: Most of India’s frontline fighter aircraft, the Russian-built Su-30, have developed serious engine snags and been grounded, and the Indian Air Force headquarters suspects lax and careless engine-testing at Sukhoi.

Forty-one engines of twenty-eight Su-30MKs and MKIs seized up after just four-thousand hours of flying, and while the first priority is to quickly send them out for restoration, the air force HQ is also studying the contract with Sukhoi about liability and calculating the restoration costs.

The IAF has one squadron of eighteen Su-30MKs and another of ten Su-30MKIs while Russia has yet to deliver twenty-two more Su-30MKIs by early 2004 under a deal for fifty aircraft signed in 1996 but modified in 1998.

Defence officials say that India~s trust in Russian defence manufacturers has been smashed by the engine snags.

Sukhoi-30MKI is a two-seater, twin-engine, multirole fighter which can carry a variety of medium-range guided air-to-air missiles, and it was dubbed the “pride of Indian Air Force” when it was inducted into the service.

India and Russia signed a $1.8-billion contract in November 1966 for forty Su-30MKIs and an additional deal was signed in December 1998 for purchase of ten more fighters, and Russia promised to complete upgradation and delivery by 2004-05.

http://www.intelligenceonline.net/logindiareacts1.asp?recno=2269

u need a login and a passw and some dough as well

——————————————

ouch man

something more from that website India to gift MiGs, choppers to Afghanistan

——————————————-

India to gift MiGs, choppers to Afghanistan

4 September 2003: In a policy reversal not to arm Afghanistan, the Indian government has decided to gift sixty MiG-21 fighters to the country, and Afghan air-force pilots will be trained for eight months on the aircraft here.

Afghanistan originally requested for fighter planes in February since it could not always depend on US air support in firefights with Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in southern and eastern Afghanistan, and Kabul also has to plan for a future without American or NATO peacekeeping forces.

When Pakistan got word about the Afghan request, foreign-minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri objected to the United States during his visit to Washington, but America disregarded him.

India assisted in setting up the first-ever professional Afghan national army, and the infant air force will operate under it to give air and logistics support, until it expands into a full-fledged separate service.

In addition to the MiG-21s, India will provide Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters in transport and gunship modes according to Afghan requirements.

as if afghans havent already lost so many ppl!