Su-30MKI Set To Evolve Further

Su-30MKI Set To Evolve Further
By Prasun K. Sengupta
FORCE – Feburary-2005

The super-manoeuvrable Su-30MKI Mk3 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) has given the IAF precision attack capabilities more advanced than what is available to any other air force in the world. “The Su-30MKI is the product of a unique and successful experiment in management and cooperation in the field of design, development and production between Russian design and production establishments, Indian defence R & D laboratories, the IAF and HAL,” stated the then IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, in his message issued on the occasion of induction of the MRCA on September 27, 2002. Furthermore, the IAF along with Rosoboronexport FSUE, Sukhoi OKB and IRKUT Corp has since undertaken a multi-pronged approach to greatly enhance the Su-30MKI Mk3’s operational reliability and serviceability through:

SU-30MKI

Predictive Maintenance Technologies.

Incorporation of avionics of French, Israeli and Indian origin with greater reliability, which can be ‘nuclear-hardened’, i.e. can be ruggedised to withstand the electromagnetic pulse blasts emanating from a nuclear explosion.

Incorporation of advanced composite materials into the Su-30MKI’s fuselage, resulting in a higher thrust-to-weight ratio and increased weapons carriage capability.

Predictive Maintenance

For acquiring predictive maintenance capability, the IAF and Rosoboronexport FSUE have joined forces with South Africa ‘s Aerospace Monitoring And Systems (Pty) Ltd (AMS). Predictive maintenance means the on- and off-board processing of aircraft sub-systems data, resulting in an accurate, conclusive indication of the health and usage status of various airborne systems. The Su-30MKI Mk3’s on-board health-and-usage monitoring system (HUMS) not only monitors almost every aircraft system and sub-system, including the avionics sub-systems, it can also act as an engineering data recorder. For the Su-30MKI Mk3, AMS was contracted for providing total HUMS solutions, starting with definition of the IAF’s qualitative requirements, followed by systems provision (development and implementation), integration and support phases. Methods have since been co-developed by AMS and the IAF for the following: fatigue loading spectra; fatigue analysis methods; material fatigue behaviour; fracture mechanics; damage tolerance analysis and testing of redundant metallic aircraft structures; fatigue crack growth analysis; crack growth, residual strength analyses, and aircraft structural integrity programmes; and ageing aircraft issues.

Indigenous Avionics

It is a matter not merely of national pride but also of great practical advantage in terms of costs and maintainability that many critical elements of the Su-30MKI Mk3’s avionics suite were designed indigenously by the DRDO under a project code named ‘Vetrivale’ (a Tamil name for the victorious lance carried by the youthful Lord Karthikeya or Murugan, a son of the mythical Parvati and Shiva) in close collaboration with the IAF. The India-origin avionics have been received and acknowledged enthusiastically by the Russian aerospace industry. The core avionics designed by DARE for the Su-30MKI Mk3 consists of the Mission Computer, Display Processor and two Radar Computers, all of which are now manufactured by HAL’s Hyderabad Division. The 32-bit Mission Computer performs mission-oriented computations, flight management, reconfiguration-cum-redundancy management and in-flight systems self-tests. In compliance with MIL-STD-1521 and 2167A standards, Ada language has been adopted for the mission computer’s software. The other DARE-developed product, the Tarang Mk2 (Tranquil) radar warning receiver, is manufactured by state-owned BEL at its Bangalore facility. Other indigenous avionics on board include the HAL-built IFF transponder and an integrated communications suite.

NO11M-BARS

Efforts are now underway in both Russia and India to further improve the mean-time-between failures of the Su-30MKI Mk3’s N011M Bars (snow leopard) passive phased-array fire-control radar, according to Tamerlan Bekirbaev, Chief designer of the Tikhomirov Scientific Research Institute of Instrument Building. The Bars has a 350km search range and a 200km tracking range for airborne targets. It can track 20 such targets and engage the 8 most threatening simultaneously with either Vympel R-27RE1/TE1 or R-77 beyond-visual-range air combat missiles . The radar’s forward hemisphere is +/-90º in azimuth and +/-55º in elevation. The N-011M ensures a 20-metre resolution detection of large sea targets at a distance of up to 400km, and of smaller size ones out to 120km . Other avionics whose mission performance will be enhanced include the quadruplex digital fly-by-wire flight control system will be undertaken by Russia’s Tekhnokompleks Scientific and Technical Centre and the Ramenskoye Instrument Building Design Bureau.

Airframe & Engine Upgrades

Planned for incorporation into the Su-30MKI fuselage on a progressive basis from 2006 through to 2017 on 114 of the 140 HAL-built Su-30MKI Mk3s are all-composite structures like wing spars and wing boxes, air intakes, fairing skins, fairing blocks, co-cured co-bonded fin and centre-fuselage components, elevators, rudder and its all-composite torque shaft, ailerons, belly fairings, landing gear doors, ceramic thermal barrier linings, and ceramic brake-pads. Interestingly, several such structures are currently being incorporated into the IAF’s MiG-29B-12 airframes as well.

AL-31FP Turbofan

Other performance improvements to be carried out in future will involve the 29,400 lb-thrust AL-31FP turbofan, developed and produced by the Saturn Scientific Production Association (NPO Saturn). The company’s General Director, Yuriy Lastochkin, revealed on October 6 last year that the AL-31FP’s service life now stands certified at 1,000 hours, while that for the thrust vectoring nozzle (made of titanium) is 500 hours. Some 920 AL-31FPs will be built by HAL’s Koraput Division, while the airframe and other accessories will be produced by HAL’s Divisions in Lucknow and Hyderabad . Final assembly-cum-integration of the Su-30MKI Mk3 will be carried out at HAL’s Nasik Division. The IAF will also equip some of its Su-30MKI Mk3s with UPAZ-1 aerial refueling pods and underwing fuel tank-pods to enable them to undertake buddy-buddy refuelling sorties.

Says Sergey V Chemezov, General Director of Rosoboronexport State Corp: “Implementation of Su-30MKI project heralds a new phase in the current history of India-Russia military-technical cooperation. Designers and specialists from both countries are working as a united team on the development of this technologically very sophisticated project. Obtained experience has allowed our countries to proceed to the more advanced state-of-the-art phase–licensed production of 140 Su-30MKI Mk3s on the production lines of HAL as per the contract inked in December 2000. This contract is now being implemented in accordance with obligations undertaken by both sides and its first major milestone was rollout, on November 28, 2004 , of the first HAL-assembled Su-30MKI Mk3”.