This shows that there is virtually no improvment in life of -FP over F engine both are the same.

AVN Military News Agency web site, Moscow, in English 1152 24 Jul 00/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC
Text of report in English by Russian AVN Military News Agency web site

Irkutsk, 24th July: Russia is planning to begin supplies of the first Su-30MKI Flanker … planes to India in December 2001, a competent source in the Irkutsk Aviation Production Enterprise [IAPE] told the Military News Agency on Monday [24th July]. According to the source, the terms of the supplies have been already agreed by representatives of the Russian and Indian parties and they only have to sign a joint protocol.

The reason for the terms’ prolongation was that India could not decide on the type of the planes’ avionics for quite a long period. At present the decision is taken and several sets of the equipment have been delivered to the IAPE, the source said. The value of the contract ranges from 1.55bn to 1.8bn US dollars, according to several estimations.

It envisages that Russia is to supply a total of 40 Su-30 fighters, including 32 Su-30MKI models and eight Su-30K planes, which were delivered to India in 1997. The latter will be modernized into the Su-30MKI models later on.

Besides, in 1999 Russia and India signed a 300m-450m US dollars contract on the supply of 10 more Su-30K planes.

The Su-30MKI has two AL-31FP engines equipped with the variable thrust vector system. The engine’s first repairing resource is 1,000 hours, appointed resource – 1,500 hours. The nozzle service life is 250 hours and it is planned to be made up to 500 hours. The Su-30MKI has improved combat capabilities for attacking ground and air targets. Its characteristics and combat potential has a superiority over the US F-15E plane of the same class.

Credit: AVN Military News Agency web site, Moscow, in English 1152 24 Jul 00

[QUOTE=aerospacetech][QUOTE=Yahoo25]This just proves my point of Russian Radars MTBF.

According to the source, developers have managed to boost the radars’ reliability. In particular, mean-time-between-failures already exceed 60 hours. “India has recently hosted a presentation of the Kopyo radar for the LCA plane. There are serious intentions to attain this goal jointly,” the source said.

Actually, this proves absolutely nothing of the sort. This is a new radar, made with new processes, with India the launch customer. If you would like to check how reliable the F-15’s APG-63 radar was in the early days, or the AWG-9 from the Tomcat, I’m sure you’ll realise that exceeding 60 hours MTBF already is actually a decent achievement.

this Kopyo radar is for 21st century. you are comparing things with 30 year old era.

Su-34 i think can carry 12 tons of fuel and hard points can carry more heavier stuff so provide more flexibility in weopons configuration and is designed to be fitted with AL-41F1 engine.

This should end all the debate. Su-27SK is the best currently. Note the mention of use of new upgraded engines. MKI engines, airframe, FBW, and Radar is Russian and ofcourse integration is there. They know it. The rest of stuff is just Indian and foreign small BS.

New Russian SU’s better than Indian or Chinese versions…

MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian air force has begun fitting its Soviet-built
fighter jets with new engines, weapons and avionics as part of the nation’s
most ambitious weapons modernization effort since the 1991 collapse of the
Soviet Union, officials said Friday.
The first batch of five upgraded Su-27SM fighters flew Friday from the
aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Far East to the air force’s
Lipetsk combat training center in western Russia for evaluation and tests.
Russian television stations showed sleek twin-engined blue-and-grey
fighters landing at a snowy airfield and enthusiastic pilots hailing their
performance.
“They still smell of fresh paint. They are like factory-fresh cars,” a
smiling squadron leader, Yuri Gritsenko, told NTV television.
Maj.-Gen. Alexander Kharchevsky, the Lipetsk base chief, said that the
upgraded fighter “features the latest achievements in electronics, weapons
and navigation.”
While the original Su-27 was designed as a fighter, its upgraded version
can be used as a strike aircraft, Kharchevsky said in televised remarks.
Lt.-Gen. Alexander Zelin, the air force’s deputy chief, said that the
program to overhaul Russia’s fleet of Su-27s was set to be completed in 2005,
the Interfax-Military News Agency reported. Zelin wouldn’t say how many
fighters would be converted to the new standard.
Zelin said that the plane’s new version has better capabilities than the
Su-30MKK and Su-30MKI – the advanced versions of the Su-27 sold to China and
India in recent years.
“We can’t have aircraft in our inventory that would be worse than those
sold to foreign customers,” Zelin said.
The Su-27 entered the Soviet air force during the 1980s. The Russian air
force so far has lacked funds for modernizing them or any other Soviet-built
aircraft…
Russian pilots have complained bitterly that their aircraft were falling
apart while Russian aircraft builders were building new planes for China,
India and other foreign clients.
The increasing wear-and-tear on the Russian air force planes and lack of
pilots’ training blamed on kerosene shortages have contributed to the
increasing number of crashes of combat aircraft in recent years.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly promised to modernize military
arsenals, and next year is to see the most ambitious weapons modernization
program since the Soviet collapse. The government plans to spend 341.2
billion rubles (US$11.7 billion), or about 14 percent of the government’s
2004 budget, on modernizing fighters, upgrading strategic bombers, and buying
new helicopter gunships, missiles and other weapons.[/b]

The sentence is normal fuel load of 5tons and 3000KM range. there is no other meaning of this. I can imagine that due to heavier weight of MKI as compared to MK/K version its range will be even less.

The discussion is about LCA and its tall claims not about trade or investment(otherwise China-US is far more in both categories).
So LCA super duper radar can only track 10 and thats only specification not reality. Alteast the specfication should be 40 tracked

Some people never learn. 😡
When F-15E shows, that something is wrong about empty weight logic. :p

whats wrong with heavy weight logic? I cannot imagine 20Ton empty weight machine going to Mach 2.5 with this thrust.

nothing in India is less than 20 years.

http://www.hindu.com/2004/09/30/stories/2004093002781300.htm
Brahmos will have to wait’

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, SEPT. 29. The supersonic Brahmos missile, the undetectable ship defence system that works on ramjet propulsion covering a range of 230 km, will have to wait for about 10 years before its technology can be declared mature, according to S. Sundarrajan, Deputy Programme Director, Brahmos, Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. He was delivering a lecture on the `Trends and Challenges — Guided Missile Programme’ to mark the foundation day of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at the Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi.

When the country launched the Agni missile in 1988, the West imposed sanctions under the Missile Technology Control Regime. However, the DRDL’s initiatives remained unaffected because all its designs were based on Indian standards. Mr. Sundarrajan said the CECRI should come out with high-energy batteries and evolve effective corrosion protection