Su-30 for Russian Air Force #2

Nº86, one of the last batch delivered
https://russianplanes.net/id318778

Su-30SM of the "Russian Knigths" Squadron in a combat mission
It is impressive to see how radar tricks are played. A Su-30SM flies alongside 2 Mi-28 "Havoc" helicopters.
The radar operator will think that there are 3 helicopters, he will send 1 response, he will give away his position, and he will be counterattacked by the Sukhoi's missiles.

That was tremendously impressive.  Just goes to show one of the many incredible capabilities of the Su-30SM.  Flying at such low speed and at what appears to probably be its maximum allowable angle of attack without a hint of stalling or even showing any signs of the need to constantly make adjustments.  The aircraft's attitude was just as steady as can be which is amazing in of itself.  That's pretty much the reason why this specific maneuver is one of the most popular ones showcased at almost every airshow with all different types of aircraft.   

The one in Canada with the RCAF F/A-18 that was training for an upcoming airshow and as soon as he slowed down and went into that high AoA, the jet suffered a flameout in the portside engine from a bird ingestion I believe and went down in less than 1.5 seconds.  Miracle that the pilot ejected safely.



I think everyone remembers the great Anatoly Kovutchur having the same exact thing happen to him in 1989 at the Farnborough air show in Paris.  This was one of the first times the west was able to see the MiG-29 up close and everyone had eyes glued on this demonstration which was incredible.  Kovutchur flew that thing like it was no one else's business then same thing, slowed down and went into that high AoA maneuver, and the same thing happened to the MiG with a bird ingestion.  This is the best example of the closest to the ground safest ejection ever.  It looked like his parachute canopy opened fully 1-1-millionth of a second before his feet touched the ground.



As far as the combat aspect, it's certainly a viable tactic, why not?  That's what HARM missiles are specifically designed for so why not create offensive tactics to facilitate the destruction of enemy radar sites.  That's pretty much the entire reason the USAF designated entire air force regiments in the Wild Weasels was to attack enemy radars and air defense sites.  

Get into that formation with the helicopters quickly, move into the designated sector while the aircraft's RWR picks up the enemy's GC radar location, break off at the appropriate stand-off distance and fire a couple of HARM missiles and retreat.  Makes perfect sense and it's only reasonable to see such a tactic being conducted in a training exercise like this one.

GarryB wrote:It did display at Farnborough in 1988, but the crash was in Paris in 1989.

That's what I meant to say. 

Serious upgrades were planned for Su-34, S-35 and the Su-57 before serial prodcution started.
Why should the Su-30 be an exception?
They will bring them up to the standard of the Su-35 in the coming years.

Stealthflanker wrote:

lancelot wrote:
Is the upgrade even worth it? We don't even know if the Su-30SM2 has the Irbis radar and AL-41F1 engines as originally planned or not. I keep hearing that it uses the same AL-31FP engines.

I think it has Irbis, given that SM-2 have that Leading Edge L-band radar, something which earlier SM does not need as N011M Bars already have IFF integrated in the main array.

L band radar does not necessairly mean IFF. It could very well be that IRBIS already has IFF integrated in the main array or that there is a separate small array in the aircraft for IFF work, it does not justify the two big jumbo size arrays on the wing edges.