HAL has handed over the first Su-30MKI to be overhauled at its facilities. Source: IHS/Paul Jackson


India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) delivered its first overhauled Su-30MKI multirole fighter to the Indian Air Force (IAF) on 9 January.

Refurbished at its Nashik facility in western India - where HAL has been licence-building the twin-engine Russian fighter since 2000 - officials said the overhauled Su-30MKI is now capable of operating for another 14 years or 1,500 hours of flying time.

HAL sources said the overhaul, costing around INR1.10 billion (USD18.3 million), entailed executing more than 600 modifications to the Su-30MKI involving around 2,500 separate processes.

HAL added that a second overhauled Su-30MKI was also ready for delivery to the IAF. The company also announced its intent of imminently increasing its capacity to overhaul 15 Su-30MKIs annually and of doubling this number by 2030.

Each Su-30MKI undergoes three overhauls during its 25-year operational life or 6,000 hours of flying time.

"We [HAL] are the first in the world to hand over an overhauled Su-30MKI to the air force after it completed 1,500 flying hours in 10 years," S Subrahmanyam, managing director of HAL's Nashik complex, told the Times of India .

However, it took HAL more than a decade to develop maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities for the Su-30MKI.

An MoD official said this aspect was "mysteriously overlooked" by HAL, the IAF and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) when the USD3 billion tender to licence-build 140 Su-30MKIs at Nashik was signed with Russia in 2000.

The MoD, meanwhile, aims to offer the Su-30MKI MRO capability to countries that, between them, operate around 200 Su-30 variants. Other than Russia this includes Algeria, Malaysia, Uganda, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

The IAF acquired 50 Su-30K variants in the late 1990s for USD1.46 billion, and thereafter replaced them with the more advanced Su-30MKI export version through direct imports and licensed production by HAL. By around 2020 the IAF aims to operate 272 Su-30MKIs, making it India's single largest fighter type.
ANALYSIS

With the IAF reduced to just 34 fighter squadrons from its sanctioned strength of 42, the procurement of 126 Dassault Rafales in limbo, and older Russian platforms such as the MiG-21 retiring shortly, the number of Su-30MKIs in IAF service is likely to increase significantly.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar recently indicated as much when he declared in December 2014 that additional licence-built Su-30MKIs could "adequately" meet the possible shortfall of IAF fighters.

However, the Su-30MKI's serviceability rate of around 50% - among the lowest of the IAF's fighters - poses serious operational problems, and for which the air force is entirely dependent on HAL to improve.

Official sources said of the 193 Su-30MKIs in service today, only around 106 were operationally available. The remaining 87 were in various stages of repair, overhaul or fitment by HAL - and to a limited degree by the IAF.

Senior IAF officers believe that ramping up HAL's capacity to annually overhaul 15, and later 30, Su-30s would go a long way towards improving the Russian fighter's serviceability. It would also render more platforms operationally available to a force facing depleted assets.
http://www.janes.com/article/47805/h...dian-air-force
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bisa ngerusakin ya harus bisa benerin....apakah TNI tertarik memanjangkan umur sukronya di tempat ini??