Iran Buys 250 SU-30MKM from Russia?

[Black Owl]

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/...the_globe.html

There are reports of a pending sale of large numbers of advanced Russian fighters and tanker aircraft to Iran. The arms deal between the Rosoboronexport arms group and the Iranian government is said to provide for the sale of 250 Su-30MKM Flanker multi-role “fighters” and 20 Il-78MKI Midas aerial tankers. If these numbers are correct, this would be the largest Russian arms deal in about three decades, amounting to several tens of billions of dollars.

The Su-30 is now flown by the air forces of China, India, Malaysia, Russia, and Vietnam. In February 2004, U.S. Air Force pilots flying the F-15C Eagle fought against Indian pilots in an exercise with several types of fighter aircraft participating, including the Su-30. The U.S. pilots lost the exercise, named "Cope India." However, the U.S. pilots did fight against odds of 3:1 and the F-15s did not use their AN/APG-63(V)2 electronically scanned array radars nor did they simulate using the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. Still, the effectiveness of the Indian Su-30s did surprise many American observers.

As Western military officers plot the potential strike ranges for Su-30s based in Iran, they note that the aircraft could reach targets throughout the Middle East, including Israel. In-flight refueling, of course, would permit heavier weapons loads as well as greater ranges.

The web site MilitaryPeriscope.com shows that the Iranian Air Force currently flies about 285 fighter and attack aircraft:

65 F-4D/E Phantom fighter-attack
60+ F-5E Tiger II fighter
25 F-14A Tomcat fighter
24 Shenyang F-7M attack/trainer
24 F-7 (Chinese MiG-19 Farmer type) fighter
29 MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter-attack
30 Su-24MK Fencer fighter-attack
7 Su-25 Frogfoot attack
24 Mirage F1EQ fighter

The Su-30 acquisition would probably lead to the United States selling more advanced fighter-type aircraft as well as air defense systems to its allies in the region, especially Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

I hope things improve soon.

By that I mean I hope Iran's Islamo-facist government is destroyed soon.

[Carlo]

This is not a reliable information. Russia don't want to provoke the US and Israel so much by selling such amount of sophisticated aircraft. I think it is one more example of hysteria and/or russophobia ("Russian are allies of Iranian terrorists!")
The other new on that site attracted more my attention: VVS will sell all of its An-124 fleet? Why? Heavy strategic transport, though expensive, is very important for a huge country like Russia. It says that An-124 don't fly with VVS since 2005. But last year, and also last week (in the commemoration of 95 years of VVS) they flew, so perhaps these planes don't fly regularly, but are well kept and can be put in operation.
There is a big demand for more An-124 in the civil market, as it is has no competitor. But instead of selling its fleet, it would be better to restart the production of upgraded An-124. It seems that Russia and Ukraine are getting close to have a deal for the production of new An-124.

[zb10948]

This :

The Su-30 acquisition would probably lead to the United States selling more advanced fighter-type aircraft as well as air defense systems to its allies in the region, especially Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

Should go like this :

United States already signed multi-billion military aid to it's allies in the region, therefore they tried to raise panic by deliberatly releasing false info to the public, like the previously negated MiG-31E deal by Syria, and the officially negated Iranian 250 Su-30MK deal

Do you know how long would it take KnAAPO and Irkut combined to produce 250 Su-30's? Years, my friend, years. A lot of years.

And be gentle when calling someone "islamo-fascist", what you percept as fascism may be only an answer to the imperialism and fascism from the other side. I would never call Iran, or United States, a fascist regime, so please hold your horses and keep in mind that someone else stands in another frame of reference and has entirelly another view of things.

[Carlo]

You are right, zb, I forgot to mention that this "deal" was denied by both parties: the Iranian and the Russian. And also, Russian industrial production is now working at maximum capacity and won't be able to produce more 250 fighters for a new customer in the next years.
I remember that the first version of this "news" was published in an Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, and it said that Iran would buy 250 Su-30MKM and 20 Il-78M tankers. The value of the deal, according to the newspaper, was 1 billion dollars. One billion dollars for 250 sophisticated fighters and 20 tankers? The journalist who invented this didn't even care about investigating how much a deal like this would cost: 1 billion is ridiculously cheap for so much planes.

[zb10948]

1 billion $ for 250 MKM's...let's put out the tankers for a sec, and we have $4 million per Su-30MKM.

Nice. Gonna buy me one. Scrap the radar and all military stuff, it's gonna cost like $2mil. That's roughy 1 million euros. Need to check loan conditions in local banks

[Sukio]

I heard the Russians changed their minds. Look at Iran's new home grown fighter programs, which, basically copied a Russian Trainer, and the American F 5 Tiger.

[zb10948]

Yup, something between Yak-130 and F-5.

[exiled knight]

hello,my friend,first thing,mahmoud ahmadinejad not so stupid about yelling at other country about this 250-su 30-crap-thing after try to negotiate with washington.And 250 plane,what a such hocus-pocus thing.Malaysia brought 18 su for RM1.8 billion or maybe 500million in USD.don't believe that crap thing

[SepheronX]

Originally Posted by zb10948

Yup, something between Yak-130 and F-5.

Doesn't the Yak-130 trainer have advanced avionics and radar?