Russia to deliver new batch of Su-30SM fighter jets to Kazakhstan
ASTANA. May 24 (Interfax-AVN) - A contract for the delivery of a new set of Sukhoi Su-30SM multirole fighter jets by Russia's Irkut Corporation to the Kazakh Armed Forces was signed in Astana on Thursday.
Under this contract, Irkut will deliver the planes to Kazakhstan by 2020.
The document was signed by Arman Ramazanov, general director of the Kazakh Defense and Aerospace Industry Ministry's Kazarnaulyexport (Kazspecexport) Republican State Enterprise, and Oleg Demchenko, the Irkut Corporation's first vice president and general designer, on the sidelines of the KADEX 2018 exhibition hosted in Astana.
Kazakhstan received eight Su-30SM fighter jets from the Irkut Corporation in 2015-2017.
"Military-technical cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia is in the interests of both states and is backed by a solid legal framework created within the Collective Security Treaty Organization," Ramazanov said at the signing ceremony.
Irkut Corporation President Yury Slyusar said that Russia highly values its good relations with partners from Kazakhstan.
"I am certain that the new contract for the delivery of Russian Su-30SM fighter jets will help deepen cooperation between our countries," the corporation's press service quoted Slyusar as saying.
Su-30SM Generation 4+ super-maneuverable fighters, produced at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, are used by the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Russian Navy's air force.
The aircraft has a radar system with a phased antenna array, thrust-vectoring engines, and a horizontal canard. It can carry modern and next-generation precision-guided air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons.
The jet was designed to ensure air superiority, block hostile airfields at depth, and operate against airborne, land, and seaborne targets day and night in any weather.