SUKHOI - Сухой Су

The Sukhoi Su-30 (NATO reporting name Flanker-C) is a twin-engine, two-seat military aircraft developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions.

The Su-30 started out as an internal development project in the Sukhoi Su-27 family by Sukhoi. The design plan was revamped and the name was made official by the Russian Defense Ministry in 1996. Of the Flanker family, only the Su-27, Su-30, Su-34 and Su-35 have been ordered into serial production by the Defense Ministry. All the others, such as Su-37, were prototypes.

The Su-30 has two distinct branches, manufactured by competing organisations: KnAAPO and the Irkut Corporation, both of which come under the Sukhoi group's umbrella. KnAAPO manufactures the Su-30MKK and the Su-30MK2, which were designed for and sold to China, and later Indonesia and Vietnam. Due to KnAAPO's involvement from the early stages of developing Su-35, these are basically a two-seat version of the mid-1990s Su-35. The Chinese chose an older but lighter radar so the canards could be omitted in return for increased payload. It is a dedicated strike fighter designed for long-range air-to-surface attack missions, similar to the American F-15E.

Irkut traditionally served the Soviet Air Defense and, in the early years of Flanker development, was given the responsibility of manufacturing the Su-27UB, the two-seat trainer version of the Su-27. When India showed interests in the Su-30, Irkut offered the multirole Su-30MKI, which originated as the Su-27UB modified with avionics appropriate for fighters. 

Along with its ground-attack capabilities, the series adds features for the air-superiority role, such as thrust-vectoring, forward canards and a long-range phase-array radar. Its derivatives include the MKM, MKA and MKV for Malaysia, Algeria and Venezuela, respectively. The Russian Airforce is in talks to buy from Sukhoi's mass production facility Irkut on 28 to 40 Su-30 C fighters.