The Myanmar Air Force has received the two final export versions of the Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets as part of a contract with Russia signed in 2018.
The handover was held at the Meiktila Air Base Aviation School during the military’s 77th founding anniversary celebration.
It is the third tranche that Moscow has delivered to the Southeast Asian country, with the first pair shipped in July 2022, and the second pair four months later.
An update from Russian publishing agency World Arms Trade said that the overall value of the sale amounted to approximately $400 million.
Days before the arrival of the combat aircraft, the Myanmar Navy also celebrated its 77th anniversary in Yangon, where it inducted a medium-class frigate and commissioned two anti-submarine corvettes.
Sukhoi’s Su-30 Flanker
The Su-30, designated by NATO as the “Flanker,” is a 22-meter (72-foot) aircraft with a wingspan of 15 meters (49 feet).
It has an internal fuel capacity of 9,400 kilograms (20,723 pounds) and has a gross weight of 24,900 kg (54,895 pounds).
The plane is armed with a 30-millimeter automatic cannon, guided and unguided bombs, and air-to-air, air-to-surface, anti-ship, and anti-radiation missiles.
The Su-30 is fitted with twin afterburning turbofan engines for an altitude over 17,000 meters (55,774 feet), a range of 1,600 nautical miles (2,963 kilometers/1,841 miles), and a top speed of 1,140 knots (2,111 kilometers/1,312 miles per hour).
To date, more than 10 countries employ the jets, with India and Ethiopia among the latest to receive new models.
