Su-30MKI’s production now also takes place in India.
Beijing: India has paved the way to upgrade its Sukhoi 30MKI to counter China’s stealth fighter jet J-35. According to a report by IDRW, an Indian Air Force officer has made a significant revelation regarding the upgrade of the Su-30MKI. The officer emphasized that India’s updated Sukhoi fighter jet will outperform China’s fifth-generation fighter jet J-35A. Since Pakistan is set to purchase the J-35A fighter jet from China and has been trying to intimidate India since last year, India needed to counter the Chinese fighter jet, and after this upgrade, the Pakistani jet will prove to be ineffective.
An Indian official has said that the Chinese J-35A is not a completely stealth fighter jet, but it incorporates some technology to evade radar. India’s indigenous Virupaksha radar will easily track it. Meanwhile, the advanced Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet equipped with Astra MkIII missiles will be able to track the Pakistani fighter jet, making it quite easy to shoot it down.
It is noteworthy that the Su-30MKI was purchased by India from Russia and its production now also takes place in India. It is referred to as the backbone of the Indian Air Force, and India has made several upgrades to it. It will include the Virupaksha-Alium nitride (GaN-based active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar with 2,400 transmit/receive modules (TRM). Additionally, the Astra MkIII missile, which is a beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile, will also be installed. This will make it nearly impossible for any Pakistani pilot flying the J-35A to evade Indian radars and missiles.
The IAF officer has given information about the state-of-the-art capabilities of the Virupaksha radar. He has said that it has GaN-based technology and high TRM calculation capability, due to which this radar is able to detect semi-stealth aircraft like J-35A at a considerable BVR distance. It is capable of detecting fighter aircraft coming within a radius of about 300 to 400 kilometers. The official said that “the Chinese use stealth technology to cover their radar signatures in the J-35A, but it is not a stealth jet, due to which it can be easily shot down after tracking.”
