Information
about the Sukhoi Su33K Flanker
The Sukhoi Su33K Flanker is actually the Navy's version of the Su27 Flanker.
In the middle 1990s, the Russian Defense Minister had launched a
constest for the fighter that they will build, buy and use in the
near future, but also for export. There were only two competitors
:
- Sukhoi Su33K Flanker
- MAPPO Mikoyan-Grenich MIG29M Superfulcrum, and guess who won ???
The Su33K Flanker has a lot of names and a rich testing history. I heard of the Su30D Flanker, the Su30K Flanker and Su30MK Flanker. The Su30MK Flanker will be massiveley exported to India, and
already in late 1998, the Indian Armed Forces were training with Tornados, MiG29 Fulcrums, MiG21s, some Mirage 2000s and Su30K Flankers near the border to Pakistan, which made a very hot international dispute in those days.
Observe that at the beginning of the article I said Su33K Flanker, and now I say Su30K Flanker. Well, this is another name confusion, because the names are exactley as I wrote in this page, but the Indian Air Forces have bought Su30K Flankers.
The Su30MK Flanker is a little bit smaller than the Su27, but it carrier more weapons and it has a huge range, 5200km. The engines have thrust-vectoring nossels and it would probably be the first fighter in-service with
thrust-vectoring nossels. India will buy 40 of them in the near future, while China will buy 80 of them.
