NEW DELHI - The Indian Air Force' (IAF) entire fleet of Su-30 MKI "Flying Lancer" jet fighters has been grounded following a crash of an aircraft near Pune on October 14. The full inventory will undergo safety checks on their ejection seats after the latest Su-30 crash occurred as a result of an unprompted seat ejection. Russian specialists aiding the Indian Su-30 safety probe remain unconvinced that seats ejected without being triggered by the pilot, which according to the two-person pilot crew was exactly what happened to both seats as the aircraft was coming in to make its landing.
Worries regarding the current state of the IAF's Su-30 fleet are rampant as both the IAF and domestic aerospace giant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have issued warnings about repeated mid-flight failures of the fighter's mission computer and the blanking out of cockpit displays, which according to a report in India's Sunday Guardian newspaper on March 15, 2014, has resulted in 50 percent of the operational fighter fleet being grounded. Other problems concern the repair and overhaul of the fleet as HAL currently conducts work on just two Su-30s per year.
The problems with the Su-30 MKIs expose the fragility of the IAF fighter fleet as the force is now down to 34 combat squadrons (each consisting of 18 fighters) out of an authorized total strength of 44. The Su-30s represent the front-line fighter for the IAF, which deploys them on India's borders with China and Pakistan. Since 1996, India has ordered 272 of these fighters from Russia with over 180 being license-produced in India by HAL.
The Su-30s are to be replaced as the IAF front-line fighter by the newer Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) and Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) fighters, but these projects are still in the design and/or feasibility phases and far from appearing on the near horizon.
Further adding to the IAF's combat aircraft woes are the engine issues involving the fleet of MiG-27s that are forcing the service to phase out all four squadrons of the aircraft by 2017. Rather than face the steep cost of correcting the engine defects on the MiG-27s the IAF will simply retire them.
The IAF's MiG-21bis "Bison" fleet, meanwhile, will continue to be operated by the IAF much longer than previously planned. Originally this fleet was to be phased out of service starting in 2014, but now appears likely to remain in service through 2025 due to delays related to the aforementioned FGFA project and the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) acquisition project involving the purchase of 126 new-build French Dassault Rafale jet fighters. Negotiations with Dassault relating to the latter acquisition have been ongoing since the aircraft was down-selected in January 2012.
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