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Russian Air Force may buy about 90 Su-35 fighters before 2020

A report on the test flights will be made in October 2012, and the deliveries to Air Force units will start, Drik said

MOSCOW, August 26 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Air Force may buy about 90 newest fighter jets Sukhoi Su-35 before 2020, Air Force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik told Itar-Tass.

The super-maneuverable multirole fighter is being tested at the Defense Ministry’s Chkalov State Testing Center, he said. “More than 650 test flights have been done, and onboard weaponry is being used in these tests,” he said.

A report on the test flights will be made in October 2012, and the deliveries to Air Force units will start, Drik said.

Six Su-35 will be supplied to the Russian Defense Ministry this year, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) President Mikhail Pogosyan said in July. The Su-35 is bound to become the main fighter jet of Russia. This is a profoundly modernized jet of generation 4++. The use of 5th generation technologies makes it superior to fighters of the same class.

The jet has new wings, a new control system, a new engine with enlarged variable direction thrust, new avionics based on a digital data control system, and a new phased antenna array radar with a longer range of operation and a larger number of simultaneously locked targets. The jet stealth has been increased manifold.