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RF, India sign deal for adaptation of joint missile BrahMos to fighter Su-30

India is quite interested in the fulfilment of the idea to arm the fighters Su-30MKI with the missiles BrahMos

BANGALORE, February 5 (Itar-Tass) – Russia and India concluded a contract for the adaptation of the Russian-Indian missile BrahMos to the fighter Su-30. The contract was signed last December, Director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Alexander Fomin told reporters on Tuesday.

“We signed a contract for the adaptation of BrahMos to the Sukhoi fighters last December and are currently in the active stage of fulfilling this idea of our Indian partners,” Fomin said.

In reply to ARMS-TASS, whether the signing of the contract means that an opportunity of this adaptation was proved, Fomin said, “I did not say so. I said that the contract was signed for the adaptation of the missile to the fighter. In the fulfilment of this contract it will become clear whether the adaptation is feasible and whether BrahMos will be suitable for this fighter. I cannot promise it instead of designers and developers and cannot resolve this issue.”

Fomin also noted that Russia mainly offers “the consultative participation in this contract,” whereas India will do the bulk of the works. If this comes down to the trials, “Russia will participate in them,” Fomin said. “This is very difficult to adapt the new weapon to the fighter. The results should satisfy the developer of the missile and the developer of the fighter. In general, the missile will be perfect,” Fomin remarked.

Alexander Fomin heads the Russian delegation at the aerospace show Aero India-2013, which is being held in the Indian city Bangalore on February 6-10.

India is quite interested in the fulfilment of the idea to arm the fighters Su-30MKI with the missiles BrahMos. India has put into service ground-based and sea-based models of this missile. Meanwhile, the Sukhoi Company explained to ARMS-TASS that this is quite problematic. The point is that the missile BrahMos was not initially developed for the deployment of the aircraft and its weight dimension characteristics exceed the indicators of any other airborne missile. “To say the least, the wing of the warplane will have to be reinforced or the missile will have to be converted,” a Sukhoi specialist said.