MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Russia will supply ten advanced Sukhoi Su-35 (NATO reporting name: Flanker-E) fighter jets to China this year, President of the United Aircraft-Building Corporation Yuri Slyusar said on Tuesday.

"We’ll supply another 10 planes to China’s Defense Ministry in 2017," he said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV Channel.

A source in the system of Russia’s military and technical cooperation earlier told TASS that the first four fighter jets had been delivered to China already late last year and the second batch of 10 aircraft would be supplied to the customer in 2017.

According to the source, the last 10 fighter jets will be delivered to China in 2018.

Deputy Director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Vladimir Drozhzhov told TASS in November 2016 that Russia had started implementing its commitments under a contract with China for the delivery of the fighter jets.

Russia and China signed a contract in November 2015 for the delivery of 24 Su-35 fighter jets. The three-year deal for the supplies of the combat planes together with ground equipment and spare engines is estimated at $2 bln.

As a source in the system of Russia’s military and technical cooperation earlier told TASS, the contract will be fulfilled within three years.

The governor of the Khabarovsk Territory in the Russian Far East where the manufacturer of Su-35 fighter jets is located earlier said that the enterprise would supply the first four such aircraft to China by the yearend but state hi-tech corporation Rostec Head Sergei Chemezov said that there would be no deliveries of Su-35 fighters to China in 2016.

The Su-35 is a Russian-made multipurpose generation 4++ super-maneuverable fighter jet equipped with a phased array radar and steerable thrusters. It can develop a speed of up to 2,500 kilometers per hour and has a flying range of 3,400 kilometers and a combat radius close to 1,600 kilometers. The fighter jet is armed with a 30mm gun and has 12 hardpoints for carrying bombs and missiles.