The Belarusian Defence Ministry has confirmed the supply of a brand new batch of Su-30SM2 fighter plane from Russia to equip the Belarusian Air Pressure, following the supply of a previous batch in December 2025. The arrival of the plane was confirmed by the deputy commander of the Air Pressure and Air Defence Forces and chief of aviation, Colonel Aleksandr Belyaev, who noticed: “The principle process of our aviators is the safety of the air borders of our nation. They stand on the primary line of defence.” “The arrival of recent aviation gear is at all times a celebration for aviators. Flying a fighter that has simply left the manufacturing unit is honourable and nice, nevertheless it additionally obliges so much,” he added.
Colonel Belyaev elaborated that the duty felt by personnel dealing with new fighters is exceptionally excessive. “The sense of duty that aviation personnel expertise when servicing such aviation gear merely goes off the size,” he mentioned, including: “Now we have no proper to let down our individuals and our nation. Due to this fact, we’ll do every thing to make sure that our beloved Motherland stays peaceable and affluent.” The Su-30 is at present one among 4 fighter sorts in manufacturing in Russia alongside the Su-34 strike fighter, Su-35 air superiority fighter, and Su-57 fifth era fighter, and is one among a number of excessive worth Russian weapons methods that has just lately been procured alongside Mi-35 assault helicopters, S-400 lengthy vary air defence methods, and Oreshnik intermediate vary and Iskander-M brief vary ballistic missile methods.
The variety of Su-30 fighters in Belarusian service stays unsure, and whereas studies would point out a fleet of roughly 20 fighters, it stays potential that the Su-30SM2 fighters delivered are merely Su-30SM fighters previously in Belarusian service which have been returned to the nation after modernisation to the Su-30SM2 normal. Just one contract for Su-30 fighters is confirmed to have been signed, specifically a $600 million order for 12 of the plane, for a mean value of $50 million every. The Su-30 has offered a revolutionary enchancment to the Belarusian fighter fleet, with the nation beforehand having relied solely on out of date Soviet-built MiG-29 fighters, which though innovative when launched into service within the early Nineteen Eighties, had a really restricted air-to-air fight functionality, and a negligible floor assault functionality, by the requirements of the 2020s.
The Su-30SM is by far the longest ranged fighter sort fielded by a European state, whereas its radar can also be by far the most important at roughly triple the scale of that of NATO’s main fighter the F-35. Beforehand the longest ranged fighters deployed by a European air power had been the Soviet Su-27 air superiority fighters that had been inherited by Ukraine and Belarus, though the Belarusian Air Pressure retired the fighters from service within the early 2010s as a result of their excessive operational prices. Ukraine did not considerably modernise them and allowed coaching requirements to fall significantly, earlier than the fleet was largely destroyed by Russian forces throughout 4 years of hostilities from 2022. The Su-30SM represents a closely enhanced spinoff of the Su-27 design with ‘4+ era’ avionics and a excessive composite airframe. Regardless of being barely heavier, the plane’s upkeep necessities and operational prices are significantly decrease as a result of a variety of design enhancements made to the airframe.
Bettering on the capabilities of the Su-30SM, the Su-30SM2 integrates the AL-41F-1S engine which was developed to energy the Su-35 air superiority fighter, and has a gasoline effectivity degree and thrust/weight ratio extra similar to early fifth era engines such because the American F119 powering the F-22 fighter. The engines present the Su-30SM2 with an excellent larger vary, in addition to by far the best ranges of manoeuvrability as a result of their excessive thrust and three dimensional thrust vectoring capabilities. In addition they present extra energy for onboard methods, which can enable the plane to combine subsystems akin to directed vitality weapons in future which have larger energy necessities. The Belarusian fighter fleet stays considerably outnumbered by NATO forces deployed throughout its borders, and is predicted to deploy inside pleasant airspace in wartime, and to work intently with the nation’s dense community of ground-based air defences constructed across the S-400 lengthy vary system to asymmetrically counter bigger fleets.
