Producer insists that Su-35 offering should out-compete F-15K, Rafale and Eurofighter (389 words)

Published: 10/30/2001

Sukhoi is continuing to market aggressively the Su-35 multirole fighter to possible customers and has said that it has made a good impression in the Brazilian assessment of fighters as part of the FX BR competition to find a replacement for its fleet of F-5s and Mirage IIIs. The decision on whether to select the Su-35, for evaluation by Brazil, is expected by the year-end. Elsewhere, South Korea draws nearer to the conclusion of the F-X tender, with a final decision on the tender anticipated within the next few weeks. Despite the clear political advantages of the US offering - the F-15K - Sukhoi remains optimistic about the prospects of the Su-35 against the F-15K, Rafale and Eurofighter. According to Sukhoi, the Su-35 has been flown by Korean pilots 15 times and meets the Korean operational requirements. As with other Russian programmes, such as the current Ka-52K bid for the Korean attack helicopter tender, it also offers an attractive offset package as part of the increasingly active collaboration between the Russian industry and Korean companies, such as LG International, in the evolution of domestic aerospace activity. The package offered to South Korea is described by Alexander Klementiev, Deputy General Manager of Sukhoi, as a balance of “super agility, cost-effectiveness and the readiness to share technologies on a wider scale than envisaged at present by any of the other bidders". It is unclear just how extensive this sharing will be, given that Boeing is reported to have offered over $2.8 billion of offsets in terms of “economic benefit” with reportedly 29 technology transfers, many of which are linked to the Korean plan to produce a domestic fighter by 2015. Sukhoi, unperturbed by the Boeing offer, says that it is ready to share not only manufacturing, but also software. Klementiev, however, does see the economic justification for setting up a Korean Su-35 assembly line, a requirement that the Koreans have recently abandoned, although the 70% offset requirement suggests a significant share of work in any future Korean contract to domestic producers. The price of the aircraft offered to the Koreans has not been revealed, but reports have suggested that it is in the region of $40m, making it the cheapest of the four contenders.

Article ID: 2866