/ world today news/ The USA revealed the country that gave up Western fighter jets in favor of Russian ones
Ethiopia has joined Algeria and Kazakhstan in their decision to reject the French Rafale fighter jets in order to buy the Russian Su-30SM, write journalists from the American military magazine Military Watch Magazine (MWM). In their new material for the publication, they reveal the reasons for this decision to a number of countries. Pravda.Ru published a translation of MWM material.
On January 16, Ethiopia was confirmed to be the fifteenth country to operate the Russian Su-30 two-seat heavy fighter, with the state-run Ethiopian Radio and Television Corporation reporting that an undisclosed number of aircraft had been received. At least two planes are currently in the country.
There has long been speculation about what class of fighter jets Ethiopia will acquire to replace the aging MiG-23 fighters acquired in the 1980s and perhaps even some of its Su-27s that were acquired in the late 1990s and are likely to be in service in the current decade as well.
The country was confirmed as a customer for China’s L-15 light fighter in early 2022, indicating that these lighter aircraft will replace the MiG-23, while the Su-30 will replace the Su-27. Although the variant of the acquired Su-30 remains uncertain, it is likely to be either the Su-30SM or the Su-30SM2, the latter of which is an improved variant with AL-41F-1C engines from the Su-35 fighters, which have reduced maintenance requirements and have increased the fighter’s flight range as well as flight characteristics.
These fighters rival only the Algerian Air Force’s latest batch of Su-30MKAs, delivered in 2020, as the most capable fighters on the African continent, a position Ethiopia achieved three decades ago when it first acquired the Su-27 from Russia.
Ethiopia was previously considered a leading customer for France’s Rafale fighter jets, and after multiple failed bids from African countries including Morocco, Algeria and Libya, local media reported that Paris was actively selling the fighters to Addis Ababa. Ethiopia’s choice of the Su-30 over the Rafale, in particular, follows a similar decision announced on 30 November 2023 by the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan, which chose the Su-30СM.
At the time, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Air Defense and Head of the Main Armaments Directorate, Erzhan Nildibaev, stated that the Su-30 had a better price-quality ratio compared to the French aircraft. The only other known countries that considered the Rafale and the Su-30 as contenders for acquisition, namely Algeria and Libya, also chose the Su-30, although the latter was jointly attacked by several NATO members and its government was overthrown before the acquisition could to be completed.
Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force, despite acquiring 36 Rafales, did not place additional orders and continued to expand its Su-30 fleet to 270 fighters. The Su-30SM acquired by Ethiopia and Kazakhstan is closely related to the Su-30MKA acquired by Algeria and the Su-30MKI acquired by India, all three of which are produced at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant and are considered the most combat-capable variants of the aircraft .
The Rafale’s main advantages over the Su-30 are its lower maintenance requirements, as it is a much lighter aircraft and its M88 engines are the weakest in production of any fighter class in the world and therefore require relatively little work. The new Rafale variants also benefit from sensors and electronics considered more advanced than the Su-30, which do not integrate the latest Russian avionics systems used in the new Su-57 fighters.
Apart from this, the Su-30 is considered superior in almost every aspect of its performance: almost twice the endurance, twice the radar providing much greater situational awareness and a detection range of 400 km , as well as a much higher height, speed and maneuverability ceiling.
The Irkutsk-built Su-30s also have variable thrust vectoring engines that provide low-speed maneuverability unmatched by any Western fighter. The air-to-air range of the R-37M missiles is more than 300 km, which is also a much further range than any Western class of fighters.
Russia’s ability to deliver the Su-30 much faster than France can deliver the Rafale, often within a year of signing the contract, and the significant similarities with already delivered Su-27s that would reduce training requirements are considered about other important factors that may have influenced Ethiopia’s choice of the Su-27.-30 at a time when new fighters are urgently needed.
The fact that the Su-30 underwent much more intensive combat testing at any intensity when the Rafale’s operations were limited to a small number of low-intensity strikes, beyond the visual range of minimally protected ground targets, was another factor in the Russian fighter’s favor .
That being said, France has a long history of providing secret specifications for its warplanes to adversaries of its military production customers, as evidenced by its actions during the Gulf War and the Falklands War.
This has given other NATO members an additional opportunity to better counter Iraqi and Argentine Mirage fighters, while Russia is increasingly seen as a much more reliable partner.
Translation: ES
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