Russia Confirms Sale of 24 Su-35 Fighter Aircraft To China

Russia has signed a contract with China to sell 24 Sukhoi 35 multi role fighter aircraft worth US$ 2 billion.

Russia’s state technologies corporation, Rostec head Sergey Chemezov announced that Russia and China have signed a contract, estimated to be worth $2 billion, on the delivery of 24 Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets.

"The long negotiations on the delivery of Su-35 to China are over, we have signed a contract," Chemezov said as quoted by the Russian Kommersant daily on Thursday.

The Su-35 fighter jet (NATO reporting name Flanker-E) is an upgraded version of the Su-27 multirole fighter. This marks the first international sale of the Sukhoi Su-35 fighter which has taken part in the war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

Chemezov did not disclose terms of the contract or the delivery timeframe.

Moscow has been negotiating with Beijing for over two years to sell the aircraft, ever since the Paris Air Show 2013 debut of the Su-35.

There were issues of protecting intellectual property with China having a history of ‘copying’ Russian aircraft it had earlier purchased from Moscow. This seems to have been resolved as earlier reports on the proposed Su-35 purchase deal had highlighted the intellectual property issue as the main impediment.