Russia To Deliver Four Sukhoi-35 Jets To China By Year End

Russia will provide the first batch of four Sukhoi-35 jets  equipped with a 30-mm gun by December 25 this month as part of US$2 billion deal signed last year.

The delivery is part of the deal signed for 24 Sukhoi-35 fighters concluded with China in November 2015.

The fighter has twelve bomb and rocket suspension units. "The first four Sukhoi-35 are to fly over to China by December 25," an official within the system of military-technical cooperation with other countries told TASS Wednesday.

Under the contract, Russia is also providing ground equipment and spare engines.

Originally the deliveries were to begin as of next year, but eventually a decision was made to speed up the process and to deliver the first batch in the last days of the outgoing year.

Russia had started acting on the first phase of its contractual liabilities to China to provide the Sukhoi-35 jets, the deputy chief of the federal service for military-technical cooperation, Vladimir Drozhzhov, told TASS in November.

An official within the military-technical cooperation system told TASS earlier, the contract would be affected in three years’ time.

The Sukhoi-35 is Russia’s multirole highly manoeuvrable fighter (generation 4++) with a phased array antenna radar and thrust vectoring engines. It can develop a maximum speed of 2,500 kilometers per hour and fly 3,400 kilometers without refueling. The combat range is 1,600 kilometers.