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A USD 7.5 billion defense deal between
Algeria and Russia may indirectly
benefit India. Algeria is planning to
buy 28 multi-roles and long range
Su-30 fighter planes, 49 multi-role
Mig-29SMT fighters, and 20 Yak
advanced jet trainers, air defense
systems, and tanks from Russia.
Sources say that since the Algerian
order of Su-30 closely matches the
Indian SU-30MKI version, which has
some India-made avionics and other
parts, “Indian companies may be
contracted to supply the same
components for Algeria.” India has
built 140 Su-30MKI fighter planes
under Russian license and also
manufactured avionics and jet frame
parts for the Russian Su-130MKM bought
by Malaysia. The Algerian order is
also influencing the 126 multi-role
combat aircraft order by the Indian
Air Force (IAF) especially since
France has decided to abandon the
Mirage and instead is encouraging
India to buy a feature-rich variant of
the Mirage “Rafale” but is likely to
miss the qualification process Russia
is fielding its latest Mig-35 fighter
plane (export name for the Mig-29
M1/M2 version) which has an innovative
thrust vectoring engine RD-33OVT and
will compete against Lockheed Martin’s
F/A-18 Super Hornet and SAAB’s Gripen
fighter planes.
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