The Sukhoi Su-30MKM (

NATO reporting name NATO uses a system of code names, called reporting names, to denote military aircraft and other equipment used by post-Soviet states, former Warsaw Pact countries, China, and other countries. The system assists military communications by providi ...

: Flanker-H) is a twin-engine supermaneuverable fighter of the

Royal Malaysian Air Force The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF, ; Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ) was formed on 2 June 1958 as the Royal Federation of Malaya Air Force (; ). However, its roots can be traced back to the Malayan Auxiliary Air Force formations of the British Royal A ...

(RMAF). It is a variant of the

Su-30 The Sukhoi Su-30 (; NATO reporting name: Flanker-C/G/H) is a twin-engine, two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft developed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weath ...

series fighters, with many significant improvements over the original Su-30MK export version. The Su-30MKM was developed by the

Sukhoi The JSC Sukhoi Company (, ) is a Russian aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Begovoy District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, that designs both civilian and military aircraft. Sukhoi was founded in the Soviet Union by Pavel Sukhoi ...

Design Bureau and is based on the

Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a two-seater, twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for th ...

of the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

. Both aircraft have common

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aeros ...

thrust vectoring Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to Aircraft flight control system, control the Spacecra ...

engines and a digital

fly-by-wire Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional aircraft flight control system#Hydro-mechanical, manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic sig ...

system, however the MKM version differs from the MKI mainly in the composition of the onboard

avionics Avionics (a portmanteau of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the ...

. It can carry up to payload over a un-refueled combat radius. In 2003, the Su-30MKM was selected by the

. In August 2003, during the course of President Vladimir Putin's official visit to Malaysia, the contract for the Su-30MKM aircraft was signed. Except for Russian

MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twinjet, twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the MiG-29, along with the large ...

s, the RMAF has previously operated aircraft of Western origin.

Development

In August 2003, Malaysia signed a US$900 million contract with

Irkut Corporation The JSC Yakovlev Corporation () () is a Russian aircraft manufacturer, headquartered in the Aeroport District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, It is the manufacturer of the Sukhoi Su-30 family of interceptor/ground-attack aircraft. The ...

for 18 Sukhoi Su-30MKMs. Malaysia operates eight legacy F/A-18D Hornet, and was offered Boeing's

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet The Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet are a series of American supersonic twinjet, twin-engine, Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft derived from the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Ho ...

, but the Royal Malaysian Air Force chose the Su-30MKM instead. The Su-30MKM is an advanced variant, with considerable performance related improvements over its Su-30MK/MKK counterparts. Irkut Corporation subcontracted the task of manufacturing the canards, stabilizers and fins to

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian public sector aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Bengaluru. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manufacturers in the world. H ...

. As part of the contract agreement, Russia sent the first Malaysian cosmonaut to the International Space Station. It was a project initiated under the government-to-government offset agreement through the purchase of Su-30MKM fighter jets for the Royal Malaysian Air Force. Under this agreement the Russian Federation bore the cost of training two Malaysians for space travel and for sending one to the International Space Station (ISS) in October 2007 under the Angkasawan program. The first two aircraft were handed over to the RMAF in May 2007 at Irkut's aircraft manufacturing facility at

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The two aircraft were later delivered to RMAF Gong Kedak, Malaysia in June 2007 by an An-124-100 transport aircraft. By December 2007, seven months after the delivery of the first two aircraft, the RMAF had taken delivery of six Su-30MKMs. The eighteenth and last aircraft arrived at RMAF Gong Kedak in August 2009. In 2016, Su-30MKM successfully dropped a GBU-12

Paveway Paveway is a series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs). ''Pave'' or PAVE is sometimes used as an acronym for ''precision avionics vectoring equipment''; literally, electronics for controlling the speed and direction of aircraft. Laser guidance is a ...

laser-guided bomb in a firing exercise. An aircraft registered number M52-08 successfully dropped the bombs at Kota Belud firing range in Sabah on 27 November 2016. This makes it the first Russian-made Sukhoi combat aircraft compatible with the weapon. According to Malaysian defense Minister Mohamad Sabu, Malaysia has grounded 14 of 18 Su-30MKM due to engine problems and unavailability of spare parts in 2018. To overcome this problem and increase the readiness of the Su-30MKM fleets, Malaysia has approved the budget worth RM2.2 billion for the Su-30MKM to be upgraded locally by

Aerospace Technology Systems Corporation The Aerospace Technology Systems Corporation Sdn Bhd (ATSC), is a Malaysian aerospace company that providing Aircraft maintenance, aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service. Its subsidiary of National Aerospace and Defence Industri ...

. The first upgraded aircraft was received in 2019 in LIMA 2019 exhibition. The program was completed in January 2025. From 5–8 August 2024, Su-30MKMs participated with Exercise Udara Shakti with the

Sukhoi Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a two-seater, twinjet Multirole combat aircraft, multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautic ...

s of the

. On 12 November 2024, during a historic State Partnership engagement with the Royal Malaysian Air Force at RMAF Subang Air Base in Malaysia, an American

KC-135 Stratotanker The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling tanker aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It has a narrower fuselage and is shorter than the 707. Boeing gave ...

assigned to the 141st Air Refueling Wing of Washington Air National Guard refuelled three of the Russian made-Sukhoi Su-30MKM aircraft.

Design

The Su-30MKM was developed by the

Design Bureau and is based on the

. The MKM version differs from the MKI mainly in the composition of its onboard

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

supplies the

Head-up display A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD () or head-up guidance system (HGS), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a ...

(HUD), navigational forward-looking IR system NAVFLIR and the Damocles targeting pod. The aircraft carries missile approach warning sensor (MAWS) and laser warning sensor (LWS) manufactured by Avitronics (South Africa). It can carry up to 8,000 kg/ 17,650 lb of weapons and payloads over 700 nmi unrefueled combat radius. The Su-30MKM can legitimately claim super-maneuverability via digital fly-by-wire, canards, and two

Saturn AL-31 The Saturn AL-31 (originally Lyulka) is a family of axial flow turbofan engines, developed by the NPO Saturn, Lyulka-Saturn design bureau in the Soviet Union, now UEC Saturn, NPO Saturn in Russia, originally as a 12.5-tonne (122.6 kN, 27,560 ...

FP engines with

producing 27,500 lb thrust each with afterburners. This gives them an edge in close-in dogfights, allowing the pilot to rapidly point the plane at potential targets to draw them within the AA-11/ R-73 Archer’s wide infrared seeker cone, then launch and quickly change energy state and direction. The electronic warfare (EW) systems,

phased array radar A phaser is an electronic sound processor used to filter a signal by creating a series of peaks and troughs in the frequency spectrum. The position of the peaks and troughs of the waveform being affected is typically modulated by an interna ...

s, and optical-location systems with laser rangefinder were all produced by leading Russian manufacturers. At that time, officers from the RMAF formed a Su-30MKM Project Team which was based in Moscow; the team actively participated in the integration of all the avionics systems. The aircraft is capable of conducting SEAD missions when equipped with two KNIRTI SAP-518 jamming pods and Kh-31P anti-radiation missiles. The KNIRTI SAP-518 covers NATO surface-to-air and air-to-air threats in the G-J bands. It is equipped with NIIP N011M phased array radar for long range aerial combat which can track up to 15 targets and engage four targets simultaneously. It can also be equipped with a

Thales Damocles The Damocles is a 3rd generation targeting pod, modular, eye-safe laser, high performance pod selected by the French Air Force for its attack fighter aircraft fleet. It first entered service in 2009. Damocles is made by Thales Group produced ...

Laser Designation surveillance and targeting Pod for precision ground attack. It has a rear-facing radar, Thales HUD, and French NAVFLIR (Navigation Forward Looking Infra-red). Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) and laser warning sensor (LWS) are supplied by Avitronics of South Africa.

Operators

; *

has 18 Su-30MKMs in inventory. All the aircraft are assigned to the 12th Squadron based at RMAF Gong Kedak.

Specifications (Su-30MKM)

References

External links