Sukhoi fleet likely to be grounded for precautionary checks
The Sukhois have reported several problems due to engine related issues.
On Tuesday a Sukhoi flown by a squadron leader and flight lieutenant went missing near the China border. The aircraft had taken off from the Tezpur airbase at around 10.30 am. Radar and radio contact was lost at 11.10 am. This incident is worrisome since the IAF has already lost seven of the 240 Sukhoi-30MKIs.
Some reports suggested that the Sukhoi may have gone down near the West Kameng district in Arunachal Pradesh. The IAF had however said that there is no trace of the missing fighter and no signals from the locator beacons on board the jet were detected.
The 240 Sukhoi-30MKIs are the latest and most potent fighters in the combat fleet of the IAF. India has contracted 272 twin-seat Sukhois from Russia for over $12 billion. A bulk of them are being produced under licence by Hindustan Aeronautics. There have been 69 incidents of technical glitches mainly revolving around the engines in the past three years.
The IAF has decided to take a re-look at the fighter in the wake of such incidents rising. The armed forces have since 2011 lost 80 personnel in aircraft and chopper crashes.
The Sukhois have reported several problems due to engine related issues. Problems such as serviceability, poor availability of spares and shoddy maintenance are some of the problems that have been reported. The government however says that there has been an improvement from 52 per cent to 60 per cent. It may be recalled that India and Russia had inked two pacts for long term maintenance support for the Sukhois.
With another incident being reported, the Sukhoi fleet is likely to be grounded for systematic precautionary checks. These checks would be carried out before the fighter will fly again. A similar exercise was carried out in April 2009 and December 2011. It may be recalled that in 2016 when Manohar Parrikar was defence minister he had admitted that the Sukhois did have a problem.
OneIndia News