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Flankers Under the Dragon's Wings

A Timeline of Events

by Crobato

2001	January 10. More SU-30MKK arrives to Nanjing. Probably completing batch of 10 planes. Sukhoi appeared to have upgraded the J-11 (licensed SU-27SK) engine (Kanwa).

2001	January 20. SU-30MKK official first flight under PLAAF colors.

2001	March 18. China orders 20 Sokol radars, with Russian government clearing the order as well as more advanced technology orders including Klub missiles. Sokol radars are presumed for upgrading J-11/SU-27 licensed or for equipping the J-10, though the latter proved incorrect eventually.

2001	April. There is some dispute on the schedule of deliveries of the first order SU-30MKK. Another report places about some aircraft, possibly 8 being delivered on this month.

2001	April 17. SU-30MKK bort 502 makes its appearance on the Le Bourget airshow in Paris.

2001	May 20. CCTV showed a video clip of a SU-30MKK firing Kh-59ME missile at night.

2001	June. Quite similar to an SU-30MKK and probably hosting the same radar, a Russian SU-30KN prototype managed to successfully test fire the Kh-31A antiship missile. Given the late test, it’s quite suggestive that the earlier SU-30MKKs were not tested or fitted with this missile, although the SU-30MKK specs called for it.

2001	July 10. Russia displays KAB-1500kr with SU-30MKK (Kanwa).

2001

July 30. China signs contract for the second order of SU-30MKK, presumably 38 aircraft. Reports vary from 38 or 40. It was originally believed that the deliveries of this order was to begin on the end of 2003. Later, this contract became the subject of a big squabble between the newly formed Sukhoi AVPK umbrella organization, against its biggest factory, KnAAPO. Sukhoi planned to transfer the contract from KnAAPO to IAPO (Irkut). While the original SU-30MKK is a KnAAPO design, Irkut would substitute by building its SU-30KN design as “SU-30MKK”. Chinese government may have intervened to force the contract assignment back to KnAAPO.

2001

August 16-20. Zhuk-MS radar announced. This is the SU-27/30 version (N010MS) of the Zhuk M radar (N010M) superceding the original Zhuk N010. Zhuk-MS replaces the original Zhuk-27 based on the Zhuk N010. The radar can simultaneously track 20 fighter sized targets and engage four of them at ranges to 120 or 140km. It also features a number of air to ground modes, including a 3m square synthetic aperture radar mode.

2001	August 16-20. MAKS2001 held in Russia showing a third SU-30MKK “prototype” called “503", whose unfinished paint condition suggests a serial production SU-30MKK on loan for publicity purposes. Flight International revealed that the radar for the SU-30MKK would be changed to the Zhuk-MS in the third batch after the 20th plane. This is also reported by JED.

2001	August. 10 more of the SU-30MKK received.

2001	September 20. China reordered KAB-500L laser guided bomb (Kanwa). It is probably that SU-30MKK might have ordered SAPSAN-E pod to use with these bombs.

2001	September 30. China receives more 10 SU-27UBK from IAPO.

2001	October 10. China signs a letter of intent to purchase air launched Kh-31 antiship missile. (Kanwa).

2001

December. The last batch SU-30MKK received from the first order, said to be 18 planes. These were assigned to a flight test center near Beijing. Bort 21, 26, 33, 34, and 36 has been photographed and identified. It is possible these planes may be fitted with the Zhuk MS radar for testing. According to some publications, only the first 20 aircraft of the SU-30MKK is fitted with the N001VE radar.

2001

Possibly 20 J-11s were finished for the year of 2001, adding to the alleged 21 in 2000. Shenyang displayed an SU-27 mockup in their office. The mockup, bort “2001" carried R-77s, Kh-31 and Kh-29 missiles, suggesting an intended multirole capability for the J-11 as the plane is upgraded. While the product looks like an SK, no doubt the intention of the license—if not the entire PLA Flanker program—was for multirole.

2001	December 28. Sukhoi announced a very successful year with overall deliveries for the year amounted to 50 aircraft. 30 of these were SU-30MKK, 10 of these were SU-27UBK for the PLAAF probably delivered sometime in November or December, and the last 10 were SU-24MK for the Algerian Air Force.

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