No Problem with Our Sukhois if Malaysia Follows Maintenance Schedule, Says Russia

15 September 2018

Sukhoi Su-30MKM (photo : DaveC)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Russian government has denied claims that the Sukhoi fighter jets supplied to Malaysia are difficult to maintain, saying they have been successfully used in many countries which follow proper maintenance schedules.

It said there had been no complaints from other countries which bought the advanced fighter jets as long as maintenance and overhaul works were done on a regular basis so that the planes are kept “in the right condition to serve their goals”.

“Russian military aircraft are standing on duty in many countries around the globe and demonstrate their reliability and durability.

“In India, for example, almost 300 of Su-30 and MiG-29 multipurpose fighter jets constitute the mainstay of the country’s air force capabilities,” said the Russian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, in response to a report by FMT that Russian-made jets were expensive to maintain due to bureaucracy and lack of transparency on the Russian side.

Su-30Mk2 VPAF (photo : DatViet)

The report quoted a high-ranking Malaysian official familiar with air force assets, who blamed the reported grounding of the Sukhoi jets on “the Russian way of doing business”.

He said the Russian way of doing business was not as “open or transparent” as that of other Western nations, adding that there were details not revealed to Malaysia when the jets were sold.

“In the midst of procurement, we weren’t informed of the need to carry out certain types of maintenance after 10 years, which only they can do,” the official told FMT, adding that this was in contrast to the purchase of US-made jets which followed procurement systems that were “straightforward and systematic”.

But Russia dismissed the claim, which it called “biased and unprofessional”. It said the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) itself had cited a lack of government funding as the reason for the problems faced by Malaysia’s fleet of Sukhoi jets.

SU-30MK2 TNI AU (photo : Erwege)

It said the failure to adequately fund the maintenance of the fleet could have been avoided “if there was interest in keeping the Sukhoi fighter jets in service”.

“Both Russian and foreign military experts many times before admitted that Russia’s military aircraft are one of the cheapest in the world in terms of price and maintenance, and at the same time provide excellent performance in fulfilling operational missions,” it added.

The problems faced by the Sukhoi fighter jets surfaced last month when Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu said only four of the country’s 18 Sukhoi Su-30MKM could fly, while the others were under repair.

The Sukhois, the most advanced fighter jets in the RMAF’s inventory, were purchased in a deal worth US$900 million in 2003, the final year of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first stint in office.

Myanmar will be fourth country in the region which operated Su-30 with Su-30SM (photo : Denis Lyaskovskiy)

Six Sukhois were delivered in 2007 and the rest in 2009. As part of the deal, Russia bought palm oil from Malaysia and trained a Malaysian astronaut, who in 2007 became the first Malaysian to travel to space.

The Russian Embassy’s statement said the problems of “bureaucracy and inefficiency” in the upkeep of Sukhoi fighter planes originated from the Malaysian side.

It said this was due to authorities in the past signing direct procurement agreements with different Russian private companies which became responsible for technical support and the supply of spare parts.

“That procedure was not transparent and resulted in the ill-maintenance of Russian-made jets,” it said, adding that the practice was recently changed when both countries assigned an authorised organisation to solve the problems linked to the maintenance of the Sukhois.

“The very fact that the military parade for the Hari Kebangsaan 2018 celebration saw six Sukhoi jets flying in formation, and not four as previously stated, proves that the maintenance problems are being gradually solved and there is a will to do so.”

(Malaysia Today)