Contract with Indonesia for the Supply of 11 Fighters has Not been Terminated - Head of FSMTS

06 Juni 2021

Su-35 Flanker E (photo : Artyoni Kuzhlev)

Moscow. INTERFAX - The contract for the supply of 11 Su-35 fighters to Indonesia is still in force, Dmitry Shugaev, head of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), told Interfax.

"Not torn apart," said Shugaev, answering the agency's question about the status of the contract.

Earlier, Bloomberg, citing an informed anonymous source, reported that Indonesia, under pressure from the United States, refused to purchase 11 Su-35 fighters from Russia for $ 1.1 billion.

Bloomberg notes that the decision to abandon the deal was made by the Indonesian authorities after US officials made it clear that they could impose sanctions for the contract with Russia. Instead, the US offered Indonesia to consider buying F-16 fighters, but Indonesia said it was more interested in negotiating the purchase of more advanced F-35s.

Russia and Indonesia signed a contract to supply 11 Su-35 fighters in February 2018 - six months after the United States passed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The law, in particular, provides for sanctions against customers of products of Russian defense enterprises.

Su-35 is a super-maneuverable multipurpose fighter of the 4 ++ generation. It was developed by the Sukhoi company and is mass-produced at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Plant (KnAAZ). The aircraft was created on the basis of the Su-27/Su-30, but at the same time it is a conceptually new aircraft with elements of the equipment of the fifth generation fighter.

(Interfax)