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President Patil makes historic sortie on Su 30 MKI fighter aircraft
New Delhi, November 25, 2009
President Pratibha Patil waving to the media as she gets into the cockpit of Sukhoi 30 MKI Fighter Aircraft at Air Force Station, Pune on November 25, 2009.
The aircraft was flown by Wing Commander Sajan of the 30 Squadron who took the President on a 30-minute sortie over an area covering Rajgurunagar, Shirur, Daund and Baramati before returning to the Air Force Station.
An official press release said the President flew at a height of about two km above sea level and at a speed of about 800 km per hour.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, and the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of the South Western Ar Command, Air Marshal P S Bhangu, were also present.
"It was a wonderful and unique experience," the President, who is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, said on her return from the sortie. She said she felt reassured about the capability of the Armed Forces and the skill and expertise of the pilots of the Indian Air Force. She said the Defence Forces had the strength to protect our borders.
According to the release, the sortie was an opportunity for her to get a close look at the sophisticated equipment used in the Russian-made Su 30 MKI.
Later in the day, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, spoke to Ms Patil over the telephone and congratulated her for the flight. He described the sortie as a unique step for a woman and for a nation's president.
Mr Medvedev himself had made a flight aboard a supersonic fighter some time ago and knows from his experience about the impact of the acceleration load.
He said the sortie had further strengthened the friendship, cooperation and partnership between the two countries, sentiments which Ms Patil reciprocated.
The Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted Mr Medvedev as saying that the President's flight on a fighter jet assembled in India on license from Russia demonstrated the vast opportunities for long-term cooperation between the two countries in the field of defence and related technologies.
In 2006, Ms Patil's predecessor A P J Abdul Kalam had similarly flown in a fighter jet.
President Pratibha Patil waving to the media as the Sukhoi 30 MKI Fighter Aircraft gets ready to taxi to the runway, Air Force Station, Pune on November 25, 2009.
In Russia, the flight was seen as a sign of the high degree of trust India had in Russia and its military hardware and evidence of the high quality of Russian combat planes.
Mr Anatoly Isaikin, general director of Russian arms exporter Rosobornexport, said the flight was a worthy ending of the Year of India in Russia and evidence of India's great confidence in Russian military equipment.
"Our planes of the Su and MiG families are well-known to the military pilots of that country. Today’s event is yet another evidence of the steady onward progress in mutually beneficial military and technological cooperation between such strategic partners as India and Russia. India has invariably been our strategic partner. I am certain that in the near future this cooperation will grow stronger and gain greater momentum," Mr Isaikin said.
India currently has a fleet of over 100 Su-MKI jets and the number might go up soon. Work is going on to adapt the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, a joint India-Russia venture, for launches from Su-30 MKI jet.
Su-30MKI jets are manufactured in India under license. A contract for the supply of Mi-17V-5 transport helicopters to India is being implemented. The ongoing upgrade of India’s MiG-29 fighter jets is due to be completed in 2013. Last spring Russia handed over to India the first airborne early warning radar complex, mounted on the platform of the Russian transport plane Il-76.
"Joint work on a fifth generation warplane is an important area of military-technological cooperation between Russia and India. This is yet another evidence of the qualitatively new stage of mutually beneficial cooperation in this sphere," the Rosoboronexport chief added.
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