Eurofighter team view of LIMA 2011 Day 3

The view of Eurofighter team on LIMA 2011 day 3:

Day3

Thursday 07.11.2011

The Sukhoi Su-30 is a huge, fantastic fighter. Better, it is a huge, fantastic fighter-bomber and deep strike attack aircraft. The version in service with the Malaysian Air Force, the Su-30MKK is, with the MKI in service with the Indian Air Force, the most advanced available, even better than the ones in service with the Russian Air Force. Parked and lined up and next to 5 Malaysian MiG-29 at LIMA 2011, the Russian fighter at the end of the show looked like a tired athlet: the engine nozzles folded down, all flaps and slats opened, the speedbrake half open, its canopy covered by a canvas, but it still looks potent and malicious. In flight all this turns into another story. Noisy as only a Russian aircraft can be, it is a perfect airshow actor with its cobra manoeuvres, super high alfa low speed passes, turns around his own axes, loops that only a thrust vectoring aircraft of this class can do, it is simply amazing to watch. Of course all these air display capabilities do not have much significance in real operations as the loss of energy associated with these manoeuvres would be too detrimental to the effectiveness of the flight tactics and also potentially deadly against an agile opponent.
The Malaysian Air Force has a mix of many combat types: F-5, Hawk 200 (the single seat version of the British trainer), F-18D (the twin seat combat version of the legacy Hornet), MiG-29 and Su-30MKK. The goal is to start to rationalize the fleet which is capable but not easy to manage. The MRCA programme, for a new multirole fighter could receive a boost next year with a detailed Request for Proposal for a first batch of 18 aircraft plus 18 additionally an option: what's better than a fleet mix made up of Su-30's and Eurofighter's? Absolutely the best mix possible to guarantee for Malaysia total aerial deterrence for the next 40 years!