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Sukhoi Company [has] completed general units’ assembly of the first production Su-35S fighter. The state contract with the Russian Defense Ministry on the delivery of 48 multifunctional super maneuverable Su-35 fighter jets was signed at the 2009 MAKS air show.
The works on the contract started in autumn 2009 at the KnAAPO facility of the Sukhoi holding in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
At the present time the first production Su-35S is at the final assembly shop of the KnAAPO. The preparations are underway for its flight testing. The first production Su-35S will be delivered to the Russian Ministry of Defense by the end of the year.
Su-35 is also intended for export sales. Sukhoi is holding talks with customers in South-East Asia, the Middle East and South America anxious to re-arm their air forces on Su-35 sales.
The Su-35 is a thoroughly upgraded super-maneuverable fighter of the 4++ generation. It employs technologies of the fifth generation that assure its superiority over similar class fighters. The special features of the aircraft include a new avionics suite based on digital information control system integrating onboard systems, a new radar with a phased antenna array having a long aerial target detection range with an increased number of simultaneously tracked and engaged targets (30 aerial targets tracked and 8 engaged plus the tracking of 4 and engagement of 2 ground targets), and new enhanced vectored thrust engines.
The Su-35 has a diverse suite of long-, medium- and short-range weapons. It can carry guided aerial munitions for anti-radar and anti-ship actions as well as general purpose munitions, and guided and unguided aerial bombs. The radar signature of the fighter has been reduced by several times as compared to that of the fourth-generation aircraft by coating the cockpit with electro-conducting compounds, applying radio absorption coats and reducing the number of protruding sensors.
The service life of the aircraft is 6,000 hours flight hours; the life cycle is 30 years of operation. The assigned service life of vectored thrust engines is 4,000 hours.