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SU-34 Fullback
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Russia’s SU-27 Flanker design has become one of its great export successes. It is also a design success, with a basic airframe whose characteristics absorbed lessons from all of America’s “teen series fighters” to produce a 4+ generation aircraft that remains the yardstick by which others still measure themselves. Growth capacity has allowed further refinements and modifications, from the SU-30/35 upgrades to versions that add canard foreplanes (SU-30MKI/M, SU-37), and even carrier-launched capability (SU-33).

Then there’s the SU-32/34 “Fullback,” It was envisaged as the successor to the F-111 like SU-24 “Fencer,” which remains in service and was very highly regarded in Chechnya as a battlefield support aircraft. The SU-34’s design has evolved since its initial drafts in 1986, most visibly so in the present side-by-side cockpit configuration that includes features like an aisle to rest in and even a toilet of sorts. A Sept 1/06 RIA Novosti report includes a number of details, and despite its clear “home team cheerleader” style there are a number of useful tidbits in the profile.

Recent events may make that profile timely again, as production appears set to begin in earnest. Their rise to regular production would end a journey that began with the aircraft’s maiden flight in 1990 as the T10V/SU-27IB…

The SU-32MF/-34 “Fullback” fighter-bomber

SU-32/34, firing
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In December 2006, Sukhoi announced a target of 18 SU-34s produced by 2010, and in March 2006 defense minister Sergei Ivanov placed the longer-term schedule at 58 aircraft purchased by 2015. Eventual demand levels of up to 200 aircraft have been floated, in order to replace Russia’s 300 existing SU-24s. The determining factor is likely to be the SU-34’s prioritization amidst Russia’s rearmament program, which is being fueled by its hydrocarbon exports and distribution hammerlocks amidst a global scenario of rising demand and rising prices.

RIA Novosti put the plane’s mission simply: “The Su-34 is meant to deliver a sufficiently large ordnance load to a predetermined area, hit the target accurately and take evasive action against pursuing enemy planes.” Other reports have gone further, stating that the plane is also meant to be able to handle enemy fighters in combat is required. Given its base platform characteristics, it would likely match up well against many of America’s “teen series” aircraft.

The SU-34 is also referred to as the “SU-32” by Sukhoi, and its characteristics reportedly include:

• 45.1 tonne maximum takeoff weight.

• 8 tonne ordnance load. Air Force Technology adds that this is distributed on 10 hardpoints, which can accomodate precision-guided weapons as well as R-73/AA-11 Archer and R-77/AA-12 ‘AMRAAMSKI’ missiles. The aircraft is also armed with a 30mm GSh-301 gun and 180 rounds.

• AL-31FM1 engines built by the Moscow-based Salyut Company generate a thrust of up to 13.5 metric tons (over 29,000 pounds) and have a 1,000-hour service life in between repairs. Subsequent reports indicate that more powerful AL-41 engines may be fitted in future.

• Maximum speed Mach 1.8 at altitude.

• 3,000 km range with standard drop tanks, extendable to over 4,000 km with the help of additional drop tanks. This makes deployment to locations like Tajikistan much easier, because intermediate airfields in Russia can easily be closed by bad weather. The SU-34 can also refuel in mid-air. (Note, however, that typical “ground hugging” attack flight profiles will shorten their range considerably – Air Force Technology lists it as around 600 km on internal fuel, or 1,150 km with external fuel tanks.)

• Can fly in TERCOM (Terrain Contour Matching) mode for low-level flight, and relies on software to execute a number of other difficult maneuvers. The front horizontal empennage behind the cockpit is designed to help it handle the air pockets found in high speed flight at low altitudes.

• A 17mm armored cockpit like the SU-25 Frogfoot ground-attack jet.

• 2 parallel K-36DM ejector seats, with a small aisle in between. The ejector seats can be activated at any speed and altitude, even when the plane is on the ground.

Other reports add additional details, and can be found in the “Additional Readings” section below. One particular item of note is the Leninets B004 phased array multimode X-band radar, which interleaves terrain-following radar and other modes. The US B-1B’s stealth bomber’s AN/APQ-164 phased array uses a similar approach. Performance is claimed to be of 200-250 km against large surface targets, ground mapping capability of 75-150 km, and GMTI moving target tracking to 30 km. Detection performance against fighter sized aerial targets is claimed to be 90 km.

A jamming variant of the SU-32/34 has reportedly been discussed in the Indian and Russian trade press, with an L175V / KS418 high power jamming pod that is supposedly under development.

Contracts & Key Events

Fullback in position
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April 24/08: Moscow News Weekly carries an analysis of the SU-34 and its acquisition plans by Ilya Kramnik of RIA Novosti:

“The Su-34 will replace the Su-24M aircraft (about 400 planes), the Su-24MR surveillance aircraft (over 100 planes), and the MiG-25RB aircraft (about 70). Russia will have to produce between 550 and 600 Su-34s to replace these obsolete aircraft within 10-15 years. However, the Defense Ministry plans to buy only about 58 [SU-34s] by 2015, and a total of 300 by 2022.

....This is not a new concept. Elite units of top-class aircraft manned by superbly trained crews formed the core of the German air force during World War II, and Japan’s Imperial Navy had a similar concept. However, such elite units can be quickly weeded out by swarms of ordinary aircraft in a global war of attrition, such as World War II. From this viewpoint, Russia’s new concept looks vulnerable, but then this country has the nuclear triad for a global war.”

Jan 9/08: Sukhoi announces that Russia has started full-scale production of the Su-34 Fullback fighter bomber, and a company spokesman said that up to 20 fighters could now be assembled simultaneously at the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association (NAPO). He did not specify how many would be built each year. This RIA Novosti report places the price of the plane at $36 million, but real clarity on that front is unlikely until the aircraft wins an export competition. RIA Novosti report | Kommersant report.

Dec 25/07: Merry Christmas from NAPO. RIA Novosti reports that the firm has completed the delivery of 4 upgraded Su-24M2 Fencer tactical bombers to an Air Force regiment based in Russia’s Far East. Another 6 Su-24s are currently being modernized at the same plant, and another 2 modernized aircraft were deployed earlier in December with the Lipetsk pilot combat training center in central Russia.

The pace and success of these modernizations are likely to affect SU-34 deployment plans, and urgency.

Dec 18/07: RIA Sibir relays a notice from Sukhoi’s press service that NAPO will obtain 43 high-performance processing centers for EUR 50 million, in order to help modernize aircraft production.

NAPO makes Su-34 fighter-bombers, overhauls and upgrades Su-24M fighter-bombers, carries out preparations for the manufacture of Russian regional aircraft Sukhoi Superjet-100, and participates in the program of Sukhoi Holding on the development of a 5th generation fighter.

Dec 27/06: A Sukhoi release adds clarity to the SU-34’s production schedule:

“The Sukhoi Aircraft Holding Company, in conjunction with the Russian Air Force, has started the second phase of the official tests of the Su-34 attack aircraft.

The first Su-34s have been handed over to the Russian Air Force this month [December 2006]. By 2010, under a three-year government contract, will build and supply the Russian Air Force with 18 Su-34s. Later, plans to manufacture 8 to 10 Su-34 aircraft a year.”

Sept 1/06: RIA Novosti reports that Army General Vladimir Mikhailov, commander of the Russian Air Force, has said that they would receive the first batch of Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers by late 2006.

2004: Chkalov Aircraft Production Association in Novosibirsk, which produces the planes, had produced a development batch of 8 Su-32 aeroplanes. Source.

June 2003: The plane successfully completes the first stage of Russian government testing. Source

1997: GlobalSecurity: “The development was decelerated [for Sukhoi] to concentrate itself in the development of the Indian Su-30 and the Su-27 acquired by China.”

June 1995: The aircraft is renamed the Su-32 according to Sukhoi (though many “SU-34” references will persist), and the aeroplane is shown abroad at the 1995 Le Bourget air show in Paris. Source

Dec 18/93: The first pre-production T-10V is built and makes its first flight, piloted by the design bureau’s test pilots I.V. Votintsev and Ye.G. Revunov. [Source] This plane reportedly adopts “the Su-35 wing with additional stations, enlarged internal fuel tanks, enlarged spine and lengthened tail stinger, the production reinforced centre section design, and the representative production configuration of the tandem dual wheel main undercarriage” [Source].

April 13/90: The T10V-1’s test aircraft’s first flight is performed by the design bureau’s test pilot A.A. Ivanov. Source

1989-90: The first prototype T10V-1 is built on the platform of the production Su-27UB. Source

May 1988: the plane’s conceptual design is presented for critical design review. In addition to the conventional Su-27UB-style cockpit configuration, with the pilots seated one behind the other, an alternative option of a “side by side” pilot-seating arrangement is discussed – and later adopted. The cockpit overhead space created behind the side-by-side seats allows the pilot to stand up, with the crew boarding the plane using an inbuilt ladder through the bay in the nosewheel landing gear unit and the service hatch in the back wall of the cockpit. Source

June 19/86: Work to produce a two-seat fighter-bomber version of the SU-27 officially begins, initiated by a decree of the government. The Sukhoi Design Bureau assigns the new plane the manufacturer’s designation T-10V. Source

Additional Readings

• Sukhoi – SU-32

• Air Force Technology – Su-34 (Su 27IB) Flanker Fighter Bomber Aircraft, Russia

• Australian Air Power – Sukhoi Su-32/Su-34 Fullback: Russia’s New Heavy Strike Fighter “In comparing the basic Su-32/34 airframe against Western types, the design with 12.1 tonnes (26.7 klb) of internal fuel sits in between the Boeing F-15E and F-111 in combat radius and weapon payload capabilities. It will provide at lower gross weights lower agility than the F-15E, but higher agility than the F-111. Its top end supersonic performance is inferior to both US types….”

• GlobalSecurity – Su-34 (Su-27IB)

• RIA Novosti (Jan 9/07) – Russian defense industry still faces problems. Points out, inter alia, that: “The management of the Novosibirsk Aircraft Plant had promised to supply six, rather than two, Su-34 bombers in late 2006.” Other items in the report are also highly relevant to the larger remarmament picture, including production difficulties, paper factories, and insolvency levels within the industry.