Sukhoi S-54 Sukhoi S-54 The Sukhoi S-54 was a series of three closely related aircraft proposals; the S-54 trainer aircraft, S-55 light fighter designed for export, and the S-56 carrier-capable light fighter. All members of the family resemble the Sukhoi Su-27 in general form, or the Sukhoi Su-33 more closely, but built around a single example of the Saturn AL-31 engine instead of two, and scaled down accordingly to a smaller layout. The design was offered to several potential customers, including South Africa and India, but was turned down. Development is apparently on hold, awaiting a launch customer. The project traces its
Sukhoi Su-30MKI demonstrator and Su-30 program, being more advanced than the Su-30MK and the Chinese Su-30MKK/MK2. Russia's Defence Ministry was impressed with the type's performance envelope and ordered 30 Su-30SMs, a localised Su-30MKI, for the Russian Air Force. It features state of the art avionics developed by Russia, India and Israel for display, navigation, targeting and electronic warfare; France and South Africa provided other avionics. After two years of evaluation and negotiations, on 30 November 1996, India signed a US$1.462 billion deal with Sukhoi for 50 Russian-produced Su-30MKIs in five batches. The first batch were eight Su-30MKs, the basic version of Su-30.