Sukhoi early 1990s, Sukhoi starts to diversify its products and initiated Sukhoi Civil Aircraft to create a line of civil projects for the company. The progress made by the new branch would lead to the development of the utility aircraft, the Su-80, and the agricultural aircraft, the Su-38, less than a decade later. In 1996, the government re-gathered the major part of them forming Sukhoi Aviation Military Industrial Combine (Sukhoi AIMC). In parallel, other entities, including Ulan Ude factory, Tbilisi factory, Belarus and Ukraine factories, established alternate transnational Sukhoi Attack Aircraft (producing e.g. Su-25 TM). The Sukhoi AIMC is composed of
Sukhoi Su-27 by the Japan Ministry of Defense. Russia denied the incursion, saying the jets were making routine flights near the disputed Kuril Islands. In another encounter, on 23 April 2014 an Su-27 nearly collided with a United States Air Force Boeing RC-135U over the Sea of Okhotsk. Russia plans to replace the Su-27 and the Mikoyan MiG-29 eventually with the Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fifth-generation multi-role twin-engine fighter. A squadron of Su-27SM3s was deployed to Syria in November 2015 as part of the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War. Ethiopian Su-27s reportedly shot down two Eritrean MiG-29s and damaged another