Sukhoi aircraft prototype engineering facility, in October 1930. Under Sukhoi's leadership, the team of the future design bureau started to take shape. The team, under the Tupolev OKB, produced experimental fighters such as the I-3, I-14, and the DIP, a record-breaking RD aircraft, the Tupolev ANT-25, flew by famous Soviet aviators, Valery Chkalov and Mikhail Gromov, and the long-range bombers such as the Tupolev TB-1 and the Tupolev TB-3. In 1936, Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, issued a requirement for a multi-role combat aircraft. As a result, Sukhoi and his team developed the BB-1, a reconnaissance aircraft and light
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.