Hobby Master 1/72 Air Power Series
HA9556
J-16 Flanker N 61281, 7th Air Brigade, Eastern Theatre Command, PLAAF
 
General Background
The Sukhoi Su-30, initially named Su-27PU, is a two-seat multi-role fighter that evolved from the Su-27UB trainer version. The Su-30 was given new avionics and weapons for ground attack abilities. The aircraft began production in 1992 and in 1996 was renamed Su-30, NATO name is Flanker. The Su-30 has several variants, India has the MKI, Algeria has the MKA and Malaysia the MKM and Russia the SM. These 4 variants all have thrust vectoring and canards for added stability to compensate for the nose-heavy radars. There are several other Su-30 variants without canards.