Thursday, September 21, 2023

Ukrainians turn newest Russian Su-30SM fighter into souvenir key fobs

Ukrainians seeking to help their Armed Forces are crowdfunding by selling a downed Russian Su-30SM Flanker-H fighter jet as souvenirs.

The team of aviation enthusiasts at the Fuselage Creations is turning wreckage from the newest Russian fighter aircraft into key fobs and selling them abroad to use that funding to buy equipment and vehicles for Ukraine’s armed forces.

In a message posted to Facebook, Fuselage Creations said that “The result of the failed ‘reconnaissance – bombing’ mission is -1 Flanker in russian air force, not the last downed one and not the last one we will offer.”

- ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW -

The modern aircraft is a Russian Su-30SM two-seater tactical fighter-bomber that the Ukrainian military says it shot down over in Mykolaiv Oblast. It is a rare aircraft assigned to the Russia Navy.

The downed aircraft had the tail number RF-33787, the call sign “45 Blue” and its own name IRKUT.

According to some reports, like one from TASS, the Su-30SM is a super-maneuverable, all-weather, generation 4++ two-seat fighter derived from the successful Indian Su-30MKI and Malaysian Su-30MKM, which began delivery to Russian forces in 2013.

The Russian-built Su-30SM is manufactured by Sukhoi Design Bureau mainly for Russia’s Air Force and Navy. It is an advanced model of the Su-30MK combat aircraft series. In addition to Kazakhstan and Russia, the armed forces of Algeria, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Uganda, Venezuela and Vietnam aircraft of Su-30MK series.

If you would like to show your support for what we are doing, here's where to do it.

If you wish to report grammatical or factual errors within our news articles, you can let us know by using the online feedback form.

Executive Editor

About

Dylan Malyasov
Dylan Malyasov
Dylan Malyasov is the editor-in-chief of Defence Blog. He is a journalist, an accredited defense adviser and a consultant. He graduated in business management and worked at leading European defense companies before becoming a military journalist. read more

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

TRENDING NOW

Ukrainian saboteurs broke into military airfield near Moscow

Ukrainian saboteurs coordinated by Kyiv’s military intelligence services attacked Moscow's Chkalovsky military airfield. Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) confirmed on Wednesday that unknown saboteurs broke into...