The well-known aviation resource Scramble [...] reported that the Air Defense Forces of Kazakhstan "recently" received from Russia six Su-30SM fighters of the new construction of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant (IAZ, as part of PJSC United Aircraft Corporation). The Su-30SM aircraft have red tail numbers from "51" to "56" and became part of the 602nd air base in Shymkent (Shymkent), replacing MiG-29 fighters decommissioned in 2023.
One of the six Su-30SM fighters newly built by the Irkutsk Aviation Plant received in 2024 by the Air Defense Forces of Kazakhstan (tail number "51 red") (c) a frame from the video of the Air Defense Forces of Kazakhstan (via www.scramble.nl )
Thus, the total number of Su-30SM fighters received by Kazakhstan has reached 30. Earlier, Kazakhstan received 24 newly built Su-30SM aircraft from 2015 to 2020, one of which was lost in a flight accident in 2021.
Earlier, Kazakhstan signed three contracts for the purchase of a total of 24 Su-30SM fighters manufactured by IAZ. Under the first contract signed in 2014, worth about 5 billion rubles, Kazakhstan received four Su-30SM fighters with red tail numbers from "01" to "04" (serial numbers, respectively, from 10MK5 1118 to 1120 and 1201), which arrived at the 604th Air Defense Forces Air Base (SVO) of Kazakhstan in Taldy Kurgan in April 2015.
In December 2015, Kazakhstan signed a second contract for eight additional Su-30SM fighters, under which Kazakhstan's Air defense forces received the first two aircraft (red tail numbers "05" and "06", serial numbers 10MK5 1315 and 10MK5 1316) in December 2016, two more aircraft (red tail numbers "07" and "08", serial numbers 10MK5 1507 and 10MK5 1508) - in December 2017, and the remaining four Su-30SM fighters - in December 2018 (red tail numbers "09", "10", "11" and "12", serial numbers respectively from 10MK5 1603 to 10MK5 1606).
In August 2017, Russia and Kazakhstan signed a three-year framework contract for the supply of 12 more Su-30SM aircraft, under which in May 2018 a firm contract was signed for the supply of eight fighters in 2019-2020, and in 2019 a contract for the supply of the last four aircraft. The first four aircraft under these contracts, with red tail numbers from "14" to "17", were delivered at the end of 2019 to Taldy Kurgan. Then, in November and December 2020, eight more Su-30SM were delivered to the 610th aviation base of the Central Military District of Kazakhstan in Karaganda (they had red tail numbers from "01" to "04" and from "19" to "22"). One of the IMZ aircraft of the 610th Air Base crashed on April 16, 2021.
At the end of 2023, reports appeared in the Kazakh official media about the conclusion of a contract with the Russian side for the purchase of ten more Su-30SM fighters for the Air Defense of Kazakhstan. In December 2023, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense Forces of Kazakhstan for Armament, the head of the Main Armament Department, Colonel Yerzhan Nildibayev, said that at the beginning of 2024, Kazakhstan's Air Defense forces should receive six new Su-30SM fighters.
