In 1985 in Department of Design-technology Bureau (KBO) of P.O. Sukhoi made the decision on carrying out of the tests on refueling in air of machines such as SU-27 and finding-out of opportunities of a crew during a long flight, their function ability and state of health. With this purpose the second flight copy SU-27UB(T-10U-2) was chosen. The system of refueling was fixed and structure of the equipment was changed partly. External differences of a new modification were in appearance of a bar of refueling system and displacement of the optical block on the right board. The experimental copy of the plane was raised in the air on September, 10, 1986 by pilots - verifiers of IAPO G.Bulanov and N.Ivanov.
In June of 1987 a non-stop flight on the route Moscow - Komsomolsk-on-Amur was made on this plane, and in March 1988 a non-stop flight on the route Moscow - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Moscow was made. The second route had expansion of 13440 kms and lasted 15 hours 42 minutes. For this time four refueling in the air had been carried out by the crew.
As a result of these works the decision about the creation of the new modification SU-27PU on the basis of SU-27UB was made. It was intended for aircraft of air defense, with an opportunity of carrying of long flights, destructions of planes - carriers of cruise missiles till boundaries of their launch, cruise missiles in flight and other air targets in anyone meteorological conditions during a day and at night, in conditions of strong radio-electronic counteraction made by the opponent, carrying out operations alone or by a group and, besides for direct control of interceptors during carrying group operations.
The governmental decision about the beginning of serial production of SU-30 (the machine received such name) at Irkutsk aviation factory soon was made. As to the Department of Design-technology Bureau (KBO) these works were supervised by I.Yemelyanov who became a leading designer of Su-30.
In 1990 plane T-10PU-5 was reequipped in flying laboratory for tests of engines.
Before the beginning of a serial production the plane's wing center section and the chassis were strengthened and it allowed raising take-off and landing weights. In a cabin of the pilot - operator the indicator of tactical conditions was fixed and it gave an opportunity to coordinate carrying of group air fight. So as the duration of flight grew and it began to depend only on physical opportunities of the crew, cabins of pilots were equipped with toilet systems. Flight of the first serial SU-30 took place on April, 14, 1992. The coming economic recession allowed to produce only some (on data BNS from 23.07.1997 - 8 planes) SU-30, the pair of which got in a flight group «Russian Vityazi " under the leadership of A.Kvochur. These planes (board numbers 596 and 597) were shown to the general public during demonstrative flights on an air show "Mosairshow-92". Serial fighting machines are now in 148-th CBPandPPC of the Air Forces (until recently - Air Defense) in Savostlake where are actively used in flight-tactical maneuvers.
Arms
Automatic single-barrel gun GSh-301 (30 mm, 1500 shots/min, 150 cartridges); missile arms - up to six UR of a class "air - air" of average range such as R-27, up to four UR of small range R-73 with TGS; bombs in caliber up to 500 kg and in a total weight up to 6000 kg (packages FAB-250) on four pylons; NURS, KMGU, tanks and the other uncontrolled weapon of a class "air - surface".
Code designation in NATO - Flanker-C (Marginal).
