- According to a report,Sukhois(Su-30) couldn’t be stationed in forward areas near Line of Control(LOC) during Aerial Combat between India and Pakistan.It was because of bureaucratic delay in constructing ‘hard shelter’s also known as ‘blast pens’.
- Blast pens are shelter to house fighter-type aircraft and provide protection to the aircraft from attack by conventional weapons or damage from high winds or other elemental hazards.It is also called as an aircraft shelter and a hardened aircraft shelter.
- The Indian Air force(IAF) got the first batch of Su-30s from Russia in 1996 and has since contracted 272 aircraft, of which 240 have been inducted.But the construction of blast pens was not included in the original deal with Russia.
- The Sukhoi Su-30 is a twin-engine,two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft developed by Russia’s Sukhoi Aviation Corporation.It is a multirole fighter for all-weather,air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions.
- The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a variant of the Sukhoi Su-30 twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russia’s Sukhoi and built under licence by India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
