In August 2003, Malaysia signed a US$900 million contract with
Irkut Corporation for 18 Sukhoi Su-30MKMs. Malaysia operates eight legacy
F/A-18D Hornet,
F-5E Tiger II and
A-4PTM Skyhawk and was offered Boeing's
F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, but the Royal Malaysian Air Force chose the Su-30MKM instead. The Su-30MKM is an advanced variant, with considerable performance related improvements over its Su-30MK/MKK counterparts. Irkut Corporation subcontracted the task of manufacturing the canards, stabilizers and fins to
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. As part of the contract agreement, Russia sent the first Malaysian cosmonaut to the International Space Station. It was a project initiated under the government-to-government offset agreement through the purchase of Su-30MKM fighter jets for the Royal Malaysian Air Force. Under this agreement the Russian Federation bore the cost of training two Malaysians for space travel and for sending one to the International Space Station (ISS) in October 2007 under the
Angkasawan program. The first two aircraft were handed over to the
RMAF in May 2007 at
Irkut's aircraft manufacturing facility at
Irkutsk,
Russia. The two aircraft were later delivered to
RMAF Gong Kedak, Malaysia in June 2007 by an
An-124-100 transport aircraft. By December 2007, seven months after the delivery of the first two aircraft, the
RMAF had taken delivery of six Su-30MKMs. The eighteenth and last aircraft arrived at
RMAF Gong Kedak in August 2009. In 2016, Su-30MKM successfully dropped a GBU-12
Paveway laser-guided bomb in a firing exercise. An aircraft registered number M52-08 successfully dropped the bombs at Kota Belud firing range in Sabah on 27 November 2016. This makes it the first Russian-made Sukhoi combat aircraft compatible with the weapon. According to Malaysian defense Minister Mohamad Sabu, Malaysia has grounded 14 of 18 Su-30MKM due to engine problems and unavailability of spare parts in 2018. To overcome this problem and increase the readiness of the Su-30MKM fleets, Malaysia has approved the budget worth RM2.2 billion for the Su-30MKM to be upgraded locally by
Aerospace Technology Systems Corporation. The first upgraded aircraft was received in 2019 in LIMA 2019 exhibition. The program was completed in January 2025. From 5–8 August 2024, Su-30MKMs participated with Exercise Udara Shakti with the
Sukhoi Su-30MKIs of the
Indian Air Force. On 12 November 2024, during a historic State Partnership engagement with the Royal Malaysian Air Force at RMAF Subang Air Base in Malaysia, an American
KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the
141st Air Refueling Wing of
Washington Air National Guard refuelled three of the Russian made-Sukhoi Su-30MKM aircraft. ==Design==