Russia’s Defense Ministry awarded Sukhoi Aircraft Company contract to manufacture 20 Su-34 frontline fighter-bombers, the TASS news agency reported on 8 June, citing a source in the domestic defense industry.

“Last week, a contract was signed between the Defense Ministry and the Sukhoi Aircraft Company on building about 20 Su-34 frontline bombers,” the source said.

The report added that the contract involves standard Su-34 aircraft with certain alterations based on the experience of the operation of several dozen bombers of this type earlier purchased for the troops.

The aircraft will integrate the latest avionics suite developed under the Sych experimental design work, the source said.

The Sych experimental design work was completed in 2019 and, in particular, “it envisages installing underslung reconnaissance containers on Su-34s,” the source specified.

“Also, the range of air-launched weapons, which the Su-34 will be able to employ, increases significantly in the process of this work,” the source said.

The Su-34 multirole supersonic fighter-bomber is designated to strike both ground-based and air targets day and night in any weather conditions. As its basic armament, the plane carries air-to-surface and air-to-air missiles.

The first contract for the delivery of 32 Su-34 planes to the Defense Ministry was signed in 2008. Currently, the Novosibirsk Aviation Enterprise (a branch of the Sukhoi Aircraft Company) is completing the production of Su-34 bombers under the contract signed with the Defense Ministry in 2012 for the delivery of 92 planes to the troops.