Sukhoi Su-30MKK Flanker G

First Su-27PU (T10PU-5) was refurbished and rebuilt to serve as an Su-30MKK development aircraft, first flying in its new guise on 9 March 1999. First KnAAPO-built prototype (`501') flew 19 May 1999 (sometimes reported as 20 February 1999), with second (`502', in basic Chinese camouflage scheme but marked simply as Su-30MK, not MKK) following later in 1999. `501' and `502' representative of planned production configuration, with tall, flat-topped Su-35-type tailfins, retractable in-flight refuelling probes and (according to some sources) Su-35-type radomes. Total of 40 on order for the PLA Air Force, the first batch of 10 being delivered from Komsomolsk to Nanjing on 20 December 2000 although a first aircraft had been handed over in China during August 2000. Chinese production of the `Flanker' mabe will switch from the J-11 to the Su-30MKK after 80 aircraft.