Not especially new and as mentioned, a follow on to the SU-27.

A number of years ago the SU-27 showed up at Paris with variable nozzles. Asked about them in a press conference the lead Sukhoi designer admitted they were very short-lived due to hot spots created from the 'burners.

This site gives a fairly good rundown on the variants. India is flying the MK and Hugo in Venezuela has ordered some. It is a capable airplane and the Chinese have begun building their own variant. The significance of the Chinese machines is they have LOTS of stations to load air-to-air weapons and some are suggesting that they intend to overwhelm the F-22s with sheer numbers.

This is also the machine the Indians recently brought to Red Flag and yes, people were impressed with it although both sides were dialing down their capabilities so as to not give away what the airplane could really do.

Su-30MK

FWIW, at the airshows I have attended, the Russians never wear G-suits for the demo. And the maneuvers may not be that useful in the dogfight but it does demonstrate extreme control at very high alpha. Impressive.

 

Then there's this:

http://www.militarytimes.com/multime...0080714_rc_f22

 

hope this isn't OT, surprised no one has posted it yet:

The Last Ace - The Atlantic (March 2009)

 

Yeah that's cool too. I think the Russian put on a better show.

I don't understand why we would be out touting the performance of the F-22. Why not try keeping it a secret?

-Fatty

 

Maybe maintain funding?

The performance is very impressive... makes you wonder what's next?