Nirmala Sitharaman's day out on Sukhoi-30 MKI: Defence minister takes off in indigenously-built fighter aircraft from Jodhpur

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was flown in the Indian Air Force's frontline aircraft, the indigenously-built version of Su-30 MKI fighter jet on Wednesday, her official Twitter account posted.

Smt @nsitharaman meets the Air Warriors at the Air Force Station in Jodhpur before her sortie on the Sukhoi-30 MKI #RakshaMantrifliesSukhoi pic.twitter.com/qLoACwv2dw

— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) January 17, 2018

Smt @nsitharaman in the cockpit of the Sukhoi-30 MKI, familiarising herself with the fighter aircraft, before taking off for a sortie #RakshaMantrifliesSukhoi pic.twitter.com/uKtIbzOv7J — Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) January 17, 2018

Before take-off on the Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet #RakshaMantrifliesSukhoi pic.twitter.com/yLf2T7xnL8

— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) January 17, 2018

Smt @nsitharaman takes off on the Su-30 MKI #RakshaMantrifliesSukhoi pic.twitter.com/xC51hjeCSa — Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) January 17, 2018

The minister flew a sortie in the formidable fighter, which has nuclear strike capability and capability to penetrate deep in enemy territory, at the Air Force Station in Jodhpur.

After her recent stay on board INS Vikramaditya at sea and whirlwind tours to forward areas and different installations of the three forces, this sortie will be a part of the defence minister's continued effort to gauge and review the operational preparedness and combat capabilities of the armed forces, the sources said.

The Sukhoi-30 MKI is a 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. A variant of the Sukhoi Su-30, it is a heavy, all-weather, long-range fighter.

In November 2017, India had successfully flight-tested the air variant of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the fighter jet.

With inputs from IANS