SU32/34 fighter-bomber Nato reporting name "Fullback"

Sukhoi 32 one of the most advanced and agile fighter bombers world ever saw..A dedicated fighter bomber version of the Su-27 was developed from the early 1980s, with the Sukhoi bureau designation T-10V, making its first flight on 13 April 1990. Its official designation originally was Su-27IB (IB: Istrebitel Bombardirovschik / Fighter Bomber). It was developed in parallel with the two-seat naval trainer, the Su-27KUB (KUB: Korabelnyi Uchebno-Boyevoy, shipboard combat trainer), although, contrary to earlier reports, the two aircraft are not directly related.
Severe budget restrictions following the collapse of the Soviet Union led the program to stall repeatedly, and led to the prototype aircraft being displayed publicly under a confusing variety of roles and designations. When first described in the official Russian press in 1994 it was described as the Su-34. The third pre-production aircraft was shown at a Paris air show in 1995 as the Su-34FN (FN for "Fighter, Navy"), described as a shore-based naval aircraft, and it was displayed as the Su-34MF (MF for MnogoFunksionalniy, multi-function) at the MAKS air show in 1999. The Russian Air Force has apparently recently adopted the designation Su-34. The aircraft's oddly-shaped nose, said to be semi-stealthy, is reminiscent of that of the SR-71 Blackbird, and has earned it the nickname "Platypus," although its NATO reporting name is Fullback.

The aircraft shares most of its wing structure, tail, and engine nacelles with the Su-27/Su-30, with canards like the Su-30/Su-33/Su-35 to increase static instability (higher manoeuvrability) and to reduce trim drag. The aircraft has an entirely new nose and forward fuselage with a cockpit providing side-by-side seating for a crew of two. The Su-34 retains the Su-27's engines, but with fixed intakes, limiting its maximum speed to about Mach 1.8. Production models are likely to have thrust vectoring, like recent Su-30MKs.Unlike the earlier Su-27, the Su-34 has a modern "glass" cockpit, with colour CRT multi-function displays. Its avionics currently are based around a Leninets V004 phased array radar, and a UOMZ laser/television system for designating and guiding precision-guided munitions. The front-mounted radar is supplemented by a rear-aspect V005 radar housed in the long tail "stinger." The Su-34 is equipped with comprehensive ECM equipment, including an infrared missile launch detection system. Despite the advance of these systems over existing Su-27 avionics, they may be replaced with still more sophisticated equipment before the aircraft enters service.

The Su-34's most distinctive feature is the unusually large flight deck, which not only provides side-by-side seating, but includes space for a galley, a latrine, and a bunkbed. It was joked that "It's got a bigger cockpit than the Tu-160". Much of the design work went into crew comfort, which resulted in novel features such as pressurization provided by the air conditioning system, rather than with oxygen masks and a massage function in the K-36 ejector seats

The Su-34 has 12 stores pylons for up to 8,000 kilograms (17,635 pounds) of ordnance, intended to include the latest Russian precision-guided weapons. It retains the Su-27/Su-30's GSh-30-1 30mm cannon.The development of the Su-34 has been hampered by the poor state of Russian finances, and to date only a handful of pre-production models have been built. In mid-2004 Sukhoi announced that low-rate production was commencing and that initial aircraft would reach squadron service around 2008. Nevertheless, upgrade programs continue for surviving Russian Su-24s, as the Su-34 may still not enter wide service for some years to come.

In March 2006 Russia's minister of defense Sergei Ivanov announced that the government had purchased only two Su-34's for delivery in 2006, and planned to have a complete air regiment of 24 Su-34s operational by the end of 2010 (total 58 aircraft will be purchased by 2015 to replace some of 300+ Su-24, which are going through modernization upgrades currently to prolong their service life). Ivanov claimed that because the aircraft is "many times more effective on all critical parameters" the Russian Air Force will need far fewer of these newer bombers than the old Su-24 it replaces.