the second pilot on su30mki has three main purposes:
1)the su30mki is a mini awacs it can control upto 4 other aircrafts through datalinks and transfer targetting data to them,guide those aircrafts onto the targets ,this operation is generally carried out by the second pilot and is also known as the fighter air controller.
2)in the event of long range flights or for high endurance combat patrols ,he can relieve the pilot and fly the aircraft(since the aircraft has dual control),if in combat the pilot is injured then the flying operation can be carried out by the copilot.
3)he can concentrate on ground attack or anti shipping roles,target damage assessment,electronic warfare and other such special roles while the pilot concentrates on flying and aircombat roles(the pilot can single handedly handle both the functions but in long endurance and high intensity situations this can be very stressfull and can lead to mistakes)
4)with inflight refuelling these aircrafts endurance is limited only by the crews endurance and in these cases two pilots are an advantage.
it is for this reason that both the cockpits are perfectly duplicated.
the aircraft has french avionics with some indian and israeli elements and also israeli self defence systems.
this is not a unique concept,this concept is also seen on f14 tomcat,f18f superhornet and other such very large aircrafts.
for more info on thsi topic check out
www.bharat-rakshak.com,
www.indiadefence.com,www.acig.org etc.
