First of all, this line did not refer to what aircraft was procured by the Air Force by stating the year 1993. Assuming with the year stated, it would be the MiG-29.



Canards are NOT a requirement in supermaneuverability (go wiki Supermaneuverability) of which Pugachev's Cobra is part of the maneuvers possible with this attribute present on an aircraft. The original Su-27 Flanker does NOT have thrust vector control either and this did not change until the modernization of the Su-27 fleet available in the Russian Air Force. Current aircraft listing of the Russian Air Force only listed Su-35 (and the upcoming, in-development Sukhoi PAK-FA) as aircrafts with TVC.

The writer has to keep in mind that we procured the MiG-29 almost shortly after the dissollution of the Soviet Union, and we should be noted that the MiG-29 lacks the maneuverability of the Su-27 family which made them famous till today.

Second, from what I've seen in recordings of the Russian Knights' performance for LIMA 2013, they did not perform the Cobra AT ALL. I was not at the event itself to verify firsthand with my own two eyes, but if to take into account that the recordings were tracking every single stunt performed by the pilots, there was no such thing.

As I watched the Russian Knights performance and our own Su-30MKM's (recordings), the Su-30MKM's show has shown a lot maneuvers I have a hard time identifying. To quote from our own Su-30MKM pilot that some of the maneuvers they perform are actually modified from the original Russian stunts such as the modification of the Kulbit and Pugachev's Cobra maneuvers.