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december 2009 • Special edition for LIMA 2009

CHERNYSHEV jsc Moscow Machine-Building Enterprise

– e n i g n e e “reliabl ar tner!” reliable p

Su-30MKM in RMAF service [p.4]

Manufacturing, after-sale service, aero engines overhaul • RD-33 (MiG-29, MiG-29UB, MiG-29SMT fighters) • RD-33MK (MiG-29K, MiG-35/MiG-35D fighters) • TV7-117SM (IL-114 regional airplane) Overhaul, spare parts delievery • R27F2M-300 (MiG-23UB fighter) • R29-300 (MiG-23M, MiG-23MS, MiG-23MF fighters) • R-35 (MiG-23ML, MiG-23MLD, MiG-23P fighters)

MiG-29K back on deck [p.16]

MMRCA trials [p.10]

TBO and TTL expansion of the overhaul engines

Tikhomirov’s AESA [p.30]

MC-21 programme 7, Vishnevaya Street, Moscow, 125362, Russia Phone: +7 (495) 491-58-74, Fax: +7 (495) 490-56-00 e-mail: info@chernyshev.biz, http://www.avia500.ru/

[p.24]

aero engines

Recent aerospace news from Russia & CIS [p.2,14, 20, 26, 32]

OBORONPROM Corporation, a Russian Technologies State Corporation company, is a diversified industrial-investment group in the engineering and high technologies sectors. The Corporation integrates more than 25 leading Russian companies in helicopters and engines manufacturing.

The enterprises of the Corporation produced goods and provided services worth over $4 billion in 2008

SU 30MK ONLY THE BEST

St.Petersburg Rybinsk Moscow

Rostov-Don

Kazan

Perm

Ufa Ekaterinburg

Samara Kumertau

Novosibirsk Ula-Ude

“Russian Helicopters” Company, a whole subsidiary of OBORONPROM Corporation, is the leading Russian designer and manufacturer of rotary-wing aircraft equipment “United Engine Corporation”, a whole subsidiary of OBORONPROM Corporation, is the leading Russian industrial group producing engines for aircraft, aerospace industry, gas compression stations and power plants

IRKUT Corporation www.sukhoi.org

www.irkut.com

UNITED INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION “OBORONPROM” 27 Stromynka st., 107076 Moscow, Russia e-mail: oboronprom@oboronprom.ru www.oboronprom.ru

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Arseniev

december 2009 Editor-in-Chief Andrey Fomin

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Shcherbakov

Editor Yevgeny Yerokhin

Columnist Alexander Velovich

Special correspondents Alexey Mikheyev, Vladimir Karnozov, Victor Drushlyakov, Andrey Zinchuk, Valery Ageyev, Alina Chernoivanova, Natalya Pechorina, Marina Lystseva, Dmirty Pichugin, Sergey Krivchikov, Sergey Popsuyevich, Piotr Butowski, Alexander Mladenov, Miroslav Gyurosi

Design and pre-press Grigory Butrin

Web support Georgy Fedoseyev

Translation Yevgeny Ozhogin

Cover picture Sergey Kuznetsov

Publisher

Director General Andrey Fomin

Deputy Director General Nadezhda Kashirina

Marketing Director George Smirnov

Director for international projects Alexander Velovich

News items for “In Brief” columns are prepared by editorial staff based on reports of our special correspondents, press releases of production companies as well as by using information distributed by ITAR-TASS, ARMS-TASS, Interfax-AVN, RIA Novosti, RBC news agencies and published at www.aviaport.ru, www.avia.ru, www.gazeta.ru, www.cosmoworld.ru web sites Items in the magazine placed on this colour background or supplied with a note “Commercial” are published on a commercial basis.

Editorial staff does not bear responsibility for the contents of such items.

The magazine is registered by the Federal Service for supervision of observation of legislation in the sphere of mass media and protection of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation. Registration certificate PI FS77-19017 dated 29 November 2004

© Aeromedia, 2009

P.O. Box 7, Moscow, 125475, Russia Tel. +7 (495) 644-17-33, 798-81-19 Fax +7 (495) 644-17-33 E-mail: info@take-off.ru http://www.take-off.ru

Dear reader, You are holding the latest issue of the Take-off magazine, special English-language supplement to VZLET Russia’s national aerospace magazine, dedicated this time to LIMA 2009 airshow.

LIMA aerospace exhibition on Malaysian island Langkawi is one of the most respectable international airshows in South East Asia, so it gathers potential customers not only from Malaysia but from all over the region.

Russian participants’ interest in it is owing to the country and South East Asia returning as the leaders in importing Russian-made aircraft and cooperating with Russia in the aerospace field. For example, this year the Royal Malaysian Air Force has received its last Sukhoi Su-30MKM supermanoeuvrable multirole fighters under the contract for 18 aircraft of the type signed in 2003. The inaugural demonstration of the first Su-30MKMs delivered to RMAF by Russia’s Irkut Corporation in 2007 took place at previous LIMA 2007 and had a great success. This time Malaysian Su-30MKMs are going to become the main participants of the LIMA airshow again. No doubt, unique supermanoeuvrability of the Sukhoi fighters and excellent skills of RMAF pilots will together produce a great show within LIMA 2009 flight demonstration programme.

Although earlier this year Irkut Corp. successfully fulfilled the whole contract on 18 Su-30MKMs delivery to RMAF, more fighters of the type could be in demand in Malaysia soon as it decided to withdraw in the future its MiG-29N aircraft fleet delivered by Russia’s MiG Corp. in 1990s. In such case Su-30MKM, possibly in further upgraded version, for example armed by BrahMos super-long range air-to-surface missiles or fitted with a brand-new AESA radar, could become the best choice for Malaysia in terms of RMAF fighter fleet combat efficiency and operational logistics.

Apart from Su-30MKM topic in this issue we have focused on the other most important novelties and recent events in Russian aerospace industry, with preference given to those of them that could be of special interest to the current and potential customers of Russian aircraft in Malaysia and South East Asia in a whole.

I wish you fruitful work at the LIMA 2009 air show, useful contacts and lucrative contracts!

Sincerely, Andrey Fomin, Editor-in-Chief, Take-off magazine

contents

CONTRACTS AND DELIVERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Mi-35M gearing up for shipping to Brazil An-74TK-300D delivered to Laotian government

December 2009

Su-30MKM In service with RMAF

4

This summer, the last two Sukhoi Su-30MKM twinseat supermanoeuvrable multirole fighters from the batch of 18 aircraft ordered in 2003 entered service with the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). With this delivery which took place on 17 August 2009, Irkut Corporation fulfilled completely the contract signed six years before providing RMAF with the most modern and combat effective multirole fighters. Now all of 18 superagile Su-30MKMs are in service with the 11th squadron of the Royal Malaysian Air Force stationed at Gong Kedak air base in the Kelantan province, on the coast of the South China Sea, 300 km north of the national capital, Kuala Lumpur. The international debut of the advanced Malaysian fighters took place two years ago, at LIMA 2007 airshow at the island of Langkawi.

This time, three Su-30MKMs are also the participants of the international aerospace and marine exhibition at Langkawi and, no doubt, will become the main stars of the demonstration flight programme at LIMA 2009.

MMRCA tender Trials kick off in India

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Two advanced MiG-35 multirole fighters made by the MiG corporation this year were headed for India on 7 October to take part in the trials as part of the MMRCA (Medium MultiRole Combat Aircraft) tender. Starting from mid-August, US fighters F/A-18E/F and F-16E/F and French Rafale had completed their trials in India as contenders under the MMRCA tender providing for the Indian Air Force (IAF) to buy 126 multirole fighters worth upwards of $10 billion. Swedish Gripen and European Typhoon will be last to join the flight evaluation by the tender’s organisers. Although the rivalling planes’ developers and IAF keep mum on how the current flight trials unfold, the Indian media and Internet forums keep tabs on what is going on at Bangalore airbase and other Indian airfields where MMRCA contenders are flown under the conditions set by the organisers. Based on the media and Internet reports, let us try and look into how the flight evaluation of the contenders is going on.

Phazotron-NIIR ready for Indian tender

MILITARY AVIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Sukhoi to deliver 64 brand-new fighters to RusAF The first Irkut-built Yak-130 has flown

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MiG-29K Back on deck!

In later September, the MiG Corporation conducted successful flight trials of the advanced MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB multirole carrierborne fighters ordered by the Indian Navy (IN). The trials took place on board the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraftcarrying cruiser of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy. The first deck landing on the Admiral Kuznetsov in the Barents Sea was conducted on 28 September by MiG Corp. chief test pilot Pavel Vlasov flying the MiG-29K prototype serialled 941.

MiG Corp. test pilots Nikolay Diorditsa and Mikhail Belyayev followed him on the production MiG-29KUB twinseater painted in the customer’s colour scheme. In the course of two days, both aircraft performed several takeoffs and deck landings that proved the feasibility of safe operation of advanced fighters from aircraft carriers.

Interestingly, the MiG-29K/KUB’s flight tests on board the Admiral Kuznetsov had taken place on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the first deck landings of Russia’s fourth-generation supersonic fighters and had become a kind of MiGs’ comeback to the deck. On 1 November 1989, a prototype MiG-29K of the previous model touched down on and then took off from this ship that was designated as Tbilisi at the time. Several more series of tests were conducted over several years afterwards, but for a number of reasons a decision was taken to have the Sukhoi Su-33 (Su-27K) shipborne fighter enter inventory of the Russian Navy’s air arm.

History has made another twist, and now advanced MiG-29K/KUB being in full-rate production for a foreign customer could be used by the Russian Navy in the near future. w w w. t a k e - o f f . r u

contents

CIVIL AVIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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First Russian-built An-148 delivered Sukhoi SuperJet seeking type certificate IFC sells 26 more Tu-204s Polyot receives new Il-96-400Ts Transaero flies three Tu-214s Yakutia started operating its third An-140

MC-21 programme Engine makers go around Once the programme on developing the advanced Sukhoi SuperJet 100 airliner came into the straight, and the aircraft made its debut at home and abroad, designers turned to another promising Russian civil aviation project – the development of a family of MC-21 short- and medium-haul airliners. According to the developer, the airliners will have a wide range of operation capabilities, tailored to the Russian and foreign markets and capable of facilitating airlines’ reaching a radically new level of economic efficiency, including doing so by slashing the direct operating costs by 15% compared the current aircraft in the same class. The MC21 programme is at the pre-design and key systems supplier selection stage. The results of several tenders on selecting first-tier suppliers for the MC-21 were announced on 20 August, but the final competitions on the powerplant, avionics and control systems have been put off until year-end.

INDUSTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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Ka-32 certificated in EU Turbomeca to supply engines to fit Mi-34 Ansat-U expected by the military Ka-226T gearing up for certification Ka-62 on Russian Helicopters priority list Russia and Ukraine agreed to pursue An-70 programme together PS-90A2 enters flight trials Large order for engines to power Su-35

Tikhomirov’s AESA in trials The active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar being developed by the Tikhomirov-NIIP joint stock company to fit a new-generation fighter was among the head-turners of the MAKS 2009 air show. At the show, Tikhomirov-NIIP unveiled a full-scale X-band AESA radar that had logged many bench tests in laboratories.

The AESA radar is expected to begin its flight tests next year. Owing to its design commonality and technical solutions selected, it could spawn active electronicallyscanned arrays to upgrade various radars equipping the fighters of the Su-27/Su30 and MiG-29 families also. The Take-off editor met with Tikhomirov-NIIP Director General Yuri Bely and asked him to tell about the AESA radar development programme.

WEAPONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Debut of advanced air-to-air missiles

take-off december 2009

contracts and deliveries | in brief

Rostvertol

In mid-October, Brazilian Air Force pilots started the practical stage of converting to a new type of aircraft, the upgraded Mil Mi-35M attack helicopter made by Rostvertol JSC. The contract for 12 Mi-35Ms was signed in November last year during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Brazil, paving the way for Russian combat aircraft to the country.

The upgraded Mi-35M is far superior to the Mi-24V and Mi-35 previously built by Rostvertol in that it has day/night surveillance and targeting systems, cutting-edge navigation aids, composite-blade rotor system and is powered by more powerful VK-2500 engines. The upgrade enhanced the machine’s flight performance considerably, especially its high-and-hot char-

Rostvertol

Mi-35M gearing up for shipping to Brazil

celebrated its 70th anniversary in early July this year. The first Brazilian Mi-35M took to the sky on its maiden flight on 15 August and several days later was inspected by a delegation

of the customer, led by Brazilian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Juniti Saito, with 27 August seeing the machine’s first night-time demonstration flight. With the factory trials

complete, the first Brazil-destined Mi-35M was painted in the customer’s colour scheme that it sported on its 8 October flight. A week later, Brazil pilots started flying it under their conversion programme. The second production machine had been flying by then.

The first Mi-35M batch is to be delivered to Brazil before year-end, once the first team of the customer’s pilots has completed the conversion. The whole of the contract could be fulfilled in 2010. However, the Brazilian media have reported that in addition to the Brazilian Air Force with its 12 Mi-35Ms, the Brazilian Army Aviation has shown interest in the helicopter as well, indicating its willingness to order four Mi-35Ms.

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Tina Shaposhnikova

acteristics. The first 10 production-standard Mi-35Ms were exported to Venezuela in 2006–08, with the company now fulfilling the second export order. Mention should be made that the Venezuelan and Brazilian orders enabled Rostvertol to resume the production of the Mi-35 helicopter family suspended as far back as 1989 when the last production-standard Mi-24P and Mi-35P helicopters were completed (in the following decade and a half, the plant had only overhauled and upgraded the aircraft of the type).

Rostvertol launched the manufacture of the first Mi-35M batch for the Brazilian Air Force late last year. As many as four aircraft had sat in the assembly shop by the time the plant

www.take-off.ru

contracts and deliveries | in brief

On 15 October, the airfield of the Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company (KSAMC) hosted the handover ceremony of the new Antonov An-74TK-300D aircraft in the VIP configuration to representatives of the customer, the government of Laos. The aircraft, serialled RDPL-34020 by the customer, made its maiden flight on 17 September 2009. It is the second KSAMC-built plane delivered this year, with the An-74TK-300D delivered to Libya on 23 April being the first one.

Thus, the return of Anatoly Myalitsa into the office of KSAMC’s Director General has resulted in a hope for progress. As is known, for several years the plant was unable to make

and deliver a single new plane, though it had firm orders for at least 10 aircraft of the An-74 family and its assembly shop was crammed with unfinished airframes and assemblies. Now, the work has picked up. According to Anatoly Myalitsa speaking at the Laotian An-74TK-300D’s handover ceremony, three more aircraft are to be completed this year. “There are three planes undergoing final assembly in shops. We are working on them.

We will complete the aircraft intended for Egypt in November and then the one for Libya’s air medical service,” he told the media.

KSAMC spokesman Andrey Platonov told the Take-off correspondent that in the near future, the Kharkov-based company was to

KSAMC

An-74TK-300D delivered to Laotian government

deliver two An-74TK-200S air ambulances to Libya and two upgraded An-74T-200A transports to Egypt (the first of the three ordered aircraft of the type was delivered to Egypt as far back as four years ago, in September 2005). As far as the rest

of the signed but unfulfilled contracts are concerned, “talks are underway”, and any concrete information will be unveiled later, as “the clinched deals are taken off ice, current contracts are extended and new ones are awarded”.

New Ka-28 deliveries to China begin

DefenceTalk.com

The Russian Helicopters joint stock company, a subsidiary of Oboronprom JSC, made an official statement on 9 October that its subsidiary Kumertau Aircraft Production Plant (KumAPP) had built and been completing the tests of the first three Kamov Ka-28 antisubmarine warfare (ASW) helicopters under a new Rosoboronexport contract on nine aircraft of the type for the People’s Republic of China.

“The shipping of the first batch of Ka-28 helicopters is a confi-

www.take-off.ru

dent, albeit small, step towards intensifying the cooperation with our Chinese partners”, said Andrey Shibitov, Director General of the Russian Helicopters. “Today and in the future, Russian Helicopters manufacturers are ready to make any up-to-date helicopters for the air forces and navies of most of the countries, including for our partners in China”. KumAPP Managing Director Sergey Mikryukov, in turn, said, “The global market is showing an obvious tendency towards the growth of demand for Russian heli-

copters. KumAPP is ready to fully meet the requirement of our Asian, Middle Eastern, South American and other partners for both medium (Ka-28, Ka-32) and light (Ka-226T) helicopters”.

The new Ka-28s designed for delivery to the PLANAF are an export version of the Ka-27 in service with the Russian Navy. They are powered by TV3-117VMAR high-altitude engines featuring enhanced power in the maximum continuous power and cruising modes. The ASW machine is fit-

ted with RF sonobuoys and, while in the seek-and-destroy variant, with antisubmarine bombs and torpedo-missiles, including APR-2E Orlan high-speed homing air-to-underwater missiles.

The Ka-28 is known well in China. The first order for eight aircraft of the type was placed as far back as 1997, and the Chinese Navy started operating its first coaxial-rotor Kamov machines a year later. The service took delivery of five ASW machines that it serialled 9144, 9154, 9164, 9174 and 9184, and three SAR aircraft serialled 9114, 9124 and 9134.

The Ka-28s are in service with the Chinese Navy on board the Project 956 Sovremenny-class destroyers procured from Russia and indigenous Luhai destroyers as well as at land-based airfields. In addition to China, the Ka-28 had been exported to India, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Syria and Cuba since the mid-1980s.

33 aircraft had been built by the early 2000s, after which only Ka-31 airborne early warning (AEW) helicopters and civilian versions of the Ka-32 helicopters have been exported. With the signature of the new Chinese contract, KumAPP has resumed production of the Ka-28 baseline military export variant.

take-off december 2009

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Andrey Fomin

contracts and deliveries | report

Su-30MKM IN SERVICE WITH RMAF

Andrey FOMIN

Worth about $900 million, the contract for 18 Russian-made Su-30MKM aircraft to be delivered to RMAF was signed on the top governmental level in August 2003, with the Rosoboronexport state corporation to fulfil it. The aircraft were to be developed by the Sukhoi company and built by the Irkut Corp.

Under the deal, in addition to delivering the fighters, Russia was to train RMAF flying and ground crews and provide weapons and other

Andrey Fomin

This summer, the last two Sukhoi Su-30MKM twinseat supermanoeuvrable multirole fighters from the batch of 18 aircraft ordered in 2003 entered service with the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). With this delivery which took place on 17 August 2009, Irkut Corporation fulfilled completely the contract signed six years before providing RMAF with the most modern and combat effective multirole fighters. Now all of 18 superagile Su-30MKMs are in service with the 11th squadron of the Royal Malaysian Air Force stationed at Gong Kedak air base in the Kelantan province, on the coast of the South China Sea, 300 km north of the national capital, Kuala Lumpur. The international debut of the advanced Malaysian fighters took place two years ago, at LIMA 2007 airshow at the island of Langkawi. This time, three Su-30MKMs are also the participants of the international aerospace and marine exhibition at Langkawi and, no doubt, will become the main stars of the demonstration flight programme at LIMA 2009.

Malaysian leaders examine the RMAF Su-30MKM’s cockpit after its inaugural demo flight at LIMA 2007. The then PM of Malaysia Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (in the center), the then Deputy PM – Minister of Defence, now – the Prime Minister of Malaysia Dato’ Seri Mohd.

Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak (right), and the then RMAF Chief (now – Chief of Defence Forces) Gen Tan Sri Azizan Ariffin (left)

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take-off december 2009

www.take-off.ru

contracts and deliveries | report

Marina Lystseva

first Indian-assembled Su-30MKIs have been check-flown and handed over to IAF in November 2004. Since then, the number of Indian-produced Su-30MKIs in IAF’s inventory has been on the rise. As for today, more than hundred Su-30MKIs – both delivered from Russia and assembled by HAL – are in service with IAF. One more derivative of the fighter, the Su-30MKI(A), is developed by Sukhoi and now being delivered by Irkut Corp. The customer is Algerian Air Force wich ordered 28 fighters of the type in 2006. Deliveries began in late 2007 and

by August 2009 a total of 22 Su-30MKI(A) fighters have been built by Irkut according to the statement of Irkut’s president Oleg Demchenko made at MAKS 2009 airshow.

Algerian contract is planned to be fulfilled by the end of this year.

“The Su-30MKM is another step in developing the Su-30 platform further,” the Sukhoi design bureau’s First Deputy Designer General Alexander Barkovsky told Take-off.

The Malaysian version is wrapped around the Su-30MKI design, differing mostly in avionics but retaining its airframe, AL-31FP thrust vector-controlled (TVC) engines and

equipment relevant to the effective operation of the fighters. A decision was taken to have Malaysia’s personnel trained in their country.

RMAF had taken delivery of the first two aircraft in June 2007 and four more by the year-end, with the next six in March 2008.

The remaining six Su-30MKMs were delivered this summer.

The Su-30MKM fighter is a derivative of the proven Su-30MKI that has been in service with the Indian Air Force (IAF) since www.take-off.ru

2002. Under the contracts fulfilled or still under way, IAF is to take delivery of as many as 230 Su-30MKI fighters by the middle of next decade, of which 90 are to be built by Russia’s Irkut Corporation and 140 are to be licence-produced by Indian aircraft manufacturer HAL under a licence programme.

To date, Irkut has shipped more than 50 fighters of the type to India, continuing to make and deliver both ready-for-service aircraft and licence production kits. The

fly-by-wire control system. Still, “there have been a number of radical modifications to the Malaysian aircraft”, Alexander Barkovsky said.

They included, first and foremost, modifications to the IFF transponder, self-defence suite, display system and podded optronic systems. For instance, the Su-30MKM mounts an advanced French-made IFF system, with its ‘plates’ situated on top the nose section fore of the cockpit. take-off december 2009

5

However, the main difference featured by the Malaysian variant is its laser warning systems and missile approach sensors. They were developed and in production by South African company Avitronics, a member of the SAAB group, and are placed in various parts of the airframe. Two front-hemisphere laser-illumination sensor sets are under the nose section and the other two, which keep an eye on the rear hemisphere, sit on the sides of the air intakes. Between the former, there is a UV three-sensor set to spot incoming missiles in the lookdown mode. The second such set of UV sensors is on top the spine fairing aft of the air brake. It operates in the lookup mode.

In addition to the South African systems, the Su-30MKM’s self-defence suite comprises an upgraded Russian radar-warning receiver, Russian electronic countermeasures (ECM) system in two pods mounted on wingtips, and Russian passive IR dispensers in the tail section (98 cartridges with flares and chaff).

Actually, the share of Russian-made components is larger than that on the Indian variant due to Russian components replacing some of the Indian and Israeli ones.

Particularly, the Su-30MKI has two different digital computers (the main one is Russian

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and the backup is Indian), while both of the Su-30MKM’s computers are Russian-made.

In addition, the Su-30MKM has more French-made systems. The Thales wide-angle HUD has ousted the Israeli ElOp HUD mounted by the Su-30MKI. The Su-30MKM’s colour multifunction LCDs are French-made as well. Like the Indian fighter, its Malaysian counterpart houses three 5x5” MFD55 displays at each combat station in the cockpit, with the rear station also fitted with the fourth, larger display – the 6x6” MFD66.

Another novelty implemented in the Malaysian version is the Thales podded optronic systems (the Su-30MKI can carry the Israeli-made Litening electro-optical pod). There are two such systems: the LDP Damocles pod ensures round-the-clock air-to-surface attack while day and night flight and navigation is ensured by the NAVFLIR system housed by the pylon being the hardpoint for the Damocles.

According to the official data at the Thales web site, the Damocles podded optronic system (the pod weighs 265 kg and is 2.5 m long) handles the surface search, target acquisition, identification and tracking, laser spot detection and target ranging and designation for laser-guided weapons, including smart bombs. To this end, it has the thermal imaging

Sergey Kuznetsov

Sergey Kuznetsov

contracts and deliveries | report

capability with the 3–5 micron wavelength as well as two laser channels: a 1.5 micron eye-safe ranging laser and a target illumination laser. The thermal imager’s extra-wide field of vision in the navigation mode measures 24x18°, wide one – 4x3° and narrow one – 1x0.75°. The twofold electronic magnification (zoom) is possible.

The 3–5 micron infrared NAVFLIR navigation system has the front-hemisphere lookdown/lookup capability with the 24x18° optical field of view (the electronic zoom with 12x9° angle of view) and shows the resultant imagery on the HUD and/or MFDs. The acquisition and identification range for objects measuring 20x20 m is 10–12 km and those for 100x100m objects is 22.5–50 km.

The system, except the pod and cooling system, weighs mere 20 kg.

The rest of the Su-30MKM’s search and targeting systems are Russian-made and mostwww.take-off.ru

ly similar to those on the Su-30MKI. They include, first and foremost, the Tikhomirov NIIP Bars phased-array radar capable of simultaneously tracking at least 15 aerial threats at a high spatial angle and engaging four of them at a time, effectively attacking ground targets and operating in the air-to-air and air-to-surface modes concurrently. The passive phased array of the Bars radar is fitted with the additional hydraulic horizontal turn mechanism and offers ±70° total scan in azimuth and ±40° in elevation. The assured acquisition range for aerial threats with a radar cross-section of 3 sq.m equals at least 140 km.

In addition, the Su-30MKM’s surveillance and targeting gear includes the OLS-30I IRST from the Ural Optical & Mechanical Plant named after E.S. Yalamov (UOMZ) and the

Sura helmet-mounted target designator from the Arsenal plant in Kiev. The infrared segment of the IRST tracks aerial targets out at 90 km in the rear hemisphere and 50 km in the front hemisphere. The airspace scan zone measures ±60° in azimuth and -15/+60° in elevation.

The OLS-30I’s wide field of view account for 60x10° and the narrow one is 20x5°, with the field of view being 3x3° in the lock-on mode.

The laser rangefinder ranges ground targets out at 5 km at the least and aerial ones out at 3 km at the least.

The Su-30MKI’s navigation aids include the TACAN short-range radio navigation system, LINS-GPS inertial/satnav system and VOR/ILS/MRK landing equipment. To ensure safe formation manoeuvring, the aircraft also is fitted with formation flight lights on the sides of the fuselage nose section and air intakes, fins and wingtips. The avionics www.take-off.ru

Sergey Kuznetsov

contracts and deliveries | report

was integrated with the use of multiplex databus meeting the MIL-STD-1553B standard.

As far as its weapons suite is concerned, the Su-30MKM is close enough to IAF’s Su-30MKI. The types of weapons used remain virtually unchanged and include up to ten RVV-AE medium-range active radar homing air-to-air missiles, up to eight R-27ER1 (R1) semiactive radar homing and R-27ET1 (T1) heat-seeking AAMs (including up to two R-27ET1/T1 AAMs), up to six R-73E dogfight missiles, Kh-59ME air-to-surface missiles (two missiles with TV command guidance), Kh-31A or Kh-31P (six ASMs with active or passive radar homing heads), six TV-guided Kh-29TE missiles and five Kh-29L semiactive laser beam-riding ASMs. Guided bombs include KAB-500Kr (OD) and KAB-1500Kr TV-guided bombs and advanced KAB-1500LG laser-guided bombs. The use of Kh-59ME missiles is supported by means of the APK-9E pod carried on the hardpoint under the port air intake and that of Kh-29L missiles and KAB-1500LG bombs by the Damocles pod mounted on the hardpoint under the starboard air intake. Advanced French missile MICA may make its way on board the Su-30MKM, if the feasibility of integrating it with the fighter’s weapons suite, being looked into at the request of RMAF, is confirmed.

The non-guided weapons carried by the Su-30MKM are virtually the same as those hauled by other aircraft of the Flanker family. The Su-30MKM carries up to eight HE gravity bombs or 500 kg disposable cluster bomb units, up to thirty-two 250 kg or 100 kg blast/fragmentation bombs and 80, 122 and 266/340 mm (420 mm) folding-fin aerial rockets (80 S-8, 20 S-13 or four S-25 FFARs in various versions) in four rocket pods or launchers. The maximum payload mounted on 12 hardpoints totals 8,000 kg. To cap it all, the fighter packs a 30 mm GSh-301 automatic cannon with the 150-round ammo load.

In conclusion, a few words about one other feature of the Su-30MKM. The aircraft is fitted with the integral oxygen generator from the Zvezda company in the town of Tomilino, Moscow Region. Zvezda is known as the developer of the unique K-36D-3,5E ejection seat the Su-30MKM is fitted with.

The Su-30MKM has a long flying life – 6,000 flight hours or 25 years of operation as far as the airframe is concerned. Heavy maintenance is required after the aircraft logs 1,500 flight hours or 10 years of operation. The AL-31FP engines from UMPO in Ufa have an assigned life of 2,000 flight hours and a time before first overhaul of 1,000 flight hours, with their TVC nozzles have an assigned life of 500 flight hours.

In 2006 the Sukhoi design bureau furnished two prototype aircraft to test the Su-30MKM’s advanced electronic systems and integrate it with the avionics suite. Two preproduction Su-30MKIs serialled 05 and 04 were converted to this end, becoming the prototypes of the Su-30MKM. One of them was first flown by Sukhoi’s test pilots Sergey Kostin and Vyacheslav Averyanov in Zhukovsky on 23 May 2006. The other prototype completed its maiden flight in Irkutsk on 9 June 2006 with Vyacheslav and Yevgeny Averyanovs at the controls. The bulk of the tests conducted at LII’s airfield in Zhukovsky and at the Defence Ministry’s State Flight Test Centre (GLITs) in Akhtubinsk were complete in late spring 2007, with the assembly of the first several production Su-30MKMs being in full swing at the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant. Both Su-30MKM prototypes will remain in Russia for use under various test programmes to keep on refining the Su-30MKM and other aircraft of the family.

The ceremony of acceptance of two first production-standard Su-30MKMs took place at the airfield of the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant, a subsidiary of the Irkut Corp., on 24 May take-off december 2009

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By then, the fighters delivered had been used by the first group of RMAF pilots for conversion to the aircraft of a type new to them, with Russian test pilots Yevgeny Frolov, Sergey Bogdan and Sergey Kostin of the Sukhoi design bureau acting as instructor pilots.

Already on 31 August, three Su-30MKMs flown by Malaysian pilots participated in the air parade dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence.

The international debut of the advanced Malaysian fighters took place at LIMA 2007 airshow at the island of Langkawi in December 2007. Lt. Col. Norazlan Aris and Maj. Azman Jantan from RMAF’s 11th squadron became the heroes of the show due to their fantastic Su-30MKM flight display over Langkawi.

By then two more RMAF pilots were flying the new type of Malaysian fighter, Maj. Fadzli Sabirin and Maj. Choy Swee On. All of them previously flew RMAF’s MiG-29N or F/A-18D fighters or Hawk trainers and were high-skill military pilots with a flight backlog of 2,000–3,000 hours. Later on more and more Malaysian pilots passed conversion

Lt. Col. Norazlan Aris (left) and Maj. Azman Jantan (right) from RMAF’s 11th squadron, the first Malaysian pilots to fly Su-30MKM, after their fantastic flight display over Langkawi at LIMA 2007

Andrey Fomin

2007. The Malaysian delegation attending the acceptance ceremony was led by the then RMAF commander, Gen. Dato’ Sri Azizan bin Ariffin. Less than a month later, on 18 June, an Antonov An-124 Ruslan airlifter flew both aircraft to RMAF’s Gong Kedak air base in the Kelantan province, on the coast of the South China Sea, 300 km north of the national capital, Kuala Lumpur. Two more Su-30MKMs joined them in August.

The Subang air base vic. Kuala Lumpur hosted the ceremony of the Su-30MKM’s RMAF service entry on 10 August 2007. The importance of the event was highlighted by the presence of Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister (now – Prime Minister of Malaysia) Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Haji Abdul Razak and Malaysian Chief of Defence Forces General (Army) Tan Sri Dato Paduka Seri Abdul Aziz Hj Zainal. Rosoboronexport Deputy Director General Victor Komardin, who represented Russia during the ceremony, handed the documentation on the delivered aircraft over to RMAF Commander.

for flying Su-30MKM and attended the 11th squadron headed by Col. Suri Daud.

With introducing the Su-30MKM into service, RMAF became the second air force in the world to operate supersonic multirole supermanoeuvrable fighters capable of thrust vector control and the world’s second air force flying Russian fighters fitted with phased-array radars. Mention should be made that all neighbouring nations in the region have to put up with less sophisticated aircraft carrying ordinary mechanically-scanned array radars. The Bars radar enables the Su-30MKM’s crew to fire missiles on four targets at a time within a wide solid angle. With air crews given relevant training, they will be able to use dogfight missiles in the supermanoeuvrability mode as well. As a result, the combat capabilities of the Malaysian Su-30MKMs could far exceed those of the fighters operated by other air forces in the region.

Andrey Fomin

Sergey Kuznetsov

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contracts and deliveries | report

Su-30MKM Drawing by Andrey Zhirnov

Su-30MKM basic specifications Length, m .......................................................................................................... 21.9 Wing span, m..................................................................................................... 14.7 Height, m ............................................................................................................. 6.4 Wing area, sq.m ................................................................................................. 62.0 Maximum takeoff weight, kg .......................................................................... 34,000 Limit takeoff weight, kg .................................................................................. 38,800 Full fuel capacity, kg ........................................................................................ 9,600 Combat load, kg ............................................................................................... 8,000 Maximum speed, km/h: - at high altitude ............................................................................................... 2,000 - at sea level .................................................................................................... 1,400 Maximum Mach number ...................................................................................... 1.9 Service ceiling, m .......................................................................................... 17,300 Maximum g-load ..................................................................................................... 9 Take-off run (normal take-off weight), m ............................................................ 550 Landing roll length (normal landing weight), m ................................................. 750 www.take-off.ru

Max range on full tanks with missiles attached, km: - without refuelling ........................................................................................... 3,000 - with one refuelling ......................................................................................... 5,200 - with two refuellings........................................................................................ 8,000 Maximum combat radius, km: - in maritime AO, with 4xR-73E & 4xKh-31A ...................................................... 980 - in land AO, with 2xR-73E, 2xKh-29TE & 2xKh-31P ....................................... 1,010 Time on station without refuelling, hr: - 200 km away from base..................................................................................... 2.6 - 400 km away from base..................................................................................... 2.1 - 600 km away from base..................................................................................... 1.7 Maximum endurance (limited by crew’s physical abilities), hr ........................... 10 Engines ........................................................................................................AL-31FP Thrust, kgf: - full afterburner ..........................................................................................2x12,500 - full power....................................................................................................2x7,670 take-off december 2009

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contracts and deliveries | tender

MMRCA tender trials kick off in India Two advanced MiG-35 multirole fighters made by the MiG corporation this year were headed for India on 7 October to take part in the trials as part of the MMRCA (Medium MultiRole Combat Aircraft) tender.

Starting from mid-August, US fighters F/A-18E/F and F-16E/F and French Rafale had completed their trials in India as contenders under the MMRCA tender providing for the Indian Air Force (IAF) to buy 126 multirole fighters worth upwards of $10 billion. Swedish Gripen and

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European Typhoon will be last to join the flight evaluation by the tender’s organisers. Although the rivalling planes’ developers and IAF keep mum on how the current flight trials unfold, the Indian media and Internet forums keep tabs on what is going on at Bangalore airbase and other Indian airfields where MMRCA contenders are flown under the conditions set by the organisers. Based on the media and Internet reports, let us try and look into how the flight evaluation of the contenders is going on.

The stage of in-country demonstration flights and flight tests of the MMRCA contenders began on 17 August, i.e. two years after the requests for proposals (RfP) had been sent officially on 28 August 2007. At the time, the first three-month flight evaluation phase in India was supposed to kick off as early as June 2008 (the rival companies were given until late February 2008 to submit their technical and commercial proposals) to be followed by the evaluation of the weapons suites of the fighters by IAF personnel, with two or three aircraft to be shortlisted in early 2009. As it often happens, however, the flight evaluation of first contenders in India slipped for late summer 2009 by mutual agreement. www.take-off.ru

contracts and deliveries | tender of the Russian bid, because India will fly MiG-29K/KUB in full swing by the time the MiG-35’s deliveries commence, if it comes on top in the tender. The MiG-35 single-seat prototype was completed this summer and given side number 961. Concurrently, the MiG-29KUB prototype serialled 947 was converted to the MiG-35D two-seat prototype serialled 967. Both went to India early in October following a series of flights under the factory test programme.

The flight evaluation phase involving all of the six pairs of contenders, which began in India in August, is to take about eight months, according to IAF representative P.R. Singh, with the estimated deadline being March or April 2010. The phase is broken down into three following parts: - familiarisation, during which IAF flying and ground crews are learning the fighters’ characteristics, individual systems and weapons; according to Indian sources,

In terms of design, both are very similar to the carrierborne MiG-29K/KUB that are in production for the Indian Navy, and differ only in the lack of the arrestor hook (even the shipborne variant’s wing panel design and high-lift devices have been retained).

At the same time, the MiG-35 prototypes are fit to mount the advanced avionics, including the AESA radar, tested or being tested on board technology demonstrator No.154 and other flying testbeds under the MiG-35 programme.

The developer regards the extremely high degree of commonality between the current MiG-29K/KUB and future MiG-35 as both a means to speed up the development and productionising and an important advantage

special attention is being paid to the avionics suite and radars (as is known, all completing fighters must be equipped with AESA radar); - demonstration, i.e. demonstration flights performed by test pilots of the companies participating in the tender and by pilots with line units of the air forces of the competing countries, as well as familiarisation flights for IAF pilots as backseaters in the two-seat versions; this part of the evaluation is taking place at HAL’s air base in Bangalore; - field trials, i.e. two-day flights under an approved programme at Jaisalmer in the Thar desert (state of Rajasthan) at high ambient temperature, and flights at Leh air base in the Himalayas (state Jammu and Kashmir) where

Alexey Mikheyev

Vladimir SHCHERBAKOV Andrey FOMIN

MMRCA tender requirements, including an active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar. Apart from it, only the F-16F could boast an active phased array radar in Bangalore, while the rest of the demonstrators, the F/A-18E/F and Typhoon, were ordinary production aircraft with more modest weapons suites, with AESA radars for their future Indian versions being only in the form of mock-ups displayed in exhibition pavilions.

In line with the tender’s terms, the singleand two-seat variants of each fighter are to be used in the evaluation tests in India.

For this reason, as well as owing to the different designs of the MiG-35 technology demonstrator (No. 154), on the one hand, and the current and future MiG-29 versions (MiG-29K/KUB, MiG-29M/M2, MiG-35), on the other, MiG Corp. decided to make two new aircraft – a singleseater and a twinseater – at its production plant in Lukhovitsy for the MMRCA test programme.

This had been preceded, however, by the flight demonstration of some of the rivals at the Aero India 2009 air show in Bangalore in February, which involved Russian demonstrator MiG-35D (side number 154), as many as five F-16s, including two UAE Air Force F-16F Block 60s that might become the prototype of the future Indian F-16IN Super Viper, two production F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and three Typhoons furnished by the Luftwaffe.

Mention should be made that although the MiG-35 technology demonstrator was derived in early 2007 from the MiG-29M prototype built as far back as 1990 and then converted to the MiG-29M2 twinseater following a long downtime, it was equipped with a complete cutting-edge avionics suite in line with the www.take-off.ru

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contracts and deliveries | tender the rivals will have to prove their fully-laden performance in mountainous terrain (about 3,500 m above sea level). According to the Indian media, the ability to operate with the design ordnance load and full tanks from a high-elevation airfield equipped with a 3,300-m runway is a key IAF requirement to all of the contenders.

At this stage of the tender, Indian pilots, who graduated from the special courses in the countries of the developers, join the flights. To this end, IAF has stood up two groups of pilots two men each. At first, they will act as backseaters and fly the fighters from time to time and then will fly and use weapons on their own. Eight to 10 technical specialists from the Indian Defence Ministry, HAL, DRDO, etc., are attached to each group to evaluate the systems.

The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet was the first to enter the arena: two fighters accompanied by a tanker plane came to Bangalore on 14 August. Following a series of demonstration

Phazotron-NIIR ready for Indian tender

Yevgeny Yerokhin

In August this year, the Russian, U.S. and West European contenders entered the comparative test stage of the MMRCA tender providing for the selection and subsequent acquisition of 126 medium multirole fighters by the Indian Air Force (IAF). A key requirement to all of the contenders is that the aircraft should carry active phased-array radar, also known as AESA radar. The MiG-35 prototypes furnished for comparative tests under the MMRCA programme are equipped with AESA radar from the Phazotron-NIIR corporation. A Take-off correspondent had visited Phazotron-NIIR on the eve of the kickoff of the tests to inquire about

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the status of the Zhuk-AE radar development programme.

According to Phazotron-NIIR Director General Vyacheslav Tishchenko, the AESA radar engineering development phase has been nearing the end, with Phazotron-NIIR ready for the comparative tests of the rival fighters.

According to Yuri Guskov, Deputy Director for research and chief designer, Phazotron-NIIR launched development of AESA radar in 2000, paying for it out of its own pocket. To design the radar, its subsystems and elements, several companies pooled their efforts, including Phazotron-NIIR itself, the Mikran scientific and

production company and Research Institute for Semiconductor Instruments (NIIPP), both situated in Tomsk. Phazotron-NIIR handled the overall design work on the radar, transmit-receive (T-R) modules’ power supply system and power sources, low-frequency and microwave distribution systems, beam steering unit and the T-R modules cooling system.

Mikran, assisted by NIIPP, developed and manufactured group four-channel T-R modules and monolithic integrated circuits for them.

The first Zhuk-AE radar variant with a 700-mm AESA tilted 20° up was complete in 2005 but proved to be too heavy and its weight had to be slashed drastically. To boot, the limitations on mounting the radar on the demonstrator aircraft caused a drop in the AESA diameter down to 500 mm, with the number of T-R modules diminishing down to 680 (170 four-channel group T-Rs) and a number of key characteristics deteriorating accordingly. The weight of the second AESA radar made in 2006 was 220 kg.

The T-R module design has altered several times: Mikran developed the current version of four-channel T-R modules in 2008, with the modules used in the first flying AESA prototype last year.

Since 2006, all AESA work by Phazotron-NIIR has been done in line with the performance specification of the MiG corporation, when Phazotron-NIIR launched development of the Zhuak-AE radar for the MiG-35 demonstrator with the subsequent installation of the experimental AESA radar on board the MiG-29M2 serialled www.take-off.ru

contracts and deliveries | tender requirements and designated as F-16IN Super Viper.

French Rafales picked up the baton from the US fighters in the Indian skies. According to the Indian press, two Rafales performed a nonstop flight to Bangalore right from the Istres flight test centre, having topped up in midair twice. They started flying in Bangalore on 22 September and completed a series of tests at Jaisalmer and Leh air bases in the following two weeks.

After the Russian MiG-35s have completed their flight evaluation in India in November, the two remaining contenders, European Typhoon and Swedish Gripen, will have to fly there. They are expected in India next year – in February and March respectively.

The next phase of the tender provides for the evaluation of the contenders’ weapons suites and air-launched weapons. The evaluation will involve Indian pilots and take place in the home countries of the

developers. It may begin before year-end.

Then, under India’s defence procurement policy, a short list will be compiled to include two or three aircraft fully meeting IAF’s requirements to the future fighter. Then the price negotiations will follow, based on which outcome the cheapest variant meeting IAF’s requirements will be selected. As is known, the then-IAF commander, Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major, said earlier this year, “If all goes to plan, the first MMRCA will fly in the Indian colours approximately in four years”, i.e. some time in 2013.

As is known, the winning company will deliver 18 finished aircraft of 126 fighters ordered (86 singleseaters and 40 twinseaters), with the remaining 108 to be assembled in India. Under the terms of the tender, the deliveries should start within 36 months since the signature of the contract and be completed within 48 months. Thus, the whole full-rate and licence production programme will take four years.

154 and made an agreement for two Zhuk-AE sets to be mounted on MiG-35 prototypes.

The trials kicked off in 2007 when a series of ground tests was conducted and the radar was mated with the power supply, cooling, data display and control systems on board the demonstrator.

This complete, summer 2008 saw the start of tests on board the MiG-35 technology demonstrator (No. 154) from the ground against an airborne target at first and then from the airborne aircraft against aerial targets. About 20 tests had been conducted by September this year, including 15 test sorties that had proved a reliable target acquisition range of 148 km. In addition, two sorties had been dedicated to dogfighting and several missions had been flown in the terrain mapping mode with the 5x5-m resolution. Thus, the aircraft No. 154 had demonstrated the basic characteristics of the Zhuk-AE radar with the 500-mm AESA, including a 130-plus-km range against targets with the 5-m2 radar cross-section (RCS). A more superior performance is expected further down the road, in particular, the 200-km range, after the switch to an AESA with an organic diameter of 688 mm and 1,016 T-R modules. In this case, the radar’s weight should not exceed 280 kg.

According to Yuri Guskov, the principal result of the MiG-35’s AESA radar development has been Phazotron-NIIR’s preparedness for the Indian tender. The development programme has passed the electronic componentry and overall radar technical risk stage, the radar has been mated with all onboard systems of the aircraft, including the power supply system, liquid cooling system, avionics, navigation/targeting system and cockpit management environment of the MIG-35, and T-R modules have been productionised.

To bid in the Indian tender, three stages of work have been provided for. According to Chief Designer Yuri Guskov, Stage I began at the LII facility in Zhukovsky on 28 September 2009.

Stage II took place this autumn at a testing range in India. Stage III is slated for March or April next year to include missile launches in Akhtubinsk.

According to Phazotron-NIIR Director General Vyacheslav Tishchenko, the indisputable success of the programme consists in the fact that the company has

managed for the first time in Russia to resolve all fundamental problems of developing a fighter phased array as part of the Zhuk-AE radar. In the first place, the developer has dealt with the problems of developing the key functional elements with the parameters required – group T-R modules, monolithic integral circuits, power supply system, T-R module cooling system, beam steering system and associated software.

Yevgeny Yerokhin

www.take-off.ru

Yevgeny Yerokhin

sorties in the “aviation capital” of India, they went to hot Jaisalmer and then to the Leh high-elevation air base. The Super Hornets wrapped up their trials in India on 27 August and were succeeded by other US-made contenders, F-16IN fighters in the form of the F-16E/F Block 60s that have been supplied to the UAE Air Force since May 2005.

Three aircraft of the type arrived in Bangalore from Dubai on 2 September, launched training flights on the next day and switched to the familiarisation part of the programme on 7 September. In Bangalore, they flew two hour-long sorties a day and then flew to Jaisalmer and then to Leh. The F-16s completed their field trials on 18 September. Their aircrews included Lockheed Martin test pilots and USAF combat crews. According to Lockheed Martin representative Michael R. Griswold, the Emirates version of the F-16 will be modified in line with the customer’s

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military aviation | in brief

long-term agreements for manufacturing advanced aircraft will keep the holding company’s production plants busy with military aircraft production and shift the emphasis from upgrading the Air Force’s in-service aircraft fleets to production of brand-new advanced warplanes. The delivery of advanced fighters will both bolster the nation’s defensive capabilities and allow a smooth transition to drastically innovative next-generation fighter technologies. “The company

is prepared to fulfil the contracts in full and on schedule”, emphasised Mikhail Pogosyan.

KnAAPO has launched production of the aircraft under the contracts signed. At the same time, it is completing a Su-27 upgrade under a previous contract. A Sukhoi spokesman said on 23 September that KnAAPO had completed the overhaul and upgrade of four more Su-27 in service with the Russian Air Force. As is known, 24 upgraded

Su-27SM fighters were fielded with the fighter air regiment at Dzyomgi AFB in 2004–06, and in 2007 the second air regiment, garrisoned in the Russia’s Far East, began to convert to Su-27SMs. In addition, five Su-27SMs were delivered to the Lipetsk-based Combat and Conversion Training Centre in 2003.

Mention should be made that the 12 Su-27SM fighters under the new contract will be brand-new aircraft, rather than upgraded ones.

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Russia’s major combat aircraft acquisition deal was clinched on the first day of the MAKS 2009 air show this summer. In the presence of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Russian Defence Ministry and Sukhoi company signed on 18 August three governmental contracts for Sukhoi aircraft to be built by Sukhoi’s subsidiary Komsomolsk-on-Amour Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO). The manufacturer will supply the Russian Air Force with 64 warplanes during 2010–15, specifically 48 Su-35S multirole supermanoeuvrable fighters in 2010–15, 12 upgraded Su-27SM fighters in 2009–11 and four Su-30M2 two-seat multirole fighters to be delivered before the end of 2011. The contracts were signed

by Armed Forces Armament Chief/ Deputy Defence Minister Vladimir Popovkin and Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan.

As is known, late in 2008, the Defence Ministry and Sukhoi made a governmental contract for 32 new Su-34 tactical fighters to be delivered to the Air Force within five years. The Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association named after Valery Chkalov (NAPO) has launched production of the aircraft, with the deliveries to kick off next year.

According to Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan, the

Alexey Mikheyev

Sukhoi to deliver 64 brand-new fighters to RusAF

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military aviation | in brief

The first Irkut-built Yak-130 has flown

a drop in labour intensiveness and production cycle, a rise in quality and the development of up-to-date facilities for large-scale production of the aircraft that is new to the plant.

At a news conference during the MAKS 2009 air show, Irkut President Oleg Demchenko said that eight more Yak-130s were slated for production and preparation for delivery by the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant. He also said that the Yak-130 had completed the first stage of its official trials with the baseline weapons fit in April this year, and its expanded weapons fit trials were expected to wrap up before year-end.

www.take-off.ru

As was reported by Take-off, the first production-standard Yak-130 ordered by the Russian Air Force flew its first flight in Nizhny Novgorod on 19 May this year. In August, it was delivered, and the Air Force displayed it, serialled 90, at its static exposition at MAKS 2009 in Zhukovsky, while the first preproduction Yak-130 performed in the flight programme of the show, having been furnished the so-called ‘English cockpit’, the export variant of the information display system.

According to Sokol plant Director General Alexander Karezin, the company this year is to manufacture four Yak-130s for

RusAF. As of August, the second production aircraft was rolled out, the third one was being assembled and the fourth one was to be brought to the assembly shop

by early September. The remaining eight aircraft awarded by the Defence Ministry under the current 12-plane contract are to be made and delivered prior to the end of 2010.

Thus, this year has been a milestone for the Yak-130 programme.

The fisrt production-standard aircraft for the domestic and foreign customers have flown, with the two manufacturers to make about 10 production aircraft before year-end.

As is known, RusAF plans to order an additional batch of Yak-130s, but it remains to be seen so far where they are to be made – in Nizhny Novgorod or in Irkutsk. According to Alexander Karezin, a tender could be issued to decide on that.

As for the feasibility of more foreign orders now being negotiated, Irkut will handle them.

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Alexey Mikheyev

Mikhail Hohryakov

On 21 August, the airfield of the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant of the Irkut corporation saw the maiden flight of the first Yakovlev Yak-130 combat trainer made under the 2006 contract for 16 aircraft of the type for the Algerian Air Force. During the 40-min. flight, the planes’ handling performance at various speeds and altitudes, manoeuvrability, stability, controllability, powerplant and key avionics were checked out. Test pilots Roman Taskayev and Sergey Mikhailyuk praised the first Yak-130 built in Irkutsk, having noted, “All systems performed well during the flight”.

Digital technologies were used throughout the development and productionising of the Yak-130 made by the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant (its developer Yakovlev design bureau is part of Irkut Corp. too). This allowed

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military aviation | report

MiG-29K

back on deck!

In later September, the MiG Corporation conducted successful flight trials of the advanced MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB multirole carrierborne fighters ordered by the Indian Navy (IN). The trials took place on board the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft-carrying cruiser of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy. The first deck landing on the Admiral Kuznetsov in the Barents Sea was conducted on 28 September by MiG Corp. chief test pilot Pavel Vlasov flying the MiG-29K prototype serialled 941. MiG Corp. test pilots Nikolay Diorditsa and Mikhail Belyayev followed him on the production MiG-29KUB twinseater painted in the customer’s colour scheme. In the course of two days, both aircraft performed several takeoffs and deck landings that proved the feasibility of safe operation of advanced fighters from aircraft carriers. Interestingly, the MiG-29K/KUB’s flight tests on board the Admiral Kuznetsov had taken place on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the first deck landings of Russia’s fourth-generation supersonic fighters and had become a kind of MiGs’ comeback to the deck. On 1 November 1989, a prototype MiG-29K of the previous model touched down on and then took off from this ship that was designated as Tbilisi at the time. Several more series of tests were conducted over several years afterwards, but for a number of reasons a decision was taken to have the Sukhoi Su-33 (Su-27K) shipborne fighter enter inventory of the Russian Navy’s air arm. History has made another twist, and now advanced MiG-29K/KUB being in full-rate production for a foreign customer could be used by the Russian Navy in the near future.

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military aviation | report That the advanced MiG-29K/KUB carrierborne fighters were to perform a series of test flights on board the Admiral Kuznetsov became known soon after the carrier returned from its Mediterranean cruise in March and commenced long-term maintenance. To test advanced MiGs on deck and train the pilots of the 279th shipborne fighter air regiment of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy, who have not flown their Su-33s and Su-25UTGs from the carrier in 2009 and unable to hone their flying skills at the Nitka training facility in the Crimea, a decision was taken to suspend the Admiral Kuznetsov’s maintenance for a while, so she sailed to the Barents Sea in September.

In later September, two brand-new carrierborne MiGs flew to Severomorsk from the Moscow Region – these were the MiG-29K single-seat prototype serialled 941 and the production-standard MiG-29KUB twinseater serialled 672 already painted in the Indian Navy colour scheme. The two were crewed by MiG Corp.’s test pilots Pavel Vlasov (MiG Corp. deputy Director General for flight operations, chief

Traditional throwing a pilot into the air after his first deck landing, 28 September 2009.

Five minutes ago, Pavel Vlasov landed his MiG-29K on deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov for the first time…

Andrey FOMIN Photos by Eduard Chalenko

…and only two hours later, he is taxiing to the launching position for the first take-off from the ship

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military aviation | report While the MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB fighters, which have just landed on deck, are being maintained at the maintenance area, the military pilots form Severomorsk are using the lull in the test flights: the final approach of the Su-25UTG, on which pilots with the 279th shipborne fighter air regiment are training

Capt. 1st Rank Vyacheslav Rodionov, commanding officer of the Admiral Kuznetsov through-deck cruiser, is giving MiG Corp. test pilots Nikolay Diorditsa, Pavel Vlasov and Mikhail Belyayev (left to right) diplomas for their first deck landings

of the Fedotov Flight Test Centre, chief test pilot of MiG Corp.), Nikolay Diorditsa and Mikhail Belyayev. The former two had had an experience in operating from deck: Merited Test Pilot, Hero of Russia Pavel Vlasov participated in the tests of the MiG-29K prototypes in the early ‘90s, and Merited Test Pilot, Hero of Russia Nikolay Diorditsa as a military test pilot with the Defence Ministry’s Flight Test Centre was heavily involved in the official and special trials of the Su-33 and Su-25UTG on the Admiral Kuznetsov. Having gotten out of uniform as colonel, he has been working as test pilot for MiG Corp.’s Fedotov Flight Test Centre since 2003. Test Pilot 1st Class Mikhail Belyayev is a leading Fedotov Flight Test Centre test pilot on the MiG-29K/KUB and MiG-35 programmes.

He also learnt supermanoeuvrable piloting on the MiG-29M OVT No. 156.

In addition to the three MiG Corp. pilots, the MiG-29K/KUB test flight programme on board the Admiral Kuznetsov involved Defence Ministry’s Chkalov Flight Test Centre mili-

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take-off december 2009

tary test pilot Col. Oleg Spichka, who used to fly Su-33s and Su-25UTGs from the Admiral Kuznetsov and Nitka.

Late in September, the advanced MiGs started taking off from the Severomorsk-3 air base and flying around the Admiral Kuznetsov in the Barents Sea, gradually reducing the altitude of their flypasts over her deck and finally starting doing touch-and-go. The trial flights demonstrated the preparedness of the planes and pilots to land on deck.

The first deck landing in the trials was performed by MiG Corp. chief test pilot Pavel Vlasov on his MiG-29K side number 941 at 11.47 on 28 September. He was followed by Nikolay Diorditsa and Mikhail Belyayev on their MiG-29KUB (No. 672) twinseater less than half an hour later. The fighters taxied to the prelaunch area at the stern of the carrier to gear up for another sortie, and Vlasov launched his MiG-29K off deck for the second time less than two hours later, at 13.57. Then, Diorditsa and Belyayev took off on their MiG-29KUB. The

crews remained overnight at the Severomorsk-3 air base, resuming operations from the carrier on the next day. Vlasov again brought his MiG-29K on deck at about 13.00 on 29 September. The hook of Diorditsa and Belyayev’s twinseater snagged the arrestor line about half an hour later.

Soon, both fighters left the Admiral Kuznetsov again, with the singleseater taking off at about 14.00 followed by the twinseater an hour later.

The advanced MiG fighters’ flight-test programme on board the Admiral Kuznetsov through-deck cruiser, observed on deck by MiG Corp. Director General Mikhail Pogosyan and representatives of the Indian Navy and Russian Defence Ministry, was pronounced a success.

According to Mikhail Pogosyan, the flight trials of the MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB on board the Admiral Kuznetsov have crowned Russia’s endeavour to develop a sophisticated carrierborne fighter. He thanked the pilots for the great job done and emphasised that carrier operations required top-notch flying skills. The MiG Corp. leader said he was certain that the successful carrier trials would facilitate the progress of the MiG-29K/KUB programme in India and a keener interest of other foreign customers in advanced aircraft from MiG Corp. He also was certain that the MiG-29K/KUB would come in handy to the Russian Armed Forces as well.

MiG Corp.’s aircraft plant in the town of Lukhovitsy is completing several production-standard MiG-29K/KUBs as part of the first 16-ship batch ordered by the Indian Navy in January 2004. The first group of Indian naval pilots started their conversion training, using the first four of the fighters as far back as last year, with the first MiG-29K/KUBs expected to be headed for India before year-end. MiG Corp. is intent on delivering the last of the 16 aircraft (12 singleseaters and four twinseaters) in 2010.

However, this, most probably, will not be the end of it. The Times of India reported on 4 October www.take-off.ru

military aviation | report Nikolay Diorditsa and Mikhail Belyayev are taking off on their MiG-29KUB on another test flight from the ski-jump ramp of the Admiral Kuznetsov

The possibility of fielding the MiG-29K/KUB with the Russian Navy’s air arm does not mean, however, that they will oust the current Su-33 carrierborne fighters completely. During 1992–96, KnAAPO built and delivered to the Navy a total of 26 production aircraft of the type, most of which remains in service by means of regular maintenance and repair. The intent of the Russian Defence Ministry to retain the Su-33 in its inventory for years to come is proven, among other things, by the requests for overhaul and upgrade of six Su-33s and 12 engines for them in 2009–10.

The requests were published on the Russian

The MiG-29K is unfolding its wing at the launching area. Two minutes later, Pavel Vlasov will take off from the Admiral Kuznetsov’s deck for the first time.

28 September 2009

that the Indian Defence Ministry was about to submit a proposal to the government for buying a second batch of 29 MiG-29K/KUBs that are options under the 2004 contract.

The daily estimates the value of the deal at $1.12 billion. The Indian Defence Ministry was prompted to take the decision by the successful MiG-29K/KUB trials on board the Admiral Kuznetsov, which proved the advanced fighters to be fit for operating from ski-jump ramp-equipped aircraft carriers. It is this kind of the carrier that the Admiral Gorshkov through-deck cruiser will become after its Indian Navy-ordered upgrade and modification in Severomorsk has been complete.

A pending decision by the Russian Defence Ministry on buying over two dozen MiG-29K/KUB aircraft for the Admiral Kuznetsov’s air regiment now operating only Su-33s as part of its fighter component is to be just as important to the MiG corporation.

The RIA Novosti news agency reported on 30 September, citing its sources in the Defence Ministry and defence industry, “The Russian Defence Ministry is going to buy 26 MiG-29K carrierborne fighters for the Russian Navy until year-end 2011”. Developed on order from the Indian Navy and produced by MiG Corp., the www.take-off.ru

MiG Corp. Director General Mikhail Pogosyan (centre) and test pilots Nikolay Diorditsa and Mikhail Belyayev following another deck landing of the MiG-29KUB on the Admiral Kuznetsov on 29 September 2009

MiG-29K/KUB are superior to the current Su-33 operated by the 279th shipborne fighter air regiment in terms of the weapon system and carry a far wider range of precision guided munitions. At the same time, for entering service with the Russian Navy, the shipborne MiGs will have, probably, to undergo some modifications due to a number of foreign-made systems on board the current MiG-29K/KUB. Apparently, some of them will have to be replaced with domestic analogues so that the Russian military buy the planes.

government’s Web site (www.zakupki.gov.ru) in October. They provide for “extending the assigned characteristics of the service life of the Su-33 aircraft and their components to 700 flying hours or 1,500 landings, the time before the first overhaul – to 16 years and the assigned life – to 26 years”. This means that the Su-33s will be able to remain in service until 2018–22.

Hence, in the medium term, the shipborne fighter fleet of the Russian Navy, probably, will consist of two aircraft types – the Su-33 and MiG-29K/KUB. take-off december 2009

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civil aviation | in brief

First Russian-built An-148 delivered

Aleksey Mikheyev

The first production-standard Antonov An-148-100B regional airliner built by Voronezh-based VASO plant was handed over to the customer in a ceremony at the factory airfield on 1 October. VASO had made the airliner ordered by the Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC) leasing company for the Rossiya air company.

Aircraft RA-61701 (c/n 40-03) completed its maiden flight in Voronezh on 19 July this year and was demonstrated at the MAKS 2009 air show in August. Its handover to the customer had been preceded by its certification and acceptance tests completed in September.

The acceptance report was signed by VASO Director General Vitaly Zubarev, IFC Director General Alexander Rubtsov

and Rossiya Director General Roman Pakhomov. The ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov, Voronezh Region Governor Alexey Gordeyev and UAC President Alexey Fyodorov.

Addressing the crowd, Vice-Premier Sergey Ivanov called the delivery of the first production An-148 “a milestone for the Russian aircraft industry”, stressing that the airliner was the first production regional passenger aircraft delivered over the past decade and a half. “Come to think of it”, Ivanov told the attendees, “We have not built aircraft like that in series for as many as 15 years! Finally, the situ-

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take-off december 2009

Vladimir Karnozov / UAC

Vladimir Karnozov / UAC

ation has changed. The first aircraft like that goes to a major Russian airline, Rossiya”.

He also called the An-148 programme a good example of the Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, “The aircraft is assembled here, in Russia, but individual units and components, including engines and the wing box, are made by Ukrainian suppliers. As you can see, the Ukrainian-Russian cooperation works despite the known tension in our bilateral relations. When there is much to gain, when everything is well substantiated, everything turns out right. It is this way that everything has turned out this time”, the vice-premier concluded.

According to Rossiya Director General Roman Pakhomov, the car-

rier will be able to start operating the An-148 soon. “The first commercial flight is slated for year-end”, the Rossiya Director General said, noting that the aircraft would, probably, start flying on the St. Petersburg – Moscow service and then would begin to explore other operations served by the airline. The first group of Rossiya aircrews has converted to the new aircraft type in Ukraine, at the facilities of the Aerosvit airline that was the first CIS carrier to launch scheduled commercial operations of the An-148. Rossiya’s ground crews are being trained both in Ukraine and in the Russian city of Voronezh. The IFC-Technic company will provide operational support of the An-148 for Rossiya.

As of the handover of the first Russian-built An-148, there were two more airliners in various degrees of completeness, sitting in VASO’s assembly shop. The second production An-148, already painted in the customer’s colour scheme and given registration number RA-61702, is slated for delivery in November.

The third production An-148 is to be completed by the end of the year.

Further down the road, VASO is going to keep on increasing the An-148’s output to churn out 36 units per annum starting from 2013. To date, the manufacturer has landed 56 firm orders for Russian-made An-148s, with 54 options.

www.take-off.ru

civil aviation | in brief

firm orders for the airliner. Next year, the company is to have an output of 15–20 aircraft a year, 30–40 units a year in 2011 and as many as 50 aircraft in 2012. According to Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi’s production facilities allow an output of up to 70 units per annum in the future.

During the show, Sukhoi and VEB-Leasing signed an agreement on financing the delivery of the first ten Sukhoi SuperJet 100s to Aeroflot. An agreement for two aircraft also was made among Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, the FLC leasing company (it became

the SuperJet’s launch customer but would not name the end users for a long time) and Yakutia airline.

The certification trials of the SuperJet are in full swing. Soon after MAKS 2009, on 10 September, the aircraft c/n 95003 was headed for Armenia for its takeoff/landing tests and in mountainous terrain. It was to be based at Shirak airport in the city of Gyumri (over 1,500 m above sea level). The tests are especially important because Armenian airline Armavia is to become one of the two SuperJet launch customers in the

near future. Situated in mountainous terrain, Shirak international airport operates in support of Armenia’s second-largest city, Gyumri. Built in 1961, it was upgraded in 2007 and issued an ICAO 1st Class Certificate. Its feature is that it is virtually surrounded by mountains; hence, takeoff and landing approach are possible from the south only. The runway measures 3,200 m long and 45 m wide.

The certification trials in Armenia, which were wrapped up on 21 September when SSJ100 c/n 95003 got back to Zhukovsky, comprised

Mitya Aleshkovskiy

No doubt, the advanced Sukhoi SuperJet 100 regional airliner was the key attention grabber at the MAKS 2009 air show in August. Its second flying prototype (c/n 95003), which has been undergoing tests since last December, flew daily as part of the flight demonstration programme, while the third flying prototype (c/n 95004), which first flew in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 25 July 2009 and had its passenger cabin fitted after its arrival to Zhukovsky in the run-up to MAKS 2009, had been shown as a static display for the first three days of the show.

According to Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan, the company’s civil aviation priority is the speedy completion of the bulk of the SSJ100’s certification tests and preparation of the early production-standard aircraft for delivery to the launch customers. The customers’ air and ground crews began to train for operation of the advanced aircraft in October. By late this year, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC) plans to land 150

Aleksey Mikheyev

Sukhoi SuperJet seeking type certificate

Aleksey Mikheyev

long flights and go-arounds on a single engine, with most of the takeoffs including simulated failure of an engine, including doing so with the maximum takeoff weight.

During the flight trials at Shirak airport, the SuperJet proved the manufacturer’s performance ratings and displayed the compliance of all systems subject to high-altitude certification. The certification programme in Armenia was flown by SCAC’s senior test pilot Alexander Yablontsev and test pilot Vadim Shirokikh and IAC Aircraft Registry’s test pilot Mikhail Torokhov.

www.take-off.ru

take-off december 2009

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civil aviation | in brief

IFC sells 26 more Tu-204s on the June 2007 deal due to a change to its plans. The Aviastar plant in Ulyanovsk completed the first aircraft this summer. It flew its maiden mission on 9 August while the second aircraft having completed its first flight on 29 October. Aviastar-TU carrier now has three Tu-204C freighters (RA-64021, 64024, 64032) built in 2000–03 and two Tu-204-100 airliners (RA-64011, 64017) made in 1993 and 1996.

IFC has clinched two more Tu-204 deals with foreign customers. On 20 August, it signed a pre-contractual agreement with Brazilian upstart Clean Air planning to launch its operations in December 2009. Under the agreement, Clean Air is to take delivery of four Tu-204SM airliners and two Tu-204SMC freighters. On the same day, IFC signed an agreement for two similar freighters with one option with Ecuadorean company Icaro that, too, ordered two An-148-100s from IFC. There is also information on IFC’s Web site that the company intends to deliver in 2010 a Tu-204-100B to North Korean carrier Air Koryo that has been

operating the Tu-204-300 airliner since 2007. The aircraft will be remanufactured from the Tu-204 (RA-64013) built in 1993 and long stored by Aviastar.

According to Aviastar-SP Director General Mikhail Shushpanov, the company is to deliver another four aircraft of the Tu-204 family this year. The two freighters earmarked for the Aviastar-TU airline were described previously. Another aircraft is the Tu-204-100B airliner (RA-64048) built in May, supposed to become the sixth and last plane in the batch ordered by the Red Wings air carrier and given an original orange advertising colour scheme of the Coral Travel company. However, it has become known recently that Red Wings will not accept the aircraft, and, according to Mikhail Shushpanov, the manufacturer is looking for a new buyer. So far, a decision has been taken to use RA-64048 as a flying testbed during the trials of the advanced PS-90A2 engine designed to power production-standard Tu-204SM. The prototype engine was mounted on the wing of the airliner in September. When the tests are over in November, the

Tu-204-100B (RA-64048) is to be delivered to a new customer.

Finally, the fourth Tu-204 to enter service before year-end will be the VIP-version Tu-204-300A (RA-64010) derived by Aviastar from a 1993-built Tu-204 on order from the Tupolev joint stock company for VTB-Leasing. It conducted its first flight in its new capacity on 13 August 2009, making its debut at MAKS 2009 (see the photo). As far as Take-off’s editorial office knows, two more Tu-204-300As in this variant (RA-64055 and RA-64057) are to be built in Ulyanovsk in 2010 for the Rossiya governmental special air detachment.

Under the Tu-204 programme, Aviastar in the near future will focus on productionising the heavily upgraded Tu-204SM. The first prototype is to start its trials in April 2010. The Tu-204SM trials may also involve the Tu-204-100B (RA-64053) that is being assembled. The first production-standard Tu-204SMs are to be made by the end of 2010 for the launch customer, Iran Airtour, which placed five firm orders. Deliveries to other air companies, including Atlant-Soyuz, will follow then.

Aleksey Mikheyev

During the MAKS 2009 air show, the Ilyushin Finance Co. leasing company signed contracts and agreements on delivery of 26 more medium-haul passenger and cargo aircraft of the Tupolev Tu-204 family to domestic and foreign customers. The largest firm contract was signed by IFC and the Atlant-Soyuz airline on 20 August for 15 Tu-204SM upgraded airliners to be delivered in 2011–12.

Under the contract, the first eight aircraft are to be delivered in 2011, with the remaining seven to follow suit a year later. The contract became a logical extension of the agreement IFC and Atlant-Soyuz had gone into at the Le Bourget air show in June.

IFC awarded another firm Tu-204 contract to the Aviastar-TU airline in Ulyanovsk. The contract provides for delivery of two new Tu-204C (Tu-204-100C) freighters with a carrying capacity of 30 t during November and December this year under a 15-year financial leasing agreement. The two aircraft, RA-64051 and 64052, used to be designed for the Air Bridge Cargo air company (a member of the Volga-Dnepr group) that decided to go back

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take-off december 2009

www.take-off.ru

civil aviation | in brief

In addition to the delivery of the first An-148 regional airliner to the Rossiya airline, VASO handed over the second Ilyushin Il-96-400T wide-body freighter (RA-96102) to the Polyot air company in a ceremony on 1 October. VASO Director General Vitaly Zubarev, IFC Director General Alexander Rubtsov and Polyot Deputy Director General Alexander Karpov signed the acceptance report.

As is known, Polyot took delivery of the first Il-96-400T serialled RA-96101 on 23 April this year, with the plane starting regular commercial operations in Russia and abroad on 27 September. On 19 October, the carrier’s com-

Vladimir Karnozov / UAC

Polyot receives new Il-96-400Ts

menced the acceptance of the third Il-96-400T (RA-96103) built by VASO this summer. It is expected to

enter the carrier’s fleet soon. In the future, Polyot could use its option for three more aircraft of the type.

The final assembly of the fourth production-standard Il-96-400T (RA-96104) is underway.

On 2 October, the airfield of Kazan-based KAPO plant hosted the ceremony of handover to the Transaero airline of the third Tupolev Tu-214 (RA-64518) airliner built under the contract between KAPO and the Financial Leasing Company for five airliners of the type. The aircraft flew its maiden flight on 5 August this year. Like the rest of the Tu-214s designed for the carrier, it has the two-class 184-seat layout (eight business-class seats and 176 economy-class ones).

As is known, Transaero received its first Tu-214 serialled RA-64509 in April 2007 and the second one, RA-64549, in November 2008. “The company has proved that it can operate aircraft of the type with

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success on domestic and international services”, said Transaero Director General Olga Pleshakova in connection with the delivery of the third Tu-214. “To do so, we have skilled personnel and an adequate route network. We have always been satisfied with the reliability of the aircraft. Over the two years and a half that they have been part of our fleet, Transaero has had no problems with flight operation of their PS-90A engines. The company is ready to complete its side of the deal for ten Tu-214s and is doing its utmost to this end”.

In addition to the three Tu-214s, Transaero’s aircraft fleet comprises 45 Boeing planes – two 777s, 11 – 767s, 13 – 747s and 19 – 737s.

In mid-October, the Yakutia airline started regular passenger services using the new 52-seat An-140-100 (RA-41252) regional turboprop airliner built by the Aviakor plant in Samara this summer. The aircraft was first shown at the MAKS 2009 air show in August. Soon after the show and the airliner’s return to Samara, Yakutia’s personnel started acceptance of the new aircraft that was ferried to the city of Yakutsk on 27 September, and in October flew its first passenger flight from Yakutsk to Khabarovsk.

Yakutia launched the operation of its first An-140 serialled RA-41250 in September 2006. In December 2007, it started operating the upgraded An-140-100 (RA-41251) featuring a wider wingspan and an improved design of the engine nacelles housing TV3-117VMA-SBM1 engines. The

Yakutia air company is the first and the only Russian user of regional airliners of the type. The three An-140s in its aircraft fleet were delivered under a contract it made with the Financial Leasing Company (FLC).

At present, talks are underway with the Russian Machines corporation, Aviakor plant, Vensheconombank and VEB-Leasing company on delivering four more An-140-100s to the carrier.

“With an increase in the number of aircraft of the type, we will increase the number of flights to Khabarovsk, Magadan, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and other cities and will step up the air services between the Far Eastern Federal District and other parts of the Russian Federation”, Yakutia Director General Ivan Prostit said on connection with the delivery of the third An-140.

Yury Kabernik

Andrey Pechenkin

Transaero flies three Tu-214s Yakutia started operating its third An-140

take-off december 2009

23

Andrey Fomin

civil aviation | project

MC-21 programme engine makers go around Once the programme on developing the advanced Sukhoi SuperJet 100 airliner came into the straight, and the aircraft made its debut at home and abroad, designers turned to another promising Russian civil aviation project – the development of a family of MC-21 short- and medium-haul airliners. According to the developer, the airliners will have a wide range of operation capabilities, tailored to the Russian and foreign markets and capable of facilitating airlines’ reaching a radically new level of economic efficiency, including doing so by slashing the direct operating costs by 15% compared the current aircraft in the same class. The MC-21 programme is at the pre-design and key systems supplier selection stage. The results of several tenders on selecting first-tier suppliers for the MC-21 were announced on 20 August, but the final competitions on the powerplant, avionics and control systems have been put off until year-end.

The MC-21 short- and medium-haul airliner family comprises the baseline models – the MC-21-200, MC-21-300 and MC-21-400 with seating capacities of 150, 181 and 212 in the single-class layout (see the table). Each of the baseline models is to have a number of variants differing in range. The baseline models will have the 5,000–5,500-km range, but provision was made for extended-range (ER) versions and, as far as the MC-21-200 model is concerned, a long-range (LR) variant. The MC-21-200 prototype is slated for its maiden flight in 2014, and the completion of the certification tests and kickoff of deliveries for 2016.

The MC-21 programme, jointly promoted by the Yakovlev design bureau and Ilyushin aviation complex, won in 2003 the tender issued by the Russian authorities for

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take-off december 2009

developing an advanced short- and medium-haul passenger aircraft designed to oust the Tu-154M fleet gradually and put up stiff competition to the Boeing 737 and A320 that have been increasingly demanded by Russian air carriers. The financing of the MC-21’s conceptual designing began in 2005. By then, the prime developer, Yakovlev, joined the Irkut scientific and production corporation (the official acquisition of Yakovlev took place in April 2004).

Two years later, Ilyushin pulled out of the programme, having focussed on transport aircraft development, with Irkut appointed prime contractor for the MC-21 programme as part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in July 2007. Considering the importance of the MC-21 programme to UAC, Irkut President Oleg Demchenko, being also Yakovlev

Director General and Designer General, was in this connection appointed UAC vice-president for the MC-21 programme. Having analysed the results produced by the first stage of the programme, UAC took a decision in 2003 to keep on pursuing the programme. Thus, the MC-21 passed its first ‘gate’.

Irkutsk Aircraft Plant, Irkut Corp.’s subsidiary, will handle the construction of prototype and production-standard MC-21s. In addition to prime developer Yakovlev, other players of the aircraft industry are taking part in designing the aircraft. For instance, Irkut’s subsidiary Taganrog-based Beriev company is tasked with developing the tail section (Compartment F5), horizontal and vertical tails, auxiliary power unit (APU) compartment as well as control, air conditioning, fire-suppressant and hydraulic systems.

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft was subcontracted to develop the composite wing. The initial design stage (the so-called ‘second gate’) was passed in September 2008, after which Irkut launched the full-scale initial design of the airliner and selection of key systems suppliers. The third gate is to be passed, i.e. a preliminary design is to be completed, in December this year so as detail design and preliminary agreements with potential customers can commence in January 2010.

However, to do so, the developer has to comwww.take-off.ru

civil aviation | project

11 subcontractors of the MC-21

Vladimir SHCHERBAKOV Andrey FOMIN

plete the tenders on first-tier subcontractors for 14 systems, in the first place, of which the key one is, probably, the powerplant. At the Paris air show earlier this year, UAC chief Alexey Fyodorov said the results produced by the tenders on the systems in question would be summed up before MAKS 2009 and announced during the same show.

The miracle did not happen. Actually, it proved to be incomplete: the finalists in three tenders (including a key one dedicated to the powerplant) were not selected. The engine makers were told to go around: the tender committee led by Oleg Demchenko and set up by UAC’s management failed to select the acceptable powerplant variant at the first push and left two contenders, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls Royce, on the shortlist. The decision may surprise the outsiders who may wonder, “What about the domestic programme on the advanced engine family developed in Perm, which was designed for the MC-21 from the outset”? We are hastenwww.take-off.ru

ing to calm the proponents of domestic designs down: the Russian variant of the future powerplant, which prime developer is the United Engine Corporation (UEC) and specifically its subsidiary Perm Motors, is in a class by itself and will get the right to power the MC-21 once it has been completed and if customers want it.

In this connection, Irkut President Demchenko told a news conference at MAKS 2009 that UAC’s development of the future PD-14 engine (part of the “Future 9–18-tonne thrust engine family” being developed by Perm engine makers) is not linked specifically to the MC-21 as such, with the engine being developed as part

On 20 August 2009, Irkut announced that it had selected first-tier suppliers of 11 key systems of the MC-21, while the powerplant, avionics and integrated flight control system tenders would continue. The winners of the completed tenders were as follows: - landing gear – the Gydromash JSC, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; - APU – Hamilton Sundstrand, USA; - integrated air conditioning system – Nauka scientific and technical association, Moscow, Russia, in cooperation with Hamilton Sundstrand and the Hamilton Sundstrand/Nauka joint venture; - electrical system – ECE, Zodiac Aerospace Corporation, France, in cooperation with Hamilton Sundstrand, USA; - interior layout – C&D, Zodiac Aerospace, USA; - fuel system – Intertechnique, Zodiac Aerospace, France - oxygen generation system – Intertechnique, Zodiac Aerospace, France; - inert gas system – Intertechnique, Zodiac Aerospace, France, in cooperation with Hamilton Sundstrand, USA; - fire suppressant system - L’Hotellier, France, Kidd Technologies corporation, in cooperation with Hamilton Sundstrand, USA; - hydraulic system – Eaton corporation, United States, that will order over 50% of hydraulic system parts and units from Russia manufacturers Voskhod, Teploobmennik, Znamya and Tekhpribor; - wing anti-icing system – Hamilton Sundstrand, USA.

of the federal programme on developing the engine industry in Russia. According to Demchenko, if the engine has been developed and has shown acceptable characteristics and there have been customers preferring it by the time the MC-21 hits the market, the advanced Russian engine will be installed on the MC-21 as well.

MC-21 basic design data MC-21-200

MC-21-300

Seating capacity (singe-class layout, 812 mm/32 inch pitch)

150

181

212

Seating capacity (tighter singe-class layout, 736 mm/29-30 inch pitch)

162

198

230

Thrust, t

2x12.5

2х14

2х15.6

Length, m

35.9

41.5

46.7

Wingspan, m

35.9

35.9

36.8

Height, m

11.4

11.5

12.7

Maximum takeoff weight, t

67.6

76.18

87.23

Maximum cruising speed, km/h (Mach)

850 (0.8)

Maximum ceiling, m Range with max seating capacity, km

MC-21-400

12,000 5,000

5,000

take-off december 2009

5,500

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industry | in brief

the EU skies for the Ka-32A11BC, removing any restrictions on its commercial operation by private EU users.

The Ka-32A11BC was derived by the Kamov company from the Ka-32A model certificated in Russia in 1993 in line with the requirements of Canadian province British Columbia (hence the letters BC in its designation) and was issued a FAR29 type certificate

by Canada. The Kumertau Aircraft Production Company (KumAPP) launched its production for export.

Like Kamov, KumAPP is part of the helicopter-making holding company managed by the Russian Helicopters joint stock company, a subsidiary of Oboronprom Corp.

Alexey Mikheyev

On 28 September, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certificated Kamov Ka-32A11BC all-weather multi-purpose transport helicopter for operation in the EU, having issued it with Type Certificate EASA.IM.R.133. The certificate allows commercial operation of the Russian machine by any EU user.

Until the EASA granted its certificate, EU members had used several Ka-32A11BCs on a limited scale under Specific Airworthiness Specifications only to handle some peculiar jobs, e.g. firefighting and assembly of high-voltage power lines in mountainous terrain, doing so in support of governmental agencies only. Type Certificate EASA.IM.R.133 opens access to

Kamov

Ka-32 certificated in EU

Featuring the typical Kamov coaxial-rotor configuration, the Ka-32A11BC has a number of considerable advantages over single-rotor machines on special mission under difficult conditions, but also is well fit for such routine, as passenger and cargo hauling, patrolling, search and rescue (SAR) operations, etc.

“Russian-built helicopters show up in the skies of united Europe regularly, but their use is restricted

by EU aviation laws, which hampers the Russian Helicopters sales growth on the European Union market”, says Russian Helicopter of Director General Andrey Shibitov.

“The EASA certificate for the Ka-32A11BC opens bright vistas for the advanced helicopter that has proven its worth in many EU countries. Russian Helicopters JSC wel-

comes EASA’s decision and hope for the agency to do the same as to other Russian-made helicopters are concerned”.

Today Ka-32 helicopters are operated by Spain (ten Ka-32A11BCs), Portugal (six Ka-32A11BCs), Switzerland (a Ka-32A12), Canada, South Korea, Chile, Mexico, Japan, China, Papua – New Guinea, etc. South Korea’s Ka-32 fleet exceeds 60 machines used with success both by the foresters to suppress forest fires and by the South Korean police and naval air arm.

In all, over 160 production-standard Ka-32s in various versions have been made (let alone the numerous military derivatives, e.g. the Ka-27, Ka-29, Ka-31, etc.) and operated proactively in Russia and all over the world.

Turbomeca to supply engines to fit Mi-34

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take-off december 2009

gas-turbine derivative for five years to come.

The Sapsan helicopter became the centrepiece of the pavilion exposition of Russian Helicopters at MAKS 2009. The emergence of the Sapsan reflects the policies of the Russian helicopter holding company, aimed at diversifying its product range in line with market requirements.

New Mi-34 versions are being developed to handle corporate and private passenger operations, initial flight training, medical evacuation and terrain monitoring, the latter ranging from environment and oil pipeline monitoring to policing.

Yevgeny Yerokhin

On 20 August, the MAKS 2009 air show saw the signing by Russian Helicopters and Turbomeca a memorandum on deliveries of engines to equip the first Russian-built turbine-powered light helicopter, the Mil Mi-34S2 Sapsan, which is a heavily upgraded derivative of the Mi-34 light piston-engined helicopter that used to be built by the Progress plant in the town of Arsenyev.

The document was signed

by Russian Helicopters Director General Andrey Shibitov and Turbomeca Vice-President Maxime Faribault. The memorandum governs the deliveries of Arrius 2F engines to fit the Mi-34’s advanced

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industry | in brief

The MAKS 2009 air show saw the debut of the Kazan Helicopters Ansat-U trainer helicopter shown as a static display of its launch customer, the Russian Air Force.

The report on the Ansat-U’s official trials completion and the resolution on launching its full-scale production by Kazan Helicopters were signed on 26 December 2008.

Thus, the Ansat-U is to turn into the basic trainer for Russian military helicopter crews, ousting the obsolete Mi-2 still used by military flight schools.

The Ansat-U was derived in line with the Russian Defence Ministry’s performance specification from the Ansat multipurpose light helicopter, which production Kazan Helicopters has been running for five years now.

The principal features setting the trainer apart from its baseline model include the twin controls and twin instrument set, relevant modifications to the flight control system and replacement of the skids with wheeled landing gear.

Andrey Fomin

Ansat-U expected by the military

The Ansat’s serious advantage over many Western counterparts lies in its two engines stepping up its reliability and safety by far.

By the way, the Ansat-U, like its baseline model, is powered by Canadian-made PW-207K turboshaft engines, and the Russian Defence Ministry does not mind, because, unfortunately, there is no production-standard analogue to the PW-207K in Russia yet. Klimov

is still developing the VK-800 turboshaft, while adapting it to the Ansat will call for modifications to the powertrain, rotor system and flight control system.

To date, Kazan Helicopters have made over 15 production Ansats in addition to the six prototypes. An Ansat-U prototype commenced the trials in April 2004. Its official test programme began in the Defence Ministry’s State Flight Test Centre

in October 2006 and was completed on 25 November last year.

The acceptance report and decision on having Kazan Helicopters launch the production of the Ansat-U paved the way to service entry for the aircraft. As was repeatedly reported in the press, the plant has landed a launch order for 12 Ansat-Us. Six of them are expected to enter service with the Russian Air Force this year.

Ka-226T gearing up for certification

Andrey Fomin

Another novelty of the MAKS 2009 air show in the past August was the upgraded Kamov Ka-226T multipurpose helicopter equipped with Arrius 2G1 engines from French company Turbomeca. Until recently, the prototype and produc-

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tion Ka-226s were powered by Rolls Royce 250-C20R/2 engines. The introduction of Arrius turboshafts allows a hefty increase in virtually all characteristics of helicopters of the type, especially high-and-hot performance and service altitude.

Preparations are underway for the Ka-226T to enter its certification tests slated for completion late in 2010 so that the machine can hit the market in 2011. The Russian Helicopters joint stock company, an Oboronprom subsidiary, is bidding

in the Indian Defence Ministry-issued tender for 197 advanced light multipurpose helicopters.

The Ka-226T prototype shown at MAKS 2009 was built this summer, with its maiden flight completed in July. Overall, three prototypes are planned for the certification trials. As the Take-off correspondent was told by a source in Russian Helicopters, the machine has achieved a flight altitude of 7,000 m, and “the altitude was not the limit, there is a margin to take up”. Owing to the effective rotor system and advanced powerplant, the static ceiling has hiked and the carrying capacity is retained within a wider flight altitude and temperature bracket. “The helicopter will become especially appealing to the states operating rotary-wing aircraft in mountainous terrain and in the tropics”, the source stressed. The company hopes that “the Indian Air Force will turn out to be among the early Ka-226T buyers”.

take-off december 2009

27

industry | in brief

Ka-62 on Russian Helicopters priority list statement by Russian Helicopters leaders during a presentation at the MAKS 2009 air show. NPO Saturn’s RD-600V engines will power the machine. The establishing of the United Engine Corporation (UEC) as part of Oboronprom, which subsidi-

ary Russian Helicopters is, with the RD-600V’s developer NPO Saturn as a member of UEC, will simplify the debugging and productionising of the engine by far. Therefore, a decision has been taken recently that the RD-600V will be the principal power-

Andrey Fomin

The first prototype of the advanced Kamov Ka-62 transport/passenger helicopter being derived from the baseline Ka-60 multipurpose troop carrier could be built by the Progress aircraft plant in Arsenyev early next year, according to the

plant type for the Ka-62, while French engine Ardiden 3G earlier planned for this role will become optional. The Ka-62’s certification tests are to be completed and its production is to begin in 2012. Russian Helicopters estimate the market capacity for the 14-seat Ka-62 with the 6,500-kg takeoff weight at 350 units.

Concurrently, the development of the Ka-62’s military baseline model goes on. Two Ka-60 prototypes are in their factory trials and could kick off their official test programme late this year. The Russian Defence Ministry’s requirement for such machines is estimated at 300–400 units. The Ka-60’s deliveries could start in 2011–12. The second prototype in the Ka-60U trainer variant with the twin controls was shown as a static display during the MAKS 2009 air show.

Russia and Ukraine agreed to pursue An-70 programme together

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the An-70 and its derivatives from the federal budget of the Russian Federation and state budget of Ukraine”, an Antonov spokesperson said in this connection.

The An-70 prototype has arrived to Moscow and was shown as a static display during MAKS 2009 for the first time since 2003 when Russia suspended its participation in the An-70 test programme unilaterally, and the then-Air Force Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Vladimir Mikhailov, lambasted the programme.

At present, the Aviant plant in Kiev, a subsidiary of Antonov, is making the first two production

An-70s ordered by the Ukrainian Defence Ministry. If all goes to plan, the first production-standard An-70 is to be complete in early 2011.

In addition to the signing of the protocol of the intergovernmental agreement, MAKS 2009 saw Antonov and Russia’s Volga-Dnepr group go into agreement of intent on joint promotion of the An-70T medium freighter on the market.

Antonov Designer General Dmitry Kiva and Volga-Dnepr President Alexey Isaikin signed the agreement.

Under the agreement, VolgaDnepr will order the first produc-

tion An-70T batch, with deliveries to begin in 2013. The parties will jointly realise their intent to use the An-70T as part of international programmes. “Against the backdrop of the cutthroat competition on the European market for the medium freighter niche contested by the prospective A400M and upgraded C-130J, both bolstered by their manufacturers’ governments, the developers, manufacturers and users have to pool our efforts to bring Ukrainian-Russian aircraft An-70 to the European market and then to the global one”, Dmitry Kiva said in this connection.

Andrey Fomin

On 18 August during the MAKS 2009 air show, there was the signing of the Protocol on Amending the 24 June 1993 Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Ukraine on further cooperation in the development, joint production and selling of the Antonov An-70 military airlifter and An-70T commercial transport aircraft powered by D-27 engines. Thus, Russia is resuming its participation in the An-70 programme following a six-year interruption.

Russian Defence Minister A.E. Serdyukov and Ukrainian Acting Defence Minister V.V. Ivashchenko signed the document. Under the protocol, Russia and Ukraine will continue the co-development and testing of the D-27-powered An-70 short takeoff and landing aircraft and its versions, including its civil applications.

“The basis of the production cooperation under the programme will be served by the cooperation between the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Antonov state aircraft corporation as well as the developers and manufacturers of components and materials. The parties shall finance their joint development work on

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industry | in brief

On 17 October, the first flight of the Tupolev Tu-204-100B flying testbed took place from the airfield of the Aviastar-SP plant in Ulyanovsk. One of the testbed’s PS-90A engines had been replaced with a heavily upgraded PS-90A2 turbofan being made by the Perm Motor Company in cooperation with Pratt & Whitney.

The flying testbed designed for testing the PS-90A2 is a derivative of Tu-204-100B (RA-64048) airliner built by Aviastar-SP in May this year on order from Ilyushin Finance Co. for Red Wings airline. Red Wings planned to use the airliner for charter flights to popular resorts served by the Coral Travel company, which logo was applied to the fuselage.

However, Red Wings changed its mind, and the aircraft remained sitting at Aviastar’s airfield. Now, a new, unusual application has been found for it. However, the production PS-90A will be mounted back on the wing of the airliner following the PS-90A2 trials, and the plane is expected to be ferried to a potential foreign customer before year-end.

The first mission of the flying testbed took 1 h 24 min, during which

Andrey Pozdeyev

PS-90A2 enters flight trials

time the PS-90A2’s performance was appraised in different modes, including taxiing, takeoff and landing.

Overall, the certification flight test programme on the advanced engine provides for 25 flights. Three of them had been logged in the first week of the trials, on which the engine logged about 5 h of operating time and underwent over 10 restarts. No criticism was offered as far as the powerplant’s operation is concerned.

As is known, the PS-90A2 is a heavily upgraded derivative of the

production-standard PS-90A, differing from its baseline model in a 35% drop in the life cycle cost, a 1.5–2-fold increase in reliability and a twofold reduction in maintenance laboriousness. Its noise and emission parameters meet the future international standards, with the engine remaining interchangeable with the PS-90A. Before year-end, the PS-90A2 is supposed to be certificated under the AP-33 rules that are the analogue of FAR33 (U.S.) and JAR33 (EU).

The first aircraft to be outfitted with the upgraded engine will be the advanced Tu-204SM medium-haul airliner. In November, Aviastar launched the final assembly of its prototype slated to enter its trials in spring 2010.

Iranian carrier Iran Airtour has placed a firm order for five Tu-204SMs powered by PS-90A2s, with Atlant-Soyuz having ordered 15 airliners of the type last summer. The Tu-204SM is expected to obtain its type certificate in December next year, with its deliveries to start in 2011.

Large order for engines to power Su-35

KnAAPO

On 9 October, the Oboronprom corporation announced a major deal, under which its subsidiary Ufa-based Engine Production Association (UMPO) is to deliver almost a hun-

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dred advanced engines to fit the Su-35 fighters ordered by the Russian Air Force in August this year.

“UMPO and the Komsomolskon-Amur Aircraft Production Associ-

ation (KnAAPO) made a contract on AL-41F-1S (117S) engines for advanced Su-35 multirole fighters”, reads an Oboronprom press release.

“The engines are designed to power

the Su-35S aircraft intended for the Russian Air Force. UMPO will have made 96 engines until 2015, with the first batch to be shipped in 2010”.

Thus, RusAF will receive thrust control vector engines for the first time. To date, Russian TVC engines have powered only the aircraft exported to India, Malaysia and Algeria: UMPO AL-31FP engines fit the Su-30MKI, Su-30MKM and Su-30MKI(A) supermanoeuvrable multirole fighters.

“The AL-41F-1S (117S) is a Generation 4++ TVC turbofan”, Oboronprom reports. “It was ordered by the Sukhoi design bureau and is being co-developed by UMPO and Saturn. The AL-41F-1S (117S) is a derivative of the heavily upgraded AL-31F. Its thrust exceeds that of the baseline model by 2 t”.

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29

NIIP

industry | interview

Tikhomirov’s AESA in trials The active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar being developed by the Tikhomirov-NIIP joint stock company to fit a new-generation fighter was among the head-turners of the MAKS 2009 air show. At the show, Tikhomirov-NIIP unveiled a full-scale X-band AESA radar that had logged many bench tests in laboratories. The AESA radar is expected to begin its flight tests next year. Owing to its design commonality and technical solutions selected, it could spawn active electronically-scanned arrays to upgrade various radars equipping the fighters of the Su-27/Su-30 and MiG-29 families also. The Take-off editor met with Tikhomirov-NIIP Director General Yuri Bely and asked him to tell about the AESA radar development programme.

Mr. Bely, what kind of radar system the future fighter will have?

As is known, the future fighter’s avionics suite will be wrapped around the multifunction AESA system, which prime contractor our institute has been selected in a tender. It will be a whole “system of systems”, rather than an ordinary radar as we know it.

The system will have several active phased arrays, including those of the X- and L-bands (the latter ones situated in the fighter’s wing deflecting slats).

The AESA system Tikhomirov-NIIP is developing relies on domestic electronic componentry based on GaAs nanoheterostructures and advanced AESA technologies. Our AESA is based on up-to-date domestically-developed hybrid integral technologies.

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The work is bund to succeed owing to the phased array radar development experience gained by the institute over the past 40-plus years. Suffice it to say, the institute pioneered airborne phased-array radar as far back as the 1970s. It was integrated with the Zaslon fire control radar system of the MiG-31 interceptor fielded in 1981, with the aircraft remaining a most effective one in its class.

What stage are the AESA’s tests at?

The tests are on schedule, with the schedule approved by the customer, the Sukhoi company. As was planned, we completed the intermediate X-band AESA lab test milestone last November and moved it to the integrated radar test bench. The tests of the experimental AESA radar proved our technical solutions, but also revealed a number of serious

issues, which is only natural when developing cutting-edge high-tech gear. The results of the tests are being analysed and relevant modifications and improvements are being introduced. The second example is being completed at the same time. Essentially, it will be an AESA radar prototype embodying the improvements stemming from the tests of the first, experimental example. The second www.take-off.ru

AESA radar is to be complete by year-end, and the antenna itself will have been ready even before that. Manufacture of the rest of the components and debugging of the software are running concurrently.

In all, several AESA prototypes are to be manufactured for rig and flight tests under the test programme. The AESA radar for testing on board an aircraft is supposed to be made by the middle of next year. In addition, flight trials of the AESA on board a flying testbed are being looked into.

To test and debug the X- and L-band AESAs, the institute has established the unique testing facilities, including top-notch anechoic rooms.

What other companies are involved in manufacture of the AESA? There are rather many of them. As to the backbone of our AESA, the monolithic-microcircuit transmit-receive (T-R) modules, they have been developed and produced by the Istok scientific and production company in Fryazino, Moscow Region. The company has reached the T-R output rate satisfactory to us (as is known, there are over a thousand of them in a single AESA), but a lot has to be done to improve their quality and improve the modules themselves and slash their cost. However, we are satisfied with the way the cooperation goes on.

Our traditional partner, the State Ryazan Instrument Plant (GRPZ), has been participating in the programme from the outset of the work on the AESA. Now, it runs full-scale production of our Bars phased array radar fitting the Su-30MKI/MKM aircraft and is productionising the advanced Irbis-E phased array radar designed to equip the Su-35 fighter. By the way, under the Irbis-E, GRPZ was not only a manufacturer, but also a full-fledged co-developer of the system, having designed several important radar modules, particularly, digital computers.

The assembly, calibration and testing of all prototype AESA radars will be handled by Tikhomirov-NIIP so far. In the future, as the full-scale production picks up, GRPZ will join the programme in earnest and be the sole manufacturer of our AESA radars.

Will your AESA be useful to other aircraft?

A decision has been taken that all AESA radars in our country designed for combat aircraft will be based on the componentry and technological base, design and production engineering solutions developed by our institute. It is quite natural. Development and production of such high-tech devices as AESAs are very expensive, and blowing one’s mint on parallel, rival programmes is unaffordable luxury these days. The very AESA technology allows using commonised technical solutions to develop a wide range of radars for use on different aircraft. Therefore, after our AESA radar has been developed and www.take-off.ru

Yevgeny Yerokhin

industry | interview

tested through and through, radar differing from it in size and performance could be developed with minimal expenditure of time and money to fit other platforms, including ground ones.

Tikhomirov-NIIP’s AESA technology is designed not only for the domestic market, isn’t it? What are its export prospects?

Certainly. It has been announced officially that Russia and India will co-develop the fifth-generation future multirole fighter. No doubt, its fire control system will be wrapped around AESA radar. India has an experience in making phased array radars, because it is productionising our Bars radars under a licence production agreement, with the radars fitting the Su-30MKI licence-produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL).

In addition, India is interested in introducing the AESA to the Su-30MKIs. Now, they are devising a programme on further modernisation of the fire control systems of these aircraft made for the Indian Air Force.

At the first stage, the performance is to be enhanced and new operating modes are to be

introduced while retaining the passive phased array. At Stage 2, the Bars radar’s array of the Indian Su-30MKIs will be replaced with the AESA, and this is to be done in the course of the Su-30MKI licence production in India.

This done, the earlier built aircraft could be upgraded in the same manner.

If Russia wins the MMRCA tender, in which it offers its advanced MiG-35 multirole fighter, our AESA could be used on the MiG-35 too. As a result, the Indian Air Force could get several top-notch aircraft at once, with the aircraft having different characteristics but common radar systems solutions, which is very important in terms of production and operation.

What is your opinion of your AESA compared with its foreign counterparts? Will it have any edge over its Western rivals?

I guess, our design will be on a par with the best foreign analogues, surpassing them in a number of characteristics. The keystone to success is the wealth of experience and the huge progress made by Tikhomirov-NIIP gained in the electronically-scanned radar systems field over the past four decades. take-off december 2009

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weapons | in brief

Under the Armament Development Programme for 2007–15 and Advanced Air-Launched Weapons Development Integrated Programme, the Tactical Missiles Corporation is updating its basic product line. Part of them is entering their final stages of development. The range of advanced air-launched weapons offers the buyer a wide variety of export examples in the air-to-surface and air-to-air classes. They are designed for use as part of both advanced warplanes (Su-34, Su-35, MiG-35, new-generation fighter) and upgraded aircraft already on the market (Su-30MK2, Su-30MKI/MKM, MiG-29SMT, etc.). The corporation unveiled a number of its cutting-edge precision-guided weapons at the MAKS 2009 air show last August. They included, in particular, the RVV-MD and RVV-SD air-to-air missiles, Kh-35UE upgraded antiship missile and new variants of the 500-kg and 1,500-kg guided bombs.

The advanced RVV-MD and RVV-SD have been developed by Tactical Missiles Corp.’s subsidiary, the Vympel design bureau. The RVV-MD short-range/dogfight missile is similar to the R-73E in terms of the aerodynamic configuration, layout and dimensions. Its guidance system includes a sophisticated dual-band passive all-aspect heatseeker with the ±60° target designation angle. Its combined gas-dynamic control ensures high manoeuvrability and allows the weapon to attain high alpha and kill targets jinking hard with a g-load of up to 12 g. The RVV-MD features enhanced countermeasures immunity, including one against optical countermeas-

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Debut of advanced air-to-air missiles

ures, which allows its effective use under difficult conditions, e.g. in the look-down/shoot-down mode, from all aspects and in the face of heavy countermeasures.

The missile’s powerplant is a single-mode solid-propellant rocket motor. The RVV-MD is offered in two variants differing in the type of the fuse, with the RVV-MDL fitted with a laser proximity fuse and the RVV-MD equipped with a radio-frequency one. The warhead packs rod-type submunitions. The maximum range of the weapon against head-on targets is 40 km.

The missile is attached to aircraft by means of the P-72-1D (P-72-1BD2) rail-type launcher. The RVV-MD is designed for use by fighters, ground attack aircraft and helicopters and will be effective against various types of fixed-wing aircraft (fighters,

attack aircraft, bombers, airlifters) and helicopters round the clock. It can be adapted to foreign-made carriers with the use of an in-house technology.

The RVV-SD medium-range air-to-air missile is offered as a lethal all-aspect weapon to eliminate fixed-wing and rotary wing aircraft and cruise missiles 24 hr a day in the face of electronic countermeasures and in the look-down/ shoot-down mode, including in the multiple-target engagement mode.

The RVV-SD hits targets manoeuvring at 12 g out to 110 km. The missile’s launch-and-leave capability is owing to its combined guidance system comprising a radio-updated inertial subsystem and an active radar homer. The RVV-SD’s layout and dimensions are similar to those of the RVV-AE. Its powerplant

includes a single-mode solid-fuel rocket motor. The fuse is of laser proximity type. The multi-cumulative warhead is filled with rod-type submunitions. The missile is attached to the carrier aircraft by means of the AKU-170E ejection unit. The RVV-SD can be adapted for use on foreign-made aircraft.

Launching weight, kg Warhead weight, kg Dimensions, m: - length - body diameter - wing span - empennage span Launch range, km: - max in forward hemisphere - min in rear hemisphere Target designation angles, deg.

Target altitude, km Target g-load

Launching weight, kg

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Warhead weight, kg Dimensions, m: - length - body diameter - wing span - empennage span Launch range, km: - max in forward hemisphere - min in rear hemisphere Target altitude, km Target g-load

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RVV-MD R-73E 106 105 8 8 2,92 0,17 0,51 0,385

2,9 0,17 0,51 0,38

up to 40

30

0,3

0,3

± 60

± 45

0,02–20 up to 12 RVV-SD RVV-AE up to 175 190 n/a 22,5 3,71 0,2 0,42 0,68

3,6 0,2 0,4 0,7

up to 110

80

0,3

0,3

0,02–25 up to 12

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