Take Off t4g28

november 2007 • special edition for Dubai Airshow 2007

MiG-29 under upgrade [p. 20]

Skat UCAV – a future of combat aviation? [p. 36]

New mission to the ISS [p. 42]

Sukhoi Superjet 100 rolled-out! [p. 8]

MAKS 2007 airshow news and novelties

NEW-GEN TECHNOLOGIES TO SAFEGUARD YOUR SKIES Russian Aircraft Corporation “MiG” has supplied over 1600 MiG-29 fighters to guard the skies of dozens countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. By combining the operational experience with the latest technological achievements RAC “MiG” has developed the new family of multirole combat aircraft. The MiGs’ superiority is secured by the newest AESA Radar, state-of-the-art optronic systems, up-todate onboard self-defense suite, gravitydefying supermaneuverability and other innovations.

Russian Aircraft Corporation “MiG” Bld. 7, 1st Botkinsky proyezd, Moscow, 125284, Russia Phone: +7 (495) 252-80-10 Fax: +7 (495) 250-19-48 www.rskmig.com

November 2007 Editor-in-Chief Andrey Fomin

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Shcherbakov

Editors Yevgeny Yerokhin Andrey Yurgenson

Columnist Alexander Velovich

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

Design and pre-press Grigory Butrin

Web Georgy Fedoseyev

Translation Yevgeny Ozhogin

Cover picture Piotr Butowski

Publisher

Director General Andrey Fomin

Deputy Director General Nadezhda Kashirina

Marketing Director George Smirnov

Executive Director Yury Zheltonogin

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 ed 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 Print-run: 5600 copies

© Aeromedia, 2007

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

Dear reader, You are holding a fresh copy of the Take-off magazine timed with the Dubai air show that has been among the major respectable international aerospace exhibitions. Russian participants’ interest in it is owing, inter alia, to the Middle East returning as a leader in importing Russian-made aircraft and cooperating with this country in the aerospace field. Just about two months before this Dubai airshow, the town of Zhukovsky in the Moscow Region saw the completion of the 8th International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS 2007 – the aviationrelated event of the year in Russia. According to numerous MAKS 2007 exhibitors and visitors, the show became far more impressive, with the number of exhibitors growing noticeably, number of foreign delegations increasing and infrastructure of the show improving. The status of MAKS as a business event and a place to conduct scientific fora and conferences has been bolstered. For the first time, Russian aircraft makers exhibited their projects in Zhukovsky under the aegis of the United Aircraft Corporation and helicopter makers did that under the auspices of the Helicopters of Russia holding company. Actually, the tendency for aerospace developers and manufacturers to merge both in Russia and abroad has been highlighted at MAKS 2007. This year’s air show was a kind of parade of aerospace novelties that were aplenty in Zhukovsky – both combat aircraft and missile weapons, on the one hand, and civil planes, on the other. This is a good sign of positive dynamics emerging in the Russian aircraft industry, the other proof being a series of key contracts and agreements made in the course of MAKS 2007. In this issue, we have focused on the novelties and events of the MAKS 2007 show we deem the most important and interesting ones, as well as on other news of Russian aviation and space industry of recent months, with preference given to those of them that could be of special interest to the current and potential s of Russian aircraft in the Middle East and North Africa. I wish you fruitful work at the Dubai air show, useful s and lucrative contracts! Sincerely, Andrey Fomin, Editor-in-Chief, Take-off magazine

November 2007 AIRSHOW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

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MAKS 2007 sets records

CIVIL AVIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Two more Il-96s built New aircraft for Russian carriers Tu-204 acquires Red Wings

“The time has come”. First airworthy Sukhoi SuperJet 100 rolled out in Komsomolsk-on-Amur

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‘The time has come’ was the motto of the long-awaited event – the rollout of the first flying prototype of the advanced Russian regional airliner, the Sukhoi SuperJet 100, conducted by the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft company on the premises of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO) on 26 September. The first SuperJet 100 rolled out of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft hangar in a well-rehearsed top-class ceremony attended by First Vice-Premier Sergey Ivanov and leaders of Russian and foreign companies involved in the Sukhoi SuperJet 100 programme, airlines and a thousand other guests and media people. The ceremony marked another stepping-stone to developing the advanced Russian regional jet. The first flying SuperJet serialled 95001 now enters ground tests in the run-up to flight trials. According to Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan, the maiden flight is slated before year-end. Andrey Fomin reports from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur

INDUSTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

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UAC and Aviation of Ukraine to work together Line of helicopter models to be optimised Su-35’s debut Details on MiG-35’s new exterior Tikhomirov-NIIP unveils AESA developments Kamov’s new programmes Second Ka-60 has flown! Tactical Missiles Corp. unveils new weapons Novator air-launched premiers Back to origins (La-225 UAV) BARUK, younger brother of Dan Squadron of new unmanned aircraft (ENIKS UAVs)

CONTRACTS AND DELIVERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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MiG-29 catches its second wind Over 800 MiG-29 fighters have been exported since the aircraft entered production, with many of them still being in service with the air forces of almost 30 countries. Many of them were delivered from 1986 to 1995 and are now in the middle of their service life, which makes the s keen on having them upgraded. Therefore, along with deg and productionising new variants, such as the MiG-29K/KUB, MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-35, MiG Corp. has been pursuing several MiG-29 upgrade programmes to meet requirements of various customers. At the same time with introducing advanced avionics and weapons, the upgrade may include overhaul, conversion to on-condition maintenance and service life extension. Depending on tasks and the depth of the pockets of the customers, the upgrade may

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be either deep or ‘lite’. The former option results in the MiG-29SMT featuring the highest combat capabilities for earlier built aircraft of the type. Such fighters have already been supplied to countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The MiG-29SD and MiG-29SM offer less expensive upgrade packages, with their avionics not being subject to such drastic updating. Nonetheless, these versions acquire a number of advanced capabilities in using latest weapons systems. In addition to modernising operational MiG-29s, MiG Corp.’s work is in full swing on developing a heavily upgraded derivative of the Fulcrum, the MiG-35, that will hit the market after 2009–10. The MiG-35’s advanced technical solutions also are to be embodied in the MiG-29M/M2 intermediate derivative carrying less expensive avionics and weapons suites commonised with the MiG-29SMT. Andrey Fomin reviews MiG-29 upgrade programmes

Irkut makes first Su-30MKA jets for Algeria Venezuelan Su-30 deliveries on schedule MMRCA tender kicks off at last Indonesia to get more Sukhoi fighters Ilyushin Finance Co. to deliver planes to Cuba and Iran Ka-32 exports on the rise

MILITARY AVIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Su-34 fielded with Air Force Growing number of upgraded Su-27SMs RusAF Chief tries Yak-130 out

Skat: unmanned future of combat aircraft?

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The Skat low-observable jet-powered combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UCAV) under development by MiG Corp. became a most interesting and unexpected novelty of the MAKS 2007 air show. Unveiling the Skat’s full-scale mockup to the media in a MiG Corp. hangar at LII’s airfield in Zhukovsky on the third day of the show made quite a stir, because no details on MiG Corp.’s UCAV development had been available and the Skat’s demonstration at MAKS 2007, albeit planned by the developer, had not been d at all. Permission to unveil the Skat UCAV was given by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 21 August. As a result, a full-size Skat mockup was displayed in a hangar of MiG Corp. at Gromov LII’s airfield, rather than at the display ground, and few media people were invited, among which Take-off editor was lucky to be

COSMONAUTICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 ISS now run by female. Another replacement in position in orbit

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There has been a change of the crew of the ISS. In October, a woman, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, headed a long-term orbital expedition for the first time in history of space exploration. She and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko were accompanied to the ISS by the first Malaysian cosmonaut Sheikh Muszafar Shukor. He spent 11 days in orbit and came back to the Earth together with the ISS-15 crew – cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin. Alina Chernoivanova tells about the current mission to the ISS

FSA Chief on prospects of Russian space exploration Latest space rocket designs at MAKS 2007 Aspects of GLONASS development

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AIRSHOW | MAKS-2007

MAKS 2007 sets records

Alexey Mikheyev

MAKS 2007’s position among major international air shows in 2006-2007

Participant companies

Le Bourget 2007

Farnborough 2006

ILA 2006

MAKS 2007

2000

1480

1014

787

Participant countries

42

35

42

39

Aircraft demonstrated

140

145

340

279

Total visitors

314,000

270,000

250,000

725,000

Business visitors

154,000

140,000

115,000

127,000

Public

160,000

130,000

135,000

598,000

occupying pavilions, which area totalled more than 32,000 sq.m. Chalets for negotiations numbered 76. Foreign participation increased considerably too. 247 foreign companies attended – an 84-per cent increase over MAKS 2005, with 79 of them being newcomers. The number of national expositions grew too. The public and experts had an opportunity to see the expositions of (25 companies), (22), United States (13), China (14), Belgium (17), Ukraine (15) and the Czech Republic (8). A key feature of MAKS 2007, setting it apart from the previous and foreign air shows, was the conduct of international scientific conferences, seminars and roundtables, in which leading Russian and foreign scientists, designers and engineers spoke on latest trends in aircraft development and manufacture. The flight demonstration of aircraft at MAKS 2007 routinely one-upped demonstration programmes of other international aerospace shows. 62 aircraft of

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Sergey Sergeyev

different types and in different versions flew 328 sorties at MAKS 2007. The world-renowned display teams Russian Knights, Swifts and Patrouille de attracted a lot of spectators, as did the

Russian Falcons military display team from Lipetsk, who debuted this year with a mock dogfight staged by four Su-27 and Su-30 fighters. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony of MAKS 2007, saying that the show could

potentially turn into the major forum of business partnership in aviation and space exploration. The first three days of the air show were dedicated to business, with over 300 business meetings conducted, including signatures of contracts, agreements and MoU. The total worth of the agreements signed exceeded $3 billion. The key international deals clinched in the course of the show include the memorandum on the contract for six Sukhoi Su-27SKM and Su-30MK2 fighters for Indonesia coming into force, the agreements on delivery by the Ilyushin Finance leasing company of five Tupolev Tu-204s to Iran and two Tu-204s and three Antonov An-148s to Cuba, the signature of the memoran-

dum of understanding and cooperation by Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Aviation of Ukraine state aircraft-making concern, MiG Corp.’s contracts with Kazakhstan and Poland on MRO and of earlier-delivered aircraft, etc. During the air show, several major deals were made on making and delivering Tu-204, Il-96 and An-148 aircraft and engines to power them to Russian carriers. In all, MAKS 2007 was attended by 725,000 people – more than 40 per cent increase over the previous show and the record for all international air shows! The event prompted unheard-of interest of the media, with 3,644 reporters from 713 media covering MAKS 2007 from 46 countries.

Andrey Fomin

Held on Gromov LII’s premises from 21 to 26 August, the 8th International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS 2007 exceeded previous events in of the number of participants and became a world leading air show. 787 companies, including 540 from Russia and 247 foreign ones from 39 countries, took part in the show, which is 133 companies, or over 20 per cent, more than last time. 279 civil and military aircraft were displayed – a 58-aircraft (26-per cent) increase over MAKS 2005, with 55 aircraft exhibited by foreign participants. The world’s major aircraft manufacturers took part in the air show. The exposition of space-related products grew by more than 30 per cent,

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civil aviation | in brief

On 23 August, in a ceremony during MAKS 2007, Atlant-Soyuz, Ilyushin and Ilyushin Finance Co. signed an acceptance report for the first Il-96-400T (RA-96102) to enter flight trials with the carrier’s participation. The new transport is to be the first aircraft of the type in Atlant-Soyuz’s fleet being formed in line with a strategy of entering regular cargo operations. In this connection, Atlant-Soyuz Director General Vladimir Davydov and his Ilyushin Finance Co.’s oppo-

site number, Alexander Rubtsov, signed a memorandum, under which Ilyushin Finance Co. is to lease five Il-96-400T freighters to

Sergey Sergeyev

As many as two advanced wide-body aircraft of the Ilyushin Il-96 family had been completed and had kicked off flight trials on the verge of the MAKS 2007 air show. Leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co. pays for their construction by the VASO aircraft plant in Voronezh. The first of the planes is the lead freighter in the new Il-96-400T version, which conducted its maiden flight in Voronezh on 14 August. It was made for the Atlant-Soyuz air company owned by Moscow’s city hall.

Alexey Mikheyev

Two more Il-96s built

the airline. The first two of them are to start cargo operations by the end of 2007, with the rest to follow suit before 2010. The second brand-new Il-96 participating in this year’s MAKS show was the Il-96-300 (RA-96018) airliner made by VASO in August for use by the Rossiya state transport company. The company has in its inventory two Il-96-300PU airliners designed for carrying the Russia’s President and other governmental officials. Unlike the two presidential jets, Rossiya’s new buy has the traditional enger layout.

Several major contracts were made on the very first day of the MAKS 2007 air show. Airlines 400, which operates out of Moscow and has assumed the Red Wings brand name this year, and Ilyushin Finance Co. signed on 21 August a financial leasing contract on six Tupolev Tu-204-100s. Their deliveries are slated to begin in 2008, with the lease’s duration set at 15 years. On the same day, the government-owned Rossiya airline turned a six Antonov An-148 regional aircraft agreement into a firm financial leasing order and signed a contract of sale of six more aircraft of the type. According to expert estimates, both deals are worth in the neighbourhood of $500 million. Another agreement between the major Russian leasing company and Rossiya, dated 21 August, is memorandum of understanding on one more Il-96-300 long-range widebody aircraft. To ensure deliveries of advanced An-148-100 regional aircraft in

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Alexey Mikheyev

New aircraft for Russian carriers

2008–10, Ilyushin Finance Co. and VASO on 23 August clinched a firm deal on acquisition of 34 airliners of the type. They are designed for Russian and foreign carriers. On the same day, the East European Air Transport Association (EEATA) signed a memorandum on acquir-

ing five An-148 planes in the cargo version for the Polish airline Exin and Hungarian carrier CityLine Hungary. Thus, by the time MAKS 2007 wrapped up, the number of firm orders for the An-148 had totalled 45, with 89 options. To fit the An-148s in production by

VASO with engines, Ilyushin Finance Co. and Motor Sich signed a contract of sale on the very first day of the air show, under which the Zaporozhye-based engine manufacturer is to deliver 74 D-436-148 engines and 37 AI-450-MS auxiliary power units.

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civil aviation | in brief

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the companies will have different aircraft, specificities and, to some extent, destinations served. The Tu-204-100 (RA-64018) Red Wings leased on 2 October is the second plane of the type in the carrier’s stable. In May this year, the Roand Image Graphics company developed a corporate identification of the Red Wings brand for the Airlines 400 company, particularly, its aircraft’s exterior design. The first Tu-204-100 (RA-64020), sporting the new paintwork, left the paint shop of the Bykovo Aircraft Repair Plant in June and soon started operating under Red Wings’ flag, albeit charter flight so far. The aircraft is owned by Ilyushin Finance Co. too and had since 2003 been leased to KrasAir that subleased it to Airlines 400 in the summer. The Tu-204-100 No 64018 had been owned by KrasAir since 2000 as well, but it has been bought by Ilyushin Finance Co. earlier this year along with another aircraft of the type (RA-64019). The airliner has a 210-seat single-class cabin. Ilyushin Finance Co. plans to deliver the RA-64019 to Red Wings in coming December. However, Red Wings is not about stop at that. At the MAKS 2007 air show in August, the carrier awarded Ilyushin

Finance Co. a firm order for financial leasing of six brand-new Tu-204 aircraft in various configurations, including the Tu-204SM upgraded model now under development. Their deliveries are slated to begin in late 2009 or early 2010. Therefore, to plug the hole while the carrier is waiting for the new Tu-204s, the lessor is pondering temporary commissioning of several earlier-built aircraft of the type, e.g. those previously operated by Siberia Airlines (S7) and now flown by Aviastar-TU – the Tu-204-100s No 64011 and 64017, which were built in 1993 and 1996. Another Tupolev aircraft could be delivered to Red Wings as early as next March.

In addition, at the same time with delivering the RA-64018 to Red Wings on 2 October, Alexander Rubtsov and Konstantin Teterin signed another document aimed at developing the carrier’s aircraft fleet – an agreement on the delivery of five more Tu-204-100s worth about $160 million in total. Thus, in the coming years, the Tu-204-family planes in service with Red Wings are to total 14, which will make the airline the major operator of aircraft of the type. The new Russian low-cost carrier is expected to arrange the booking of tickets two to three weeks in advance via the Internet, like other discounters do.

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Another low-cost air company is emerging in Russia. Airlines 400, the carrier trying to establish itself on the market under the Red Wings brand name, has started taking delivery of Tupolev Tu-204-100 aircraft from Ilyushin Finance Co. leasing company. The lessor handed the first aircraft (RA-64018) over to Airlines 400 for a term of 15 years during a ceremony at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport on 2 October. “Over the past 18 to 24 months, we have analysed the proposals of aircraft and have opted for the Russian-made Tu-204-100 for use with the Red Wings project”, Airlines 400 Director General Konstantin Teterin says. “We chose the aircraft because it meets our corporate business model and our specificity best”. According to the carrier’s experts, the Tu-204-100 is to be most effective in domestic low-cost operations – the opinion shared by Ilyushin Finance Co.’s Director General Alexander Rubtsov who said, “The aircraft of the type are very competitive and are going to be 15 per cent more effective in service than the Boeing 737s used by Sky Express”. Today, the Tu-204-100 from Aviastar-SP in Ulyanovsk meets ICAO’s emission, noise and navigation precision standards, and its operating temperature restrictions have been scratched, with its service life having been extended to 15,000 flight hours or 15 years of operation. Thus, Red Wings becomes the first Russian low-cost carrier operating a fleet of modern Russian-built airliners. The company is intent on flights to be within 3 hr and services to Murmansk, Chelyabinsk, Samara and Kaliningrad provided so far. Now, two low-cost carriers operate from Vnukovo – GermanWings, which flies Airbus A319s on international routes, and Sky Express using Boeing 737s on domestic lines. Red Wings s them now, with its experts believing there will be no competition with Sky Express on domestic services yet because

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Tu-204 acquires Red Wings

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civil aviation | event

“THE TIME HAS COME” First airworthy Sukhoi SuperJet 100 rolled out in Komsomolsk-on-Amur ‘The time has come’ was the motto of the long-awaited event – the rollout of the first flying prototype of the advanced Russian regional airliner, the Sukhoi SuperJet 100, conducted by the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft company on the premises of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO) on 26 September. The first SuperJet 100 rolled out of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft hangar in a well-rehearsed top-class ceremony attended by First Vice-Premier Sergey Ivanov and leaders of Russian and foreign companies involved in the Sukhoi SuperJet 100 programme, airlines and a thousand other guests and media people. The ceremony marked another stepping-stone to developing the advanced Russian regional jet. The first flying SuperJet serialled 95001 now enters ground tests in the run-up to flight trials. According to Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan, the maiden flight is slated before year-end. The aircraft rolled out in Komsomolsk-onAmur on 26 September is actually the second KnAAPO-made Sukhoi SuperJet prototype. The first one (c/n 95002) was assembled late last year and flown by an Antonov An-124 Ruslan heavylifter to Zhukovsky where it has been undergoing its static tests at TsAGI’s labs. In all, six prototypes are to be built under the SuperJet test programme. On the eve of its rollout, the media were shown in KnAAPO’s shops the fuselage and wing of the third prototype (c/n 95003) to be com-

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pleted before the end of the year, as well as parts of the airframes of next three aircraft. All of them are to enter testing next year. As far as the third prototype is concerned, three basic fuselage components – F-2, F-3 and F-4 – have been made and mated, and the wing s have been completed. According to KnAAPO’s SuperJet Production manager Vladimir Bychenko, who spoke with Takeoff’s correspondent, the completed fuselage nose and tail sections with the empennage (F-1, F-5 and F-6) were slated for delivery

to KnAAPO by NAPO in Novosibirsk on 30 September, after which KnAAPO was to launch final assembly of the airframe of the prototype c/n 95003. Next two prototypes (c/n 95004 and 95005) are designed for flight tests while the sixth one (95006) for endurance ones. Fuselage and wing parts are being made by KnAAPO to fit these aircraft. Work is underway concurrently on prototypes, which gives hope that all of them will the certification programme at small intervals during 2008. The programme is very www.take-off.ru

civil aviation | event

Yuri Kabernik

Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi’s Director General (left), and Sergey Ivanov, Russia’s first Vice-Premier, at the Sukhoi Superjet 100 roll-out ceremony

Andrei FOMIN All photos by the author unless stated

tough: the SuperJet is to be certificated in late 2008 when the first production aircraft are to be delivered to the launch customer, Aeroflot – Russian Airlines. Attending the rollout ceremony, Aeroflot’s boss Valery Okulov concluded his welcome address by wishing well to the aircraft’s developers and voices his hope for the first SuperJet’s delivery to be on schedule. Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan agreed that the certification’s unprecedented tight schedule posed the main hurdle for the programme but his company and subcontractors had been doing their best to stick to the schedule. Stringent (to the day!) compliance with the first SuperJet’s rollout schedule is a good case in point. At the same time with the certification tests, KnAAPO will launch production in 2008. According to Vladimir Bychenko, the www.take-off.ru

first 13 aircraft are planned for production next year, while the proactive renovation of KnAAPO’s production facilities is to allow production of as many as 30 airliners in 2009. The annual SuperJet output is to be driven to 60 by late in 2010, and then to 70 afterwards. About 115 million euros are to be invested in the production lines overhaul. The money is to be obtained from several sources, including the governmental financing, Sukhoi’s and KnAAPO’s own funds and money provided by leasing companies. To date, KnAAPO has used about 50 million euros on setting up an upto-date engineering centre, which provided the paperless preproductioning technology, and on acquiring manufacturing equipment from major foreign companies.

Productionising the SuperJet, KnAAPO takes delivery of automated assembly systems allowing manual assembly work to be minimised. This steps up quality and precision of the production processes and saves time. Production aircraft are to be assembled at the production line, with the final assembly shop being furnished with six work areas, namely the automated jigless fuselage assembly-hole laser assembly area (the first such area in Russia), wing/fuselage mating area; powerplant/airframe integration area, aircraft system assembly area to fit the hydraulic, oxygen and fire-suppressant systems, and other areas. At the same time, six aircraft will be in the assembly shops, moving from area to area. A production SuperJet is to be completed in only 28 days. The SuperJet cooperative manufacture also involves two more Russian aircraft take-off november 2007

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Yuri Kabernik

civil aviation | event

Right: SaM146 new-generation turbofan designed and manufactured by Russia’s NPO Saturn in cooperation with French SNECMA onboard the first Sukhoi Superjet 100 flying prototype

plants – NAPO (Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association) making fuselage nose and tail sections and empennage and VASO (Voronezh Aircraft Production t Stock Company), the manufacturer of the new airliner’s composite parts and components that make up 10 per cent of the structure. The SuperJet’s wing high-lift devices, elevators, rudders, hatches, fairing and the inboard leading-edge blendings are made of composites. NPO Saturn and SNECMA handle the development and manufacture of the SaM146 engine to power the SuperJet. The two companies set up the PowerJet t

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civil aviation | event venture to this end. For the first flying SuperJet prototype to be completed and rolled out on time, Saturn in August delivered two production SaM146 engines (No 005 and No 006) to KnAAPO, people from the Aircelle company assembled the engine nacelles at KnAAPO, and the nacelles then were mounted on the aircraft. In all, 10 SaM146 engines are to be made in of the SuperJet’s certification test programme. For the prototype to go on its maiden flight, Saturn shipped a flight-capable SaM146 (No 003/2) to Gromov LII Flight Research Institute in July, where it was installed on the Il-76LL flying testbed (RA-76454) that was displayed at the MAKS 2007 air show. The first flight of the SaM146-powered flying testbed is planned for October 2007. Along with tests of several SaM146 prototypes at Saturn’s test rigs since last summer, the flying testbed trials will allow the required reliability and safety of the SuperJet’s early and followon test missions to be provided. The SaM146

avionics to fit the airliner. This is done in cooperation with their Russian partners under the programme. Delivery and after-sales will be performed by a Russo-Italian t venture, which establishment was announced during MAKS 2007. Headquartered in Venice, SuperJet International will have 51 per cent of its stock owned by Alenia Aeronautica (a division of Finmeccanica) and 49 per cent by Sukhoi. The venture will tackle marketing, sale and after-sales of the Sukhoi SuperJet 100 in Europe, America and a number of other regions of the world. According to Mikhail Pogosyan, Alenia Aeronautica is to play an important part in the SuperJet 100’s certification under the EU’s air rules. “The participants in the SuperJet 100 programme are well versed in certifying their components on the European and global markets. This is a very important factor that will facilitate quick certification of the advanced aircraft”, he said.

As of October, the SuperJet 100 orderbook was as follows: 30 aircraft for Aeroflot with 15 more as an option, 10 for the Financial Leasing Company, 15 with 10 options for AirUnion, six with four options for Dalavia, 10 with 10 options for ItAli and two with two options for Armavia. The first airliner is estimated to be delivered to the launch customer, Aeroflot, in November 2008 and to the first foreign customer, ItAli, in December 2009. According to Sukhoi managers, the number of firm orders is to reach 100 by year-end and total 300 in 2010. Sukhoi estimates the capacity of the market the SuperJet 100 can enter by 2025 at 800 aircraft, of which 70 per cent are designed for export. The production SuperJet’s flyaway cost will stand at $28 million, according Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan speaking in Komsomolsk-onAmur. At the inauguration of the SuperJet International t venture in Venice, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Financial Director

Left and centre: wing and fuselage assembly for the second Sukhoi Superjet 100 flying prototype (No 95003). Top: airframe s manufacture by means of Broetje automatic processing system

will be certificated under the Russian, EU and US air rules, which will permit the SuperJet’s operation in any country. In accordance with the SuperJet’s service-entry schedule and under the existing contracts, Saturn shall launch deliveries of production SaM146s in 2008. According to a Saturn spokesman, 267 SaM146s are planned for delivery to Sukhoi Civil Aircraft in 200810, of which 167 have already been firm orders. Major French, German, US and other companies handle the development, manufacture and delivery of systems and www.take-off.ru

By the time the first flying SuperJet was rolled out, the developer had snagged 73 firm orders, including 10 from Italian carrier ItAli and 61 from Russian airlines, with 41 options. In September, a customer from the former Soviet Union appeared – a contract was signed on 14 September in Yerevan for two SuperJet 100/95LR extended-range planes and two options for Armenian carrier Armavia. The deal, which value is estimated at $55–60 million, will be financed by Russian bank VTB. The first aircraft for the Armenian airline is to be delivered late in 2008.

Maxim Grishanin offered a new assessment of the market. In accordance with the socalled ‘conservative forecast’, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft with its SuperJet 100 regional airliner eyes 15 per cent of the global market of airliners, whose total capacity until 2022 is estimated by Boeing at 6,000 units. Thus, we are talking here about as many as 900 SuperJet 100s. “Considering the advanced 120-seat SuperJet variant now under development“, Maxim Grishanin said in Venice, “the total number of possible sales of the whole SuperJet family may well be 1,800 aircraft”. take-off november 2007

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UAC and Aviation of Ukraine to work together

Russian and Ukrainian aircraft plants launch the full-scale production of the An-148 and set up relevant maintenance centres. Cooperative development of the MS-21 medium-haul airliner and an advanced wide-body airliner was pronounced promising as well. A month after the MoU’s signature – on 19–20 September, the programmes of the t An-140, An-74 and An-148 production by Ukrainian and Russian manufacturers were presented to UAC and the Aviation of Ukraine delegations as well as media and new fields of cooperation to explore were discussed on the premises of KSAMC (Kharkov), Aviant (Kiev) and Antonov (Kiev).

Being more specific on the MoU, Ilyushin’s Director General/Designer General Victor Livanov, dual-hatted as the head of UAC’s Transport and Special Aircraft Division, told at a news conference in Kiev that, as far as cargo ramp aircraft are concerned, the parties were intent on t promotion of the An-124, Il-76, An-70, MTA, Il-112 and An-74 freighters on the markets, including the Russian one. In this context, the Ukrainians were invited to the MTA programme, and the Russians indicated their willingness to reconsider their stance on the An-70 programme. Feasibility of enger aircraft cooperation was mentioned before the gathering in Kiev by Ilyushin

Finance Co. Director General Alexander Rubtsov, who stressed that the major Russian-Ukrainian project in this field was production and sales of An-148 regional airliners. He said that the rollout of the first Aviant-built production An-148 was slated for late this year and that of the first VASO-made one for late 2008. According to Alexander Rubtsov, the An-148 “has become part of UAC’s model line” and 96 An-148s are to be made by VASO until 2010. The next stage of airliner development and production cooperation between the two countries, IFC’s leader believes, may be t work on the future MS-21 short-medium-haul airliner slated to hit the market in 2015–16. In addition, the Ukrainian side was invited to cooperate in developing a future twin-engine medium-haul wide-body aircraft that might replace the current Il-86 fleet. Antonov Designer General Dmitry Kiva outlined the current R&D efforts on a medium transport jet with a lifting capacity of 20 t, a 300–350-seat medium-haul wide-body airliner and a 150–180-seat medium-haul airliner that could serve the base for future Russian-Ukrainian programmes. Rounding off the meeting, head of Aviation of Ukraine Oleg Shevchenko underlined that he was for “partnership” between UAC and Aviation of Ukraine and believed Russia’s and Ukraine’s cargo and enger aircraft industries had a future ahead of them only in pooling their efforts.

Andrey Fomin

A key event on the first day of MAKS 2007 was the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich, who discussed the cooperation of the two countries’ aircraft industries. Putin and Yanukovich attended together the MAKS 2007 exposition of Ukrainian aircraft makers and were briefed on the status of the Ukrainian-Russian aircraft development programmes. Speaking with Antonov’s Designer General Dmitry Kiva, the guests discussed the two countries’ cooperation in resuming the full-rate production of a newer variant of the An-124 Ruslan heavy airlifter and productionising a new-generation An-148 regional airliner. The Russian president also called for continued cooperation in developing and making the An-70 airlifter. The meeting of the Russian president and Ukrainian premier resulted in the signature on 21 August of the memorandum of understanding by the United Aircraft Corporation and Aviation of Ukraine state aircraft production concern, with the MoU providing for furthering the cooperation in the field of transport and enger aircraft-making. To prevent competition due to similar programmes pursued, the parties agreed to stick to common marketing and pricing policies and run t scientific and technical research under a common product strategy. The memorandum reaffirms the two countries’ readiness to have

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industry | in brief

Line of helicopter models to be optimised

Alexey Mikheyev

www.take-off.ru

Andrey Fomin

and Ansat (3.5 t), on the other. The leader of Helicopters of Russia named the Ansat a very promising aircraft, but before it hits the market, he believes, its certification should be completed first. A balanced marketing policy is being pursued on the Ka-226 as well. If all goes to plan, 5 to 10 Ka-226s are to be sold in 2007 and about 15 in 2008. Kamov’s and the Kazan Helicopters’ machines may find different applications, with the

Alexey Mikheyev

The Oboronprom defence industrial corporation and Helicopters of Russia t stock company (Oboronprom’s 100-per cent subsidiary) have come up with a concept of optimising the line of helicopters in production with the Russian aircraft industry. The news was voiced by Helicopters of Russia Director General Yuri Ivanov at a news conference during the MAKS 2007 international air show. According to Ivanov, the Mil Mi-34 and the Kazan Helicopters-developed Aktai are to be developed further in the light helicopter class. In June and July this year, the Mi-34 made its debut, flown by the crew of Mikhail Kazachkov and Yuri Kazachkov at the open championships in the UK, Italy and . Oboronprom and Helicopters of Russia acted as the principal partners of the Russian team who took prize-winning places in all three countries. The Russian team also flew the Mi-34 at Mil Design Bureau Cup held during MAKS 2007 on 24–25 August and dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the helicopter advent. In the class of single-engine helicopters with a takeoff weight of 2–3 t, Yuri Ivanov says, the feasibility of licence-producing a foreign machine (possibly, by the Ulan-Ude Aircraft Plant) is under consideration. The machine would fill the niche between the lightweight Aktai (1.5 t), on the one hand, and Ka-226

Ka-226 featuring the unique capability of landing on tiny helipads and the Ansat being just the thing for flying rather long distances. In addition to the Rolls-Royce-powered Ka-226 variant, another version, this time powered by a powerplant from Turbomeca, is to be built. Russo-French R&D in under way into the version

According to Yuri Ivanov, in the 4.5t takeoff-weight class, in which the Mi-54 used to be planned for development, a different machine will be developed with foreign participation to meet the FAR and JAR standards. The aircraft will be able to carry either Russian or foreign-made engines. The head of Helicopters of Russia also brought Kamov’s pro-

ponents unpleasant news as well. In his view, in the 6.5t class, “due to the lack of the full-fledged financing” of the promising Ka-60 and Ka-62 helicopters and “the lack of an engine to power them, it might be easier to buy a licence for a foreign machine’s licence-production in Russia”. As far as the Mil Mi-17 is concerned, the helicopter will certainly remain in demand for the forthcoming 10–15 years, Yuri Ivanov believes. “The machine is upgraded continually, using the principle of the so-called reverse upgrade,” he said. “For instance, the advanced power train developed for the Mi-28 and a number of sophisticated Mi-38 components have been adapted for use on the Mi-17 at the same time”. Promotion of the Kamov Ka-32, which goes well on the very competitive markets of North America, Europe and Japan, will continue as well. In addition, a t Russian-Indian programme will be pursued in the 10–11t helicopter class, Yuri Ivanov said. As far as heavy helicopters are concerned, production and sales of the Mi-26 will continue. Both Russian and foreign s need an upgraded Mi-26. The Russian Defence Ministry does. In addition, according to Ivanov, Oboronprom and Helicopters of Russia, which have teamed up with Eurocopter, are taking part in NATO’s work group for developing a future European heavylifter. Ivanov maintains that the Russian helicopter makers have both technologies and wealth of experience relevant to developing heavy rotorcraft.

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under development are concerned. At present, the Irbis-E is in its flight trials on board the Su-30MK2 No 503 flying testbed, with the first series of test mission having produced very good results in basic declared air-to-air and air-to-surface characteristics. Both the existing air-launched weapons (R-73E, RVV-AE, R-27ER1, R-27ET1, Kh-59MK, Kh-29T and Kh-31A/P) and unveiled full-scale mockups of a super-long-range two-stage air-to-air missile and the 3M-54AE two-stage long-range antiship missile were displayed on the Su-35’s hardpoints and laid out in front of it. The two two-stage missiles in question are both from the Novator design bureau in Yekaterinburg. The first Su-35 prototype has been followed by two more in KnAAPO’s jigs (the second and fourth prototypes). They are to the flight test programme in 2008. At the same time, several flying testbeds derived from various Su-27 versions are used in the trials to test the 117S engine, Irbis-E radar, a new infrared search-and-track

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Probably, the first flying example of the Generation 4++ Sukhoi Su-35 heavily upgraded fighter, which is to replace the current Su-30MK fighter family on the global market after 2009–10, was the most-high profile debutant of the MAKS 2007 air show. Sporting a new yellow-and-brown camouflage paintjob and No 901, the first Su-35 had been completed by KnAAPO by August 2007 and had not flown by the time the air shows kicked off. It was shown only as a static display for this reason. An An-124 Ruslan transport aircraft airlifted it to Gromov LII’s airfield in Zhukovsky on the eve of the MAKS 2007 show. After the show had been over, it carried on with the ground tests in the run-up to its flight trials. The maiden flight is slated for November this year. The aircraft has been fitted with flying examples of the Saturn 117S engine rated at 14,500 kgf. Prior to MAKS 2007, the first Su-35 had been equipped with the Tikhomirov-NIIP Irbis-E ive phased array radar (PAR) and, during the show, was displayed with its nose cone detached for a while. The full-scale mockup of the phased array and a scaled-down mockup of the whole Irbis-E radar were exhibited by Tikhomirov-NIIP as part of its pavilion exposition. The Irbis-E radar features, among other things, an electro-hydraulic actuator enabling the phased array to scan ±60 deg. in azimuth and ±120 deg. around its longitudinal axis. However, the principle advantage of the Su-35’s radar is its 350–400km acquisition range. This has been the world record as far as production active and ive fighter PARs as well as those now

Piotr Butowski

Su-35’s debut

KnAAPO

(IRST) system, the advanced KSU-35 integrated control system, etc. The Su-35 is expected to enter full-rate production and delivery already in 2009, with its production to continue until a Russian fifth-generation fighter hits the market. The Su-35’s production also has become part of the State Armament Programme for the Period until 2015, under which its deliveries to the Russian Air Force are planned.

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industry | in brief

Participating in the MAKS 2007 air show, the MiG Corp. placed emphasis on displaying the ad-hoc painted MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB carrierborne fighters under development on order from the Indian Navy and on the Gen. 4++ MiG-35 fighter demonstrator, known from the air show in Bangalore, and upgraded MiG-29SMT. A number of interesting innovations under the MiG-35 programme could be seen at the stand, in particular, the full-size Zhuk-AE active phased-array radar mockup, OLS-UEM IRST and a MiG-35 model featuring several design

Tikhomirov-NIIP unveils AESA developments

At the stand shared with the State Ryazan Instrument Plant in the United Aircraft Corporation’s combat aircraft pavilion, the Tikhomirov-NIIP instrument research institute unveiled at MAKS 2007 fragments of the prototype X- and L-band active electronically scanned arrays (AESA) in development to fit the radar system of the future PAK FA tactical fighter. AESAs being developed by Tikhomirov-NIIP are based on modifications compared with the up-to-date Russian technologies and electronic componentry, including flying demonstrator. The latest MiG-35 will have larger microwave multifunction integrated vertical tails, whose outline will be different to that of the well-known MiG-29 family’s fighters. In addition, its tail section’s shape will change as well due to introduction of a large central tail boom. The improvements stem from the necessity of housing extra fuel and from an increase in the takeoff weight. In addition, the MiG-35 had as many as 10 underwing weapons stations. It looks like the aircraft will kick off its tests in this very layout, with the tests slated for late 2008 or early 2009.

circuits. The microwave multifunction integrated circuits intended for the X-band AESA are wrapped around GaAs heterostructures. Coupled with innovative AESA systemic solutions, this allowed the emission level per antenna channel to be about 10W with the antenna efficiency exceeding 30 per cent. The L-band AESA is to be housed by the aircraft’s moving slats. Both AESAs implement electronic scanning within the 120deg. sector and extensive beam shaping to provide the radar with the effective lookup and lookdown capabilities.

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Details on MiG-35’s new exterior

Kamov’s new programmes is a top-to-bottom upgrade of the production Ka-32A11BC, including introduction of an advanced more streamlined and spacious fuselage with a cargo ramp at the stern and an all-new empennage. News about the Ka-32-10 programme came as far back as 2001, but the machine must have been at the design stage so far.

Alexey Mikheyev

In addition to its traditional family of characteristic coaxial utility and combat helicopters (Ka-226, Ka-32, Ka-50, Ka-52) exhibited as static displays and demonstrated in flight at the MAKS 2007 air show, the Kamov t stock company provided brief information on two of its latest programmes at the show. One, designated as Ka-32-10,

Alexey Mikheyev

Kamov’s second latest programme unveiled at MAKS 2007 looks far more revolutionary. It is about developing the Ka-92 high-speed helicopter powered by a rigid coaxial three-blade coaxial main rotor and a coaxial push-type propeller set in the tail section aft of the tail unit. Judging by a poster at Kamov’s stand, the Ka-92 is designed “for use as a trans-

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port means in inaccessible areas of the country”. There has been no detailed information offered yet, but the proof that this is not a dusted-off design of yester-years is the fact Oboronprom’s chief Denis Manturov presented a Ka-92 model to Russian President Vladimir Putin attending the helicopter makers’ stand at MAKS 2007.

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The second example of the advanced Kamov Ka-60 medium multirole helicopter entered the flight test programme on the Kamov company’s premises in Moscow’s Lyubertsy suburb on 21 September. The machine completed its first flight controlled by a test pilot crew of Alexander Smirnov (pilot in the right seat) and Alexander Papai (unlike the first prototype, the second machine is the Ka-60U trainer version with double controls). The maiden flight of the second Ka-60 (side No 602) had been awaited for quite a while. The aircraft was built as far back as 2003 and exhibited as a static display at the MAKS 2003 air show. Engine runs began in March 2005, but it took the prototype the long 2.5 years from the first engine run to the maiden flight, because the powerplant and power train were in need of debugging and additional ground tests. Following the early test hovers, the Ka-60 (No 602) was moved to Kamov’s new flight test base near the Chaklovsky airfield where it will undergo further trials. At the same time, the future of the Ka-60 remains hazy. Yuri Ivanov, Director General of the Helicopters of Russia t stock company (a 100-per cent subsidiary

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of Oboronprom), said during MAKS 2007 that the current Russian helicopter type and model optimisation concept does not provide for actual steps to be taken to productionise the Ka-60. “In the 6.5t field (i.e. the advanced Ka-60 and Ka-62), it would, possibly, be easier to obtain a licence for making a similar foreign machine in Russia due to the lack of the proper financing of these [Ka-60 and Ka-62] helicopters and the lack of the engine to power them”, Yuri Ivanov told at a news conference in Zhukovsky. As is known, the Ka-60 was developed to be powered by the RD-600V 1,300 hp (emergency rating – 1,550 hp) engine from the Rybinsk Engine Design Bureau (now NPO Saturn). The IAC’s Aircraft Registry type-certificated the engine on 30 December 2003, but the RD-600V has not entered production due to the lack of orders and proper funding. The same goes with the Ka-60’s power train: the VR-60A main and KhVR-600A reduction gearboxes were developed by the Voronezh-based OKBM Engine-Building Design Bureau but its testing dragged its feet due to the lack of money. By the way, the problems faced by the VR-60A reduction gearbox are considered to

be among the reasons behind the delays in the helicopter’s tests. A manufacturer of the Ka-60’s production model has not been selected yet either. The first prototype (side No 601) was made in 1997 by Kamov’s prototype division that later assembled the second prototype made by the MiG Corp.’s production and test outfit in Lukhovitsy. Then, the Ka-60 and Ka-62’s production was planned to run at the Ulan-Ude Aircraft Plant (UUAZ) that used to make Kamov’s Ka-15, Ka-18 and Ka-25 helicopters. They say the Ka-60 might enter production at another Kamov-related helicopter plant, Progress, in the town of Arsenyev in the Russian Far East, which now builds Ka-50s and Ka-52s. However, it looks like neither plant has taken any concrete steps to productionise the Ka-60 yet. Meanwhile, the Kamov company is hopeful for its machine to face a bright future, all the more so that no helicopters in the class are made in this country, and the niche of the 6.5t helicopter with the 2–2.75t lifting capacity remains vacant. Therefore, the company carries on with its work on the Ka-60, paying for it, essentially, out of its pocket.

Alexey Mikheyev

Alexey Mikheyev

Second Ka-60 has flown!

The first prototype helicopter, which entered the trials almost a decade ago (by the way, it completed its 10 December 1998 maiden flight, controlled by the very Alexander Smirnov who took off the second prototype from the ground as well), is having bugs ironed out of its empennage and avionics. Once this is done, it is to resume flying. Testing as many as two flying prototypes will allow the programme to step up its tempo, which, Kamov hopes, will attract launch customers. In such a case, one could expect a change of heart of the Russian helicopter industry’s leaders as to the programme.

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industry | in brief

Tactical Missiles Corp. unveils new weapons The Tactical Missiles Corp. unveiling as many as three advanced guided air-launched weapons at MAKS 2007 recently made a stir. The company displayed such a drastic innovation as the Kh-38ME small-size multirole medium-range missile designed to replace a wide range of similar air-launched guided weapons in the Russian and foreign air forces’ inven-

Another novelty was the Kh-58UShKE antiradiation missile. Unlike the known baseline model designated as Kh-58UShE and fitted with a wideband ive homing head, it has a redesigned pop-up wing enabling the weapon to be housed by weapons bays of future warplanes. According to Tactical Missiles Corp. Director General Boris

mised. The programme has won the government’s , and the government now has only to take care that the executive bodies, including the Finance Ministry, do their job, Boris Obnosov believes. There are three components of funding the development of sophisticated air-launched weapons – governmental, private-in-

tories (the Kh-25M and Kh-29 missiles in the first place). Thus, the missile will handle a wide spectrum of missions. Its characteristics have not been revealed yet, but in of dimensions, the missile is known to be between the family of Kh-25M modular missiles with a launch weight of about 300 kg and the heavier Kh-29T/L, which launch weight stands at 660–680 kg. Like the designs they are to oust, the new missiles are to be fitted with various guidance packages, including TV or active radar homers, homing submunitions packed by the cluster warhead, etc. A full-size mockup of the modified Kh-31AD high-speed antiship missile featuring an improved powerplant and a large fuel capacity was unveiled at the air show as well. The derivative has a longer range over the baseline Kh-31A.

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Kh-31AD

Kh-58UShKE

Obnosov speaking during MAKS 2007, the company devised a comprehensive air-launched weapon development programme in 2006. To date, timeframes for delivering weapons to fit a fifth-generation aircraft have been hashed out, financial sources have been determined and in-house cooperation has been opti-

vestor and in-house financing. According to Obnosov, the corporation’s governmental financing has been virtually unchanged, ing for mere 20 per cent, with the government to start providing the bulk of the funds to pay for advanced programmes no sooner than in 2011.

to launch the trials of several latest designs in the forthcoming months”, Boris Obnosov said at MAKS 2007. Thus, cutting-edge air-launched guided weapons may enter inventory after 2010–12. All of them are designed to fit future aircraft, particularly, the PAK FA, and the Su-35 and MiG-35 upgrades.

take-off november 2007

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Kh-38ME

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Yevgeny Yerokhin

Today, the corporation’s divisions develop virtually the whole spectrum of air-launched guided weapons, with the Vympel design bureau developing all types of air-to-air missiles, the parent company – Tactical Missiles – as well as Raduga and Vympel working on air-to-surface, antiship and antiradiation missiles and Region handling the development of smart bombs – all for use with the existing, upgraded and future combat platforms. “In spite of the current funding and managerial issues, the company plans

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MiG-29 and Su-27 families have been unable to use such long-range and heavy missiles weighing 1.4 t or more. Novator used to be a specialist in naval anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles. At the air show, the company made its debut in the field of aircraft weapons. The design bureau has been working in this field for a rather long time, with the efforts being based on proven solutions

Bureau and NPO Saturn. The engine furnishes the missile with the Mach 0.6–0.8 subsonic cruising speed. The 3M-54E version is a two-stage design with a supersonic warload stage powered by a solid-propellant booster accelerating it to Mach 2.35. The missiles have the normal aerodynamic configuration with the pop-up wing and cruciform tail unit. The solid-fuel sustainer is housed by the tail section of the missile’s

body and has a belly-mounted air intake. On hardpoints, the Club family’s missiles are inside the cruciform-empennage containers, from which they are ejected by an expulsion charge after the release from the carrier. It is such containers that were exhibited during MAKS 2007. Release can take place within the 500–11,000m altitude bracket. The cruising altitude above water is 20 m, with the 3M-14AE hugging terrain at an altitude of 50–150 m. On the terminal leg towards the target, the altitude over the sea drops to 5–10 m. The maximum range of the Club-family weapons is 300 km. the 3M-14AE’s launch

weight measures 1,400 kg, with the two-stage 3M-54AE weighing 1,950 kg. Depending on the variant of the missile, the warhead weighs from 200 kg to 450 kg. Another latest product from Novator, displayed together with the Su-35 aircraft at MAKS 2007, is a superlong-range two-stage air-to-air missile, which provisional designation ‘AAM’ was stencilled its mockups. Two full-size AAM mockups were on display by the Sukhoi design bureau, attached to the Su-35 or laid out in front of it. However, Novator’s stand lacked any information on the weapon, and its experts kept mum about it.

Andrey Fomin

implemented in sea-based antiship missiles and SAMs. The Club family’s missiles are derivatives of the 3M-14E and 3M-54E surface-to-surface cruise missiles widely displayed at various arms shows, differing only in the lack of the solid-fuel booster motor. Thus, the 3M-14AE has become a single-stage weapon. Its powerplant is made up by a turbofan engine developed and manufactured by the Omsk Engine-Making Design

Andrey Fomin

Among advanced air warfare gear exhibited as static displays during the MAKS 2007 air show, the Novator design bureau unveiled mockups of the Club family’s long-range air-launched cruise missiles – the air-to-ground 3M-14AE and antiship 3M-54AE. They are designed for use as part of the weapons suites of the MiG-35 and Su-35 warplanes, along with which they were displayed at MAKS 2007. Until recently, the aircraft of the

Andrey Fomin

Novator air-launched premiers

Back to origins

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stages of development, including the Krechet (Binom), Colibri and Terrier (Navodchik) remote-sensing UAVs. Displayed at MAKS 2007, the La-225 Komar mobile air recce UAV is designed to feed real-time video imagery to the ground control post. The vehicle is powered by a two-stroke petrol engine (there are several versions of the powerplant to fit it), can remain airborne for six hours and keep an eye on a perimeter up to 300 km (up to 500 km, if a relay capability is available). According to Lavochkin, the aircraft is at the flight test and experiment stage.

Yevgeny Yerokhin

The Lavochkin scientific production association, which designed several versions of jet-powered drones and unmanned recce aircraft of the La-17 series and then switched to spacecraft development, is coming back to aeroplane development. News came during MAKS 2007, when the company unveiled a mockup of its new UAV bearing the famous brand name of Lavochkin. The aircraft is dubbed La-225. Take-off’s correspondent was told at Lavochkin that work on advanced drones had been under way for several years now. There are several programmes in various

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industry | in brief

The Sokol design bureau situated in the city of Kazan is developing an advanced unmanned reconnaissance/attack aircraft system designated as Dan-BARUK. Its full-size mockup was unveiled at the MAKS 2007 air show in August. Take-off’s correspondent was informed by Sokol that the system of Dan-BARUK unmanned aerial vehicles is designed “to conduct aerial reconnaissance and attack individual ground targets”. The operational-tactical self-contained mobile system includes the UAV, mobile control post with the flight control room and a bank of antennas, ground-based maintenance equipment including the mobile launcher, transport vehicle and a mobile service station. The UAV has a combined programmed and radio-command control system. Reliable control of the UAV will be ensured by the highly secure data link. According to the developer, the system can reconnoitre the battlefield, seeking, acquiring and identifying ground targets and getting the fix on their location for their subsequent elimination. Targets can be attacked both with onboard weapons and by other assets provided target

Yevgeny Yerokhin

BARUK, younger brother of Dan

designation via the ground control post. The system is expected to have the round-the-clock all-weather capability. The UAV’s weapons are housed by two under-wing pods fitted with homing or shaped charge/fragmentation submunitions. The system is being designed as heavily commonised with the baseline Dan aerial target system in service with the Russian Defence Ministry. The same is true with the aircraft as well. Its fuselage is 4.6 m long, with its wing spanning 5.63 m. The takeoff weight is within 500 kg, and both weapon pods weigh

30 kg and surveillance/targeting gear weighs up to 90 kg. The system’s combat radius is 150 km and its altitude bracket between 50 m and 6,000 m. The piston engine provides the 150– 300-km/h speed for at least 10–15 hours. The UAV can take off from the mobile launcher, propelled by its booster motor. The UAV lands in a fixed-wing aircraft manner, using its four-strut landing gear, but it can descend by parachute if need be, e.g. if there is no suitable airstrip available. Belarus is said to be among the system’s component suppliers.

Particularly, a Belarus-made powerplant is to be used. The Dan-BARUK UAV system’s unveiling at MAKS 2007 in UAC’s t pavilion proves the developer is quite serious about the programme it is running. The Rosoboronexport state corporation promotes the Sokol design bureau’s products abroad. Sokol and Rosoboronexport have crafted technical and commercial proposals for potential customers. According to a Sokol spokesman, the programme is focused on export sales, moreover, there is already a concrete customer that has not been named as yet.

Squadron of new unmanned aircraft and size during MAKS 2007. These are full-size examples and mockups of the T24 and T10 light UAVs, larger T90, T92 Lotos, T92M Chibis and M830 Svist and, finally, ENIKS’s largest advanced UAVs – the M850 Astra and E22 Berta with launch weights of 130 kg and 150 kg, respectively. The latter two aircraft Yevgeny Yerokhin

The ENIKS close corporation – a Russian leader in developing various unmanned aerial vehicles – is running several development programmes on advanced UAVs for the Russian Defence Ministry and commercial s. The company unveiled an extensive palette of UAVs differing in layout, purpose

Yevgeny Yerokhin

E22 Berta

M850 Astra

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are aerial targets designed for range practice of air defence missile system crews, with the Astra being an air-launched UAV while the Berta is launched from the ground. The UAVs

land by parachute. Both targets are powered by ENIKS’s traditional powerplants – pulsejet engines; however, there are the piston-engined and turbojet Berta variants.

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contracts and deliveries | project

Piotr Butowski

MiG-29

Over 800 MiG-29 fighters have been exported since the aircraft entered production, with many of them still being in service with the air forces of almost 30 countries. Many of them were delivered from 1986 to 1995 and are now in the middle of their service life, which makes the s keen on having them upgraded. Therefore, along with deg and productionising new variants, such as the MiG-29K/KUB, MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-35, MiG Corp. has been pursuing several MiG-29 upgrade programmes to meet requirements of various customers. At the same time with introducing advanced avionics and weapons, the upgrade may include overhaul, conversion to on-condition maintenance and service life extension. Depending on tasks and the depth of the pockets of the customers, the upgrade may be either deep or ‘lite’. The former option results in the MiG-29SMT featuring the highest combat capabilities for earlier built aircraft of the type. Such fighters have already been supplied to countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The MiG-29SD and MiG-29SM offer less expensive upgrade packages, with their avionics not being subject to such drastic updating. Nonetheless, these versions acquire a number of advanced capabilities in using latest weapons systems. In addition to modernising operational MiG-29s, MiG Corp.’s work is in full swing on developing a heavily upgraded derivative of the Fulcrum, the MiG-35, that will hit the market after 2009–10. The MiG-35’s advanced technical solutions also are to be embodied in the MiG-29M/M2 intermediate derivative carrying less expensive avionics and weapons suites commonised with the MiG-29SMT.

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contracts and deliveries | project

CATCHES ITS SECOND WIND

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contracts and deliveries | project

Andrey Fomin

The first MiG-29SMT prototype (aircraft 917) built in late 1990s and offered for RusAF featured a wide array of precision guided weapons, new avionics, glass cockpit, mid-air refuelling system and a huge additional 2,000-litre dorsal fuel cell, at MAKS 2005 airshow

MiGs in the Middle East The MiG-29 debuted in the Middle East 20 years ago, in 1987, with a batch of such aircraft sold to Syria. According to western experts, about 150 aircraft of the type are in use in the region now. The major MiG-29 operators in the Middle East and North Africa are Algeria, Yemen, Iran and Syria. A number of MiG-29s in various versions have been delivered to Eritrea and Sudan over the past decade also. MiG Corp.’s experts estimate the near-future capacity of the Middle East and North African markets for aircraft in the MiG-29 class at 200–250 units. The number includes both deliveries of brand-new fighters and upgrade of those in use, with the growth of the number of MiG-29 operators in the area being a possibility. According to the Flight International magazine (21–27 Nov. 2006), the Syrian Air Force had operated 48 MiG-29 fighters, Iran 40, Algeria 33, Yemen 17, Sudan 12 and Eritrea five by early this year. The MiG-29s were exported to Syria and Iran by the Soviet Union between 1987 and 1990. The fleet of the Iranian MiG-29s was beefed up in the ‘90s with the aircraft that escaped in 1991 from Iraq that ordered its most up-to-date combat aircraft to the neighbouring country to save them from destruction at the hand of the United States and their allies in the course of Operation Desert Storm. Those MiG-29s remained in Iran, being incorporated into IRIAF later on. Algeria received its first fighters of the type in 1999-2000 from Ukraine and Belarus, with the two countries having delivered to Algeria

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before 2002 a total of 36 Soviet-built aircraft discarded from service by their own air forces. Yemen got its MiG-29s in the same fashion: four used fighters were exported by Moldova (all data of MiG-29 exports have been taken from the UN of Conventional Arms at http://disarmament2.un.org/un_.nsf). Eritrea took delivery of its first MiG-29s in 1998–99 when six to 10 aircraft of the type arrived from Russia. However, many of them were lost soon during the war against Ethiopia. Sudan was next to the club of MiG-29 s, having bought from MiG Corp. 12 MIG-29SE and MiG-29UB aircraft in 2003–04 under the contract signed in 2001. The willingness of the s in the region to have the combat capabilities of their MiG-29s enhanced (the former Soviet states sometimes delivered the fighters in a state that was not satisfactory enough) and expand their fleets of the fighters of the type has led to new contracts awarded to MiG corp. earlier in this decade. Under the contracts, the manufacturer upgrades the fighters to MiG-29SMT standard or replaces them with brand-new aircraft of the same type. Yemen became the launch customer for the MiG-29SMT in the region and in the world, having ordered upgrade of 20 fighters, including upgrade of four MiG-29UB two-seaters, in December 2002. At the first stage, Yemen got 14 baseline MiG-29s in the early 2000s, which soon afterwards were replaced with upgraded MiG-29SMTs. Delivery of updated twinseaters kicked off in 2004 and that of MiG-29SMT singleseaters in March 2005, having been completed by 2006.

The next country to field upgraded Fulcrums was Eritrea receiving two MiG-29SMTs in 2005. 2006 saw the kick-off of the deal, clinched earlier in the year, for 28 MiG-29SMT singleseaters and six upgraded MiG-29UB twinseaters to Algeria. The first twinseaters went to Algeria late last year, followed by early single-seat MiG-29SMTs this year. As was announced during the Le Bourget air show in June, early 2007 saw the signature of

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contracts and deliveries | project the first contract for MiG-29M/M2 fighters that are close enough to the MiG-29SMT in of avionics, weapons and combat capabilities, but are, actually, newly-built aircraft, with the airframe, powerplant and avionics fit being the same as those of the Generation 4++ MiG-35 fighter.

In of NATO’s East European Since the East European MiG-29 s Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania decided to retain their Fulcrum fleets in service despite ing NATO in 1999–2004, the fighters have to be adapted to NATO/ICAO standards. The standards in question are met by the upgraded version dubbed MiG-29SD. MiG Corp. and a number of foreign companies have been upgrading the Slovak Air Force’s MiG-29s to SD standard since 2005. Upgrading MiG-29s to MiG-29SD standard is aimed at adapting their avionics for compatibility with other NATO air forces and improving the cockpit management system to enhance combat effectiveness. Once upgraded, the fighters will be fitted with advanced US- and UK-made communications, navigation and IFF gear. Modifications to the cockpit

management system include the advanced MFI-54 push-button colour multifunction liquid-crystal display (MFD) and PUS-29 systems control from the Russian Avionics company. MiG Corp. is the MiG-29SD programme integrator operating in close cooperation with suppliers of latest gear to fit the fighters – Rockwell Collins and BAE Systems as well as the LOT aircraft repair plant in Trencin (Slovakia) that handles the upgrade of the Slovak MiG-29s. Similar modernisation is offered to other NATO’s East European operating MiG-29 fighters with specific improvements and advanced equipment may vary depending on the customer’s requirements.

Low-cost option Cash-strapped countries in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia needing inexpensive

multirole fighters are offered the MiG-29SM low-cost upgrade package. At minimum cost, the customer can have its fighters furnished with the improved avionics and weapons suites, the latter beefed up with sophisticated air-to-air missiles and precision-guided air-to-ground weapons. In addition, the aircraft can be fitted with the mid-air refuelling system, if the customer wishes so. Similar solutions have been applied to the MiG-29BM fighters in the Belarusian Air Force’s inventory since 2004. MiG-29SM improvements boil down to furnishing the N019E (N019ME) fire control radar with the ARLK additional radar channel and MVK-4 computer, modernising the infrared search-and-track (IRST) system by introducing an up-to-date data display system with the MFI-54 MFD and installing a control system to manage additional weapons. The flight navigation

Piotr Butowski

Andrey Fomin

MiG-29SMT (aircraft 918) became a prototype for upgraded fighters for Yemeni Air Force, their deliveries started in 2005. Bottom photo shows aircraft’s demo flight at Dubai airshow in November 2005

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contracts and deliveries | project

New Zhuk-ME slotted-array radar designed by Phazotron-NIIR corp. featuring increased to 120 km target detection range, wider scan area and four-target multiple-engagement capability

New avionics of Russian and optionally foreign origin

New glass cockpit with two huge multifunction colour LCDs, new HUD and HOTAS concept implemented

R-27R1 (ER1) medium-range semiactive radar-guided air-to-air missile

Optionally upgraded infra-red search-and-track system Option for additional 950-litre dorsal fuel cell

In-flight refuelling system GSh-301 built-in cannon of 30mm calibre

RVV-AE medium-range active radar-guided air-to-air missile

KAB-500Kr TV-guided ‘smart’ bomb

Kh-31P (A) anti-radiation (anti-ship) ive (active) radar-guided air-to-surface missile

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contracts and deliveries | project

MiG-29SMT upgraded fighter main features Drawing by Alexey Mikheyev

R-27T1 (ET1) medium-range IR-guided air-to-air missile

R-73E dogfight IR-guided air-to-air missile

Klimov RD-33 Series 3 turbofan engines with increased to 2,000 h service life being produced by Chernyshev Moscow-based Machine-building Plant

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Zhuk-ME slotted-array radar designed by Phazotron-NIIR corp., the core of the MiG-29SMT’s upgraded weapons control system

and communications suites have been beefed up through introducing a multifunction computer, a satnav receiver and an extra comms radio. The advanced MSP-418K podded electronic warfare system can be added as well. The MiG-29SM’s air-to-air weaponry is similar to that of the MiG-29SE, but in addition it can use such air-to-ground PGMs, as the Kh-29T(TE), Kh-31A and Kh-31P guided missiles as well as KAB-500Kr and KAB-500-OD guided bombs. Using a target designation pod or having the targets painted by external

laser designators, the aircraft can use the Kh-29L and Kh-25ML guided missiles and KAB-500L guided bombs.

Deep upgrade A deeper upgrade of the MiG-29 fighter, the MiG-29SMT, is offered to the Middle East, North African and Asian countries that are in cash and in need of top-notch multirole fighters. The MiG-29SMT features the sophisticated Zhuk-ME radar, a new cockpit management system, a number of latest avionics,

new weapons including air-to-ground PGMs, and an in-flight refuelling system. Subject to specific customer requirements, the fighter’s internal fuel capacity can be increased and individual foreign-made avionics can be fitted. For instance, the Yemen-ordered MiG-29SMTs are fitted with several French-made avionics systems and those intended for Algeria mount a 950-litre extra fuselage fuel cell aft of the cockpit. The MiG-29SMT’s open-architecture avionics suite is wrapped around the central computer system with multiplex data channels, which allows it to incorporate new avionics from Russian and foreign manufacturers, should the customer wish so. Compared with the N019E and N019ME radars, the slotted-array Zhuk-ME designed by Phazotron-NIIR corp. has wider scan area, an acquisition range twice as longer (120 km), a lower weight, a higher reliability and the four-aircraft multiple-engagement capability. The MiG-29SMT’s cockpit management system comprises two large MFI-10-6 MFDs and HOTAS capability. Its navigation suite includes an inertial/satellite navigation system and its communications suite has advanced radios. The aircraft can carry the MSP-418K EW system in a pod. At the customer’s request, the MiG-29SMT can be given an up-rated IRST and radios, navigation aids and IFF transponders of other types. The MiG-29SMT’s weapons suite is commonised with the

Anton Pavlov

Anton Pavlov

contracts and deliveries | project

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contracts and deliveries | project

Piotr Butowski

MiG-29SMT prototype (aircraft 777) in demo flight over Zhukovsky out of Moscow, August 2007

Left: MiG-29SMT (aircraft 919) featuring additional 950-litre dorsal fuel cell became a prototype for upgraded fighters for Algerian Air Force being delivered since 2006

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contracts and deliveries | project MiG-29SMT and upgraded MiG-29UB main data MiG-29SMT

MiG -29UB upgraded

Aircraft length, m

17.32

17.42

Wing span, m

11.36

11.36

Height, m

4.73

4,73

- normal

17,000

16,000

- max

22,000

21,000

Internal fuel, kg

4,200

3,380

Drop fuel tanks, l

1х1,500

1х1,500

2х1,150

2х1,150

4,500

4,500

- at sea level

1,500

1,500

- at high altitude

2,400

2,230

Max Mach number

2.25

2.1

Service ceiling, m

17,500

17,500

9

9

- without drop fuel tanks

1,800

1,400

- with one drop fuel tank

2,400

2,000

- with three drop fuel tanks

3,000

2,600

- with three drop fuel tanks and in-flight refueling

6,000

-

RD-33 Series 3

RD-33 Series 2 (3)

2x8,300

2x8,300

MiG-29SMT’s glass cockpit: the main sighting and navigation information is displayed on two huge multifunction colour LCDs and HUD with HOTAS concept is implemented

Take-off weight, kg:

Max combat load, kg

Max g load

Anton Pavlov

Max speed, km/h:

Ferry range, km:

Powerplant type Take-off thrust, kgf

Weapons Number of hardpoints

6

6

2xR-27ET1 (T1)

2xR-27ET1 (T1)

Air-to-air missiles - medium range

6xRVV-AE - close range

6xR-73E

6xR-73E

2xKh-29T (TE)

2xKh-29T (TE)

2xKh-29L, Kh-25ML*

2xKh-29L, Kh-25ML*

Air-to-surface missiles - general purpose

- anti-ship

2xKh-31A

-

- anti-radiation

2xKh-31P

2xKh-31P

Guided bombs

4xKAB-500Kr (OD)

4xKAB-500Kr (OD)

4xKAB-500L*

4xKAB-500L*

GSh-301

GSh-301

Internal cannon of 30mm caliber

* with usage of target designation pod or external target designation

MiG-29SM and Fulcrum’s latest versions – the MiG-29K/KUB and MiG-35 in of the existing production weapons. Important features of the MiG-29SMT are its extended service life and reduced operating cost. To maintain the relevant serviceability and combat readiness of the aircraft and ensure their flight safety, the fighters are now subject to on-condition maintenance. The assigned life has been extended to 4,000 flight hours and the service life to 40 years (production MiG-29s had 2,500 hours and 20 years respectively). MiG-29SMTs are powered by RD-33 Series 3 engines, which assigned life has been extended to 2,000 hours. The RD 33 Series 3 is in production with the MMP Chernyshev Moscow-based Machine-building Plant. On-condition operation includes operational maintenance (preflight and between-flights servicing totalling within 25 min., as well as post-flight action up to 45 min.) and periodic maintenance, including dedicated inspections and tests,

periodic maintenance every 200 flight hours logged or 24 months of operation, technical assessment and reconditioning every 1,000 flight hours logged (for comparison: during planned-maintenance operation of earlier-built fighters of the MiG-29 family, periodic maintenance was run every 100 flight hours or 12 months, scheduled maintenance every 200 fight hours (24 months) and overhaul every 800 and 1,500 flight hours, or 9 and 17 years respectively). MiG-29SMT fighters can result from both upgrading the existing MiG-29s (MiG-29SEs) and making new aircraft. MiG-29SMT deliveries to the launch customers Yemen and Eritrea kicked off in 2005 and to Algeria in late 2006. The two-seat combat trainer variant of the MiG-29SMT was designated as ‘upgraded MiG-29UB’, or MiG-29UBT. It has the same avionics suite and cockpit management system, save for the radar. Its weapons fit matches that of the MiG-29SMT, except for the radar homing missile capability (an

Piotr Butowski

MiG-29SMT prototype (aircraft 777) with different PGMs being displayed at Dubai airshow in November 2005

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contracts and deliveries | project emulation mode has been provided for trainees to practice firing radar homing missiles. Upgraded MiG-29UB (MiG-29UBT) combat trainers will result from conversion of the existing MiG-29UBs and from construction of new aircraft in this version by the Sokol aircraft plant in Nizhny Novgorod. Foreign customers stated taking delivery of modernised two-seaters in 2004 with the arrival of such aircraft to Yemen, and Algeria followed suit in 2006. The advanced MiG-29M single-seat and MiG-29M2 two-seat derivatives now under development by MiG Corp. are to be similar enough with the MiG-29SMT in of the avionics and weapons suites and, hence, combat capabilities. Both MiG-29M

and MiG-29M2 are commonised heavily, sporting virtually identical fuselage nose sections, cockpit canopies and integrated mid-air refuelling systems. The MiG-29M and MiG-29M2 aircraft differ only an extra fuel tank fitted to the singleseater instead of the rear cockpit. A similar solution has been applied to the MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB carrierborne fighters now in production for the Indian Navy and will be embodied in the future MiG-35 single-seat and MiG-35D two-seat fighters. As a matter of fact, the MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-35(D) are to be commonised considerably in of design, with the fighters to differ only in their avionics and weapons fits. This will allow a MiG-29M/M2 cost reduction, making the aircraft more affordable to

certain customers. In addition, the avionics suite proven on the MiG-29SMT will allow a considerable reduction in the MiG-29M/ M2’s development time from snagging a contract to delivering first production fighters. At the current Dubai air show, MiG Corp. is displaying the MiG-29M-OVT experimental supermanoeuvrable fighter prototype boasting a modified control system and all-aspect swivelling-nozzle engines. The aircraft has been used to test the technology ensuring supermanoeuvrability in air battle and in on-route flight. The technology can be introduced into advanced MiG versions, particularly, the MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-35, if the customers wish so.

MiG-29M-OVT debuts in skies of Dubai The main flying exhibit, demonstrated by Russia at the current air show in Dubai, is the MiG-29M-OVT supermanoeuvrable experimental fighter. With MiG Corp.’s test pilots Pavel Vlasov and Mikhail Belyayev at the controls, the MiG-29M-OVT has impressed the public during the air shows in Berlin, London, Paris and Bangalore, India. Now the star of the air shows is making its debut in the skies of Dubai. It would not be an overstatement to say that the latest MiG lacks rivals among other advanced fighters owing to its unique characteristics. However, the aircraft has been developed for other purposes than showing off at air festivals. Should customers wish so, its supermanoeuvrability technology based on all-aspect thrust vector control can be fitted to the latest MiG-29 versions being proactively promoted on the global market, including in the Middle East.

Drawing by Andrey Zhirnov

MiG-29M-OVT main data Aircraft length, m ...............................................................17.37 Wing span, m.....................................................................11.36 Height, m .............................................................................4.73 Normal take-off weight, kg ...............................................16,100 Internal fuel, kg ..................................................................4,400 Max speed, km/h: - at sea level ......................................................................1,500 - at high altitude .................................................................2,300 Max Mach number .................................................................2.2 Service ceiling, m ............................................................17,500 Max g load ................................................................................9 Ferry range with three drop fuel tanks, km .........................3,000 Powerplant type ........................................................RD-33 OVT Take-off thrust, kgf .........................................................2x8,300

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Irkut makes first Su-30MKA jets for Algeria The Irkut corporation will have delivered the first six Sukhoi Su-30MKA multirole fighters to Algeria before year-end, Irkut President Oleg Demchenko said at MAKS 2007. The deliveries will be in compliance with the contract landed by Rosoboronexport last year. Under the deal, the Irkutsk aircraft plant will make 28 Su-30MKAs and deliver them to the Algerian Air Force in 2007–09. Sukhoi derived the fighter from the Su-30MKI and Su-30MKM exported

to India and Malaysia respectively, from which the derivative differs only in certain avionics. The high degree of commonality with the production Su-30MKI/MKM enabled the Su-30MKA developer to skip making flying prototypes, launching full-rate production instead. Following factory tests, new-build warplanes will be shipped to the customer at once. According to Oleg Demchenko, the first two Su-30MKAs flight-tested

by Irkut’s test pilots were ferried this summer to the Sukhoi design bureau for flight trials. They have been flown at the Defence Ministry’s Flight Test Centre (GLITs) in Akhtubinsk. Three more aircraft were built in September. They are designed for converting the first team of Algerian Air Force pilots who are having ground school at Sukhoi’s training centre in Zhukovsky (Moscow Region), with the flight training phase to take place there as well. To this end, three Su-30MKAs were ferried from Irkutsk to Gromov LII’s airfield in Zhukovsky. “Following the flight trials and training the Algerian crews, the aircraft will go to Algeria,” Demchenko is quoted as saying by the Interfax-AVN news

agency. The Irkut president also said the plant in December would assemble one more production Su-30MKA that would be shipped to the customer at once. Under the contract, the Russian company will have delivered the first Su-30MKA six-ship tranche to Algeria by early next year. The remaining 22 aircraft will be delivered during 2008–09, after which a new deal might be clinched, Irkut’s president its. The current contract provides for an option for 28 Su-30MKAs more. “The deal under the option may be finalised based on the result of operating the aircraft to be delivered under the first contract”, Oleg Demchenko said at MAKS 2007.

Venezuelan Su-30 deliveries on schedule The contract on delivering 24 Sukhoi Su-30MK2 multirole fighters to Venezuela are right on schedule, Sukhoi Director General Mikhail Pogosyan said late in September. “We have shipped as many as eight aircraft to Venezuela this year and will have delivered four more by the end of the year”, he said, “The Sukhoi company has always done its utmost to meet its contractual obligations”. The deal for 24 Su-30MK2 fighters was clinched with Venezuela in July 2006. The first four aircraft arrived in Venezuela as far back as late last year. Su-30MK2s are made at KnAAPO plant in

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Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Then An-124 Ruslan heavylifters bring them to the customer two fighters per sortie. Once in Venezuela, they are assembled and check-flown by Russian pilots and then accepted by the Venezuelan Air Force. The service will have had as many as 16 Sukhoi jets by late this year, with the remaining eight to be delivered by KnAAPO next year. This done, Rosoboronexport expects to snag a new Venezuelan contract for 24 fighters more. If this goes to plan, Hugo Chavez might be offered more sophisticated Su-35s that should be ready for delivery in 2009–10. At present, Venezuela is regarded as

a most probable launch customer for the Su-35. Rosoboronexport Director General Sergey Chemezov

confirmed this, talking to the media in Komsomolsk-on-Amur late in September.

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Alexey Mikheyev

MMRCA tender kicks off at last

The Indian government issued on 28 August the request for proposals under the MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) programme stipulating for the Indian Air Force (IAF) to acquire 126 medium multirole fighters. Thus, a largest combat aircraft tender in history (estimated to be worth more than $10 billion) kicked off officially. Until that date, only requests for information had been sent to potential contenders. Based on this preliminary stage’s results, a group of principal aspirants for the multibillion-dollar deal has emerged. Six companies from the United States, Western Europe and Russia are will-

ing to take part in the Indian tender – Lockheed Martin and Boeing with their F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-18E/F Super Hornet respectively, Dassault with its Rafale, SAAB and BAE Systems with their JAS39 Gripen, Eurofighter with the EF2000 Typhoon and Russia’s MiG Corp. with its MiG-35. The proposals should be submitted within six months, i.e. by late February 2008. The first stage of the tender – the three-month evaluation of the six contenders’ demonstrators – is to begin already next June. Then, IAF’s experts will go to the fighters’ countries of origin to evaluate the capabilities of

their weapons suites. A short list of contenders is to be approved early in 2009, with a final decision to be taken based on the short list in 2012–14 following the final evaluation of the remaining contenders (that stage will mostly be focused on the commercial side of the deal, particularly, offset programmes offered by the seller, which at the Indian government’s request should total 50 per cent of the contract’s value). With a decision taken, a contract is to be awarded to a winner that will deliver 18 fighters to IAF, with the remaining 108 to be licence-produced by Indian corporation HAL.

Indonesia to get more Sukhoi fighters During the MAKS 2007 air show, an important event was the signature on its very first day, 21 August, of the protocol putting in

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force the contract, under which the Indonesian Air Force will accept six more Sukhoi fighters – three upgraded Su-27SKM sin-

gleseaters and three Su-30MK2 twin-seaters worth a total of $335 million during 2008–10. The aircraft will be an addition to the two Su-27SKs and two Su-30MKs bought by Indonesia in 2003. News about the preparations for g the contract came a year ago, when the two countries forged an agreement on a Russian loan to finance Indonesia’s acquisition of the Russian fighters. The first several planes of the new tranche are to be delivered late in 2008.

According to expert opinion, the Generation 4++ MiG-35 multirole being developed and offered by the MiG Corp. will be among the main contenders in this race. The company had completed a MiG-35 technology demonstrator based on the MiG-29M2 No 154 by early 2007. The demonstrator was displayed at the Aero India 2007 air show in Bangalore in February. In all probability, the aircraft will be used in the first phase of the competitive trials in India next summer. MiG Corp. plans to launch testing prototype (preproduction) MiG-35s in the final configuration, intended for IAF, in late 2008 or early 2009. Soon after MAKS 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid an official visit to Indonesia, during which an intergovernmental agreement was signed on Russia providing a $1 billion state credit to Indonesia to finance its procurement of advanced Russian arms. The latter may include about 10 Mil Mi-17 helicopters, five more Mi-35 attack helicopters and an additional tranche of Sukhoi fighters – Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said the country would continue to buy Sukhoi fighters to bring their number up to 18.

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Ilyushin Finance Co. to deliver planes to Cuba and Iran MAKS 2007. Levitin explained that both countries have “aircraft deficit that we should remedy by forming t routes”. In this connection, the transport minister tasked the Federal Air Transport Service to look into the issue in cooperation with domestic carriers. Iranian Transport Minister Mohammad Rahmati said, “Russian-made aircraft have flown in the Iranian skies for many years, and we continue our cooperation”. The second agreement was made by Ilyushin Finance Co. and Cuban company Aviaimport S.A. It is a memorandum on delivering two Tupolev Tu-204 aircraft and three Antonov An-148 regional airliners to

Cubana Aviacion. Deliveries to the Cuban carrier will take three years from 2008 to 2011. The value of the deal exceeds $150 million. To date, Ilyushin Finance Co. have provided Cuba with three Ilyushin Il-96-300s

and two Tupolev Tu-204s (aTu-204CE freighter and a Tu-204-100E enger airliner, which participated in the airshow and was accepted by Cubana Aviacion right at MAKS 2007).

airworthiness standard, as FAR-29 in effect in that country (hence the BC letters in the chopper’s designation to indicate British Columbia, a province of Canada) has been in demand in several European countries of late. The first such machines were delivered to Spain in 2004, with one more shipped to the Heliswiss company in Switzerland. Spain’s HeliSurEste then received two Ka-32A11BCs in 2005 and five more last year, having become the major operator of the helicopters of the version (nine machines that became 11 this year). The growing Ka-32A11BC’s popular-

ity in Europe is contributed to by the work underway to have the aircraft certificated under the EASA air rules, with the certification expected to wrap up this year. By the way South Korea remains a traditional market for the Ka-32, with the number of the machines of the type in use in that country has long exceeded 50. Over the past three years, South Korea took delivery of two Ka-32Ts for its forest protection istration in 2004 and 2005 and three Ka-32A04 for the ROK Air Force in 2004 and another four in 2005. Two more Ka-32As were ordered by South Korea and built last year. The export of Ka-32s has been growing steadily. While it totalled seven aircraft in 2006, this year’s plans provide for delivery of at least nine helicopters, with new Ka-32A11BC s – Portugal and Japan – appearing specifically in 2007. The Ka-32 has proven itself abroad in logging and fire-fighting operations as a dependable aircraft easy to use and maintain. Designed in Kamov’s trademark coaxial rotor fashion, the helicopter features high manoeuvrability and hover stability, which is especially important, e.g. in erecting work or SAR operations in mountainous terrain or among high-rise buildings.

Alexey Mikheyev

A ceremony of g the contracts for delivery of advanced Russian aircraft to Cuba and Iran was held on 22 August during the MAKS 2007 air show. The contract for five Tupolev Tu-204-100s worth over $200 million in total was signed by Russian leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co. and Iranian air carrier Iran AirTour. The first delivery is to be taken in 2009. In the wake of the signature of the contract, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said that Russia and Iran intended to use their transit capabilities and air route network, noting that the decision had been taken during the bilateral talks between Iran’s and Russia’s transport leaders at

Ka-32 exports on the rise

Alexey Mikheyev

As Take-off learnt from Oboronprom company, all six new Kamov Ka-32A11BC helicopters have been delivered to Portugal by late October. The delivery took place under the $50 million contract signed in May 2006 in the wake of a tender held by the Interior istration Ministry of Portugal. A group of Kamov experts is now in Portugal, accepting the aircraft together with Interior istration Ministry specialists. Acceptance includes test flights and training of air and ground crews. The machines delivered were made by the Kumertau Aircraft Production Company

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(KumAPP), fitted with additional advanced flight navigation equipment and can handle fire-fighting, search, rescue and evacuation missions in addition to the tasks helicopters of the type fulfil. Earlier this year, another two Ka-32A11BC helicopters have been built for delivery to Spain, one more Ka-32A to South Korea and the first Ka-32A11BC to Japan. In all, 18 aircraft in the Ka-32A11BC version have been made and delivered to 10 countries. The Ka-32A11BC variant, which was derived in its day on order from Canada and meeting such stringent

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military aviation | in brief

In Lipetsk, the Su-34 No 02 flew its first mission with CCTC chief Maj. Gen. Alexander Kharchevsky and Chkalov GLITs instructor-pilot Col. Vyacheslav Petrusha at the controls. They were followed by two more CCTC crews of pilots Yuri Sukhkov and Yuri Gritsayenko with navigators Alexander Mayorov and Nikolay Kabantsov. At the first stage, the pilots practiced takeoff, basic handling and landing procedures. According to CCTC commander’s assistant Lt.-Col. Vladimir Kokhlenko, speaking with a Take-Off correspondent, future scheduled flights will be focused on “certifying the centre’s pilots and navigators for the subsequent beginning of a planned study into the plane in line with the tasks assigned”. The first week after the Su-34’s arrival saw CCTC chief Maj.-Gen. Kharchevsky, his deputy for research Col. Sushkov and chief navigator Col. Nikolay Kabantsov qualified for solo flights on the Su-34. “It is an awesome aircraft, its engine power is similar to that of a bomber and its handling is like that of a fighter”, Kharchevsky said, having completed several flights. Once the centre has completed its familiarisation with the new aircraft, it will recommend the Su-34’s operating procedures and tactics. In the near future, CCTC will handle

on-site ground-school and flight conversion of flying and ground crews in combat units. To this end, an up-to-date Su-34 simulator will be set up. It maximises the simulation of real-life flight and combat procedures as realistically as possible. However, transition to en-mass conversion of combat pilots will begin once Su-34 start fielding with RusAF combat units in sufficient numbers. To date, NAPO has delivered only two production aircraft, with six Su-34 prototypes and LRIP aircraft more undergoing the t official trials in Akhtubinsk and Zhukovsky. If all goes to plan, CCTC could be furnished with several aircraft more once they have completed their trials in Chkalov GLITs. The Su-34 entered full-rate production in 2006 under a three-year

contract. Alas, one should hardly expect that the manufacture and delivery of six such aircraft before year-end would not slip behind schedule. Meanwhile, the plan provided for making up to 10 aircraft a year since 2008. According to first Vice-Premier Sergey Ivanov speaking in public on his visit to NAPO last year, 24 production Su-34s are to be built to form an air regiment the three-year contract. As many as 58 aircraft were to be delivered by 2015. In all, “RusAF needs about 200 aircraft of the type”, says Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi’s Director General, but the company plans “to make a total of 300–400 Su-34 aircraft”, considering the prospects the fighter-bomber’s export variant, the Su-32, is facing on the global market.

A.Gordeyev

The first Sukhoi Su-34 multirole fighter-bomber has been accepted by the Russian Air Force’s (RusAF) Combat and Conversion Training Centre (CCTC) in Lipetsk recently. Another step towards the aircraft’s fielding with the service was taken on 12 September 2007 when Lipetsk CCTC crews flew the Su-34 on its first training missions. The Su-34’s delivery to CCTC was planned to take place as far back as late last year, as was stated officially during the first production Su-34’s rollout ceremony in Novosibirsk in July 2006. However, NAPO’s assembly and debugging work on the first two planes followed its own track, with the first aircraft completing its maiden flight on 12 October 2006. On 15 December, both production Su-34s No 01 and 02 were delivered to the Air Force while remaining at NAPO, in fact. Upon completion of the factory trials, the Su-34 No 01 was ferried to the Russia’s Defence Ministry’s Chkalov Flight Test Centre (GLITs) in Akhtubinsk for military test pilots to try it. The second production fighter-bomber, the Su-34 No 02, had been ready to ferry this summer, which it did on 3 August, hopping to CCTC in Lipetsk. CCTC flight and ground crews spent a month on familiarising themselves with the aircraft and then started scheduled training flights on 12 September.

A.Gordeyev

Su-34 fielded with Air Force

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military aviation | in brief

Growing number of upgraded Su-27SMs On 15 August 2007, the Russian Defence Ministry’s Web site (www.mil.ru) reported that the fighter air regiment stationed at Tsentralnaya Uglovaya AFB in the Primorsky Territory, Russia’s Far East, was about to convert to the upgraded Su-27SM fighters. This must be the 22nd Guards Fighter Air Regiment, 11th Air Force and Air Defence Army, which, thus, will be the second RusAF regiment to switch to the Su-27SM. As is known, the first five combat Su-27SM fighters were delivered to the Lipetsk-based Combat and Conversion Training Centre (CCTC) following their upgrade by KnAAPO

in December 2003. CCTC subjected them to operational evaluation, with the opeval’s results serving the base for Su-27SM operating and maintenance manuals devised for combat unit personnel. Then, under a three-year deal between the Defence Ministry and KnAAPO, 24 Su-27SM aircraft more were delivered between December 2004 and July 2006 to the 23rd Fighter Air Regiment at Dzyomgi AFB in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Even before the first contract was fulfilled, KnAAPO had launched overhaul and reconditioning of the airframes of another first six aircraft awaiting the the new

standard. A group of Tsentralnaya Uglovaya pilots went on a temporary duty to CCTC in Lipetsk for theoretical and flight conversion training. “Three upgraded Su-27SM fighters’ acceptance ceremony was held by a Guards fighter air regiment in the Primorsky Territory,” the Defence Ministry’s Web site at www.mil.ru reported on 3 October. “At present, ground crews are familiarising themselves with the upgrades, while flying crews led by Maj.-Gen. Alexander Kharchevsky are completing the conversion training course at CCTC in Lipetsk. In the near future, the regiment in the Primorsky Territory are to

accept of two more aircraft, with the modernised warplanes to be ferried to their air base in the vicinity of Vladivostok.” The Defence Ministry’s official reports on the Su-27SM fighter’s forthcoming arrival to the 22nd Regiment indicates certain progress made under the combat units’ aircraft upgrade programme. Another case in point is the statement by Sukhoi’s Director General Mikhail Pogosyan who spoke at MAKS 2007 on 22 August about the delivery of “more than 20 upgraded aircraft” to RusAF, planned for this year (he, probably, meant both the Su-27SMs and Su-25SMs).

As Oleg Demchenko said during the air show in Paris in June, the State Armament Programme for the Period until 2015 stipulated the number of aircraft, with additional orders being mulled over. The wings of the Yak-130s earmarked for RusAF will be made in Irkutsk and airframes in Nizhny Novgorod, with the Nizhny Novgorod-based Sokol plant to handle the combat trainers’ final assembly as well. In all, the Irkut Corp. has plans for over 150 Yak-130s to be delivered in the coming years in cooperation with Sokol. According to Oleg Demchenko, this year, the aircraft plant in Irkutsk has launched work under the first foreign contract for

aircraft of the type, under which 16 Yak-130s are to be exported to Algeria. The first six aircraft are to be delivered in 2008, with the remaining 10 to follow suit in 2009. Concurrently, talks are underway with other potential foreign buyers. Oleg Demchenko says his company has 82 orders for the Yak-130. “We are facing the future with confidence,” Irkut’s president said, “Air forces around the world are to start renovating their trainer aircraft fleets in 2012. Only Russia, Italy and South Korea can now offer such advanced trainers. We are leading other countries by 1.5–2 years in this respect and, hence, expect to get a large slice of the market.”

Col.-Gen. Alexander Zelin, commander-in-chief, Russian Air Force, visited the Yakovlev design bureau on 5 September and completed an inspection flight on the advanced Yak-130 combat trainer at the Gromov LII Flight Research Institute. The service chief’s visit to Yakovlev was aimed at assessing whether drafting a preliminary report on the Yak-130’s official tests was on schedule, with the report to be released in November this year. Having flown the Yak-130, Col.-Gen. Zelin praised the aircraft, emphasising its flight performance, “The aircraft is easy to control. It is a manoeuvrable plane featuring a good thrust-to-weight ratio and an ergonomic cockpit and being tolerant to many errors in handling”. According to Alexander Zelin, a combat trainer in this class is needed by his service very much. He stressed that the combat trainer both can and should be used to train rookie to fly virtually all up-to-date fighters. Oleg Demchenko, president of the Irkut Corp. and Director General of the Yakovlev design bureau, said that completing the Yak-130’s official trials was high on the company’s agenda. “In this November, we are to receive the customer’s pre-

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Alexey Mikheyev

RusAF Chief tries Yak-130 out

liminary report on the Yak-130. The official tests are to be completed in late 2008. The aircraft is being productionised at the same time,” Demchenko said. Col.-Gen. Zelin said the Air Force would launch procurement of production Yak-130s in 2008, with the first four aircraft to be delivered to the Combat and Conversion Training Centre (CCTC) in Lipetsk in later 2008 for familiarisation and issuance of recommendations to combat units on its operation. This done, the early Yak-130s are slated for fielding with the training centre in Borisoglebsk, Alexander Zelin says. In all, RusAF plans to field at least 60 Yak-130s by 2015.

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Andrey Fomin

military aviation | project

Andrey FOMIN The Skat low-observable jet-powered combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UCAV) under development by MiG Corp. became the most interesting and unexpected novelty of the MAKS 2007 air show. Unveiling the Skat’s full-scale mockup to the media in a MiG Corp. hangar at LII’s airfield in Zhukovsky on the third day of the show made quite a stir, because no details on MiG Corp.’s UCAV development had been available and the Skat’s demonstration at MAKS 2007, albeit planned by the developer, had not been d at all. Permission to unveil the Skat UCAV was given by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 21 August. As a result, a full-size Skat mockup was displayed in a hangar of MiG Corp. at Gromov LII’s airfield, rather than at the display ground, and few media people were invited, among which this author was lucky to be.

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SKAT World experience Mind you, there have been no unmanned aerial vehicles in this class in Russia until now. Development of heavy (i.e. weighing over a tonne) jet-powered reusable UAVs (it is reusability that distinguishes UAVs from cruise missiles) has been handled in this country by the Tupolev design bureau since the late 1960s. Tupolev has developed the VR-2 Strizh subsonic theatre-wide recce UAV (‘141’, or Tu-141, with a takeoff weight of 5.4 t) and VR-3 Reis subsonic tactical recce UAV (‘143’, or Tu-143 with a takeoff weight of 1.4 t). Both were in full-scale production and in service with the Soviet Army. In addition, there was production and operation of the La-17R subsonic tactical recce UAV with a takeoff weight of about 3 t, which was derived from the La-17 target drone by S.A. Lavochkin’s design bureau. Application of the above UAVs was limited to

aerial reconnaissance, and the way they took off and landed was unlike that of ordinary planes – they would be launched from special launchers by means of solid-propellant boosters and would land by parachute. The soviet jet-powered UAVs were not fit for fighting despite a number of attempts to design combat-capable vehicles. At the same time, the lessons learnt from the armed conflicts of the ‘80s and ‘90s, evolution of air defence and electronic warfare (EW) assets and growing costs of training flying crews had by the early new millennium raised the issue of a new class of heavy jetpowered UAVs capable of full-fledged combat operations solo and as part of a package, including such missions as taking out surface threats with precision-guided munitions (PGM), while having the performance as well as avionics similar to those on up-to-date manned tactical aircraft. www.take-off.ru

military aviation | project identify and attack targets with internallycarried PGMs; and operating both solo and as part of a package, including in conjunction with manned aircraft. The final configuration of the US drone demonstrators has featured a maximum takeoff weight of 16.6 t (X-45C) and even 19 t (X-47B), which puts them in the same dimensional niche occupied by F-16size frontline fighters. The X-45 and X47 experimental UCAVs were competitive designs under the J-UCAV programme providing for a combat UAV common for the US Air Force and Navy. However, the United States ditched the idea of a t UCAV last year, and the programme – now dubbed UCAS-D – continues in the interest of the US Navy only. Although a more sobering look has been taken at UCAVs and the United States no longer regards them as a worthy replacement of manned combat aircraft, rather a complement especially effective in difficult tactical situations of high-intensity conflicts, their development will, no doubt, continue for both the USN and USAF. Besides the United States, several European countries have been developing combat UAVs recently. Experimental designs entered trials in (Petit Duc, 2000), the UK (Raven, 2003), Italy (Sky-X, 2005), Sweden (FILUR, 2005), and Spain (Barracuda,

UNMANNED FUTURE OF COMBAT AIRCRAFT?

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Andrey Fomin

The United States followed by Western Europe launched proactive research into the matter on the verge of the new century. The United States even hurried to proclaim combat UAVs the ‘sixth generation’ of warplanes, which would succeed the current manned multirole fighters, including the fifth-generation F-22 and F-35, ousting them almost completely in due time. In 1998–2000, the leading US aircraft makers, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, launched deg experimental technology demonstrators of such UCAVs, dubbed X-45 and X-47, starting their flight evaluation in 2002–03. The basic components of those UCAVs’ concept include flight performance similar to that of advanced combat aircraft; reusability and basing at frontline aircraft airfields; high survivability achieved through low observability, special design solutions and defence aids suites; ability to independently take-off november 2007

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Sergey Kuznetsov

2006). The French programme has gradually evolved into a pan-European one dubbed nEUROn. Sweden, Italy and Spain, which decided to pool their UAV expertise for common good, have ed the programme along with Greece and Switzerland. The UK follows its own way so far, pursuing its Taranis programme stemming from the Raven experimental UAV programme. Both the nEUROn and Taranis are based on the concepts similar to that implemented in the X-45 and X-47, but their takeoff weight is estimated at 6–8 t so far. It has come to public knowledge recently that, following last year’s loss of a prototype, has decided to terminate the Barracuda UCAV programme unveiled at the Berlin air show in May 2006 and is pondering ing a European future combat drone programme (most probably, the nEUROn programme).

Sergey Kuznetsov

Sergey Kuznetsov

military aviation | project

What about Russia? Tupolev was among Russian pioneers of combat UAVs, having pursued a programme on a new-generation UAV, designated as ‘300’, or Tu-300 Korshun, since the ‘80s. The programme was based on the concept of Tupolev’s earlier Reis and Strizh recce UAVs, including their takeoff and landing manner, and, with its 3–3.5tonne takeoff weight, was to occupy the niche between them in of dimensions. The aircraft was to be used as part of the StroyF tactical UAV system in several versions, including the strike one – the payload could be carried both externally under the belly and internally. Six prototypes had been built and subjected to testing by the mid-’90s. During the ‘90s, the Tu-300 was displayed at MAKS shows several times. Then, the Korshun was forgotten, but the media reported in July this year that Tupolev was intent on resuming

On the home front

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military aviation | project

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Tupolev Tu-300 UAV prototype at MAKS airshow in 1990s

Yevgeny Yerokhin

the programme, enhancing the UAV’s performance and fitting it with sophisticated gear. However, if the programme goes ahead, it looks like it will follow the direction traditional to Tupolev’s Reis and Strizh air recce UAVs, because the Tu-300 is far off the current international UCAV mainstream as far as its concept, including takeoff by launcher and landing by parachute, is concerned. The Yakovlev design bureau’s Proryv (Breakthrough) programme is much more on a par with the spirit of the age. Having a wealth of experience in small UAVs (e.g. several types of Pchela (Bee) drones have been tested, combat proven, produced and operated by the Russian military), Yakovlev went public with its plans of developing a 10t combat UAV several years ago. The ProryvU UCAV was to be developed as part of a commonised UAV family also comprising the Proryv-R recce UAV and Proryv-RLD airborne early warning UAV. To slash the cost and time of development, systems proven on the Yak-130 combat trainer were to be used, first and foremost, the engine, remote control system, aircraft systems, special airborne equipment, etc. According to the picture at Yakovlev’s Web site, the commonality between the Proryv UAV and Yak-130 may be 40 per cent. Yakovlev’s Chief Designer Yuri Yankevich offered detailed enough information and diagrams of the Proryvfamily drones in a special issue of the Polyot scientific and technical magazine timed to the 100th anniversary of A.S. Yakovlev in March 2006. The strike variant is planned to be a stealthy tailless flying wing with internal payload carriage, a single engine and an air intake placed on top the front fuselage. Its takeoff weight is estimated at 10 t, payload (missions systems and weapons) at 1–3 t, maximum speed at 1,100 km/h, service ceiling at 16,000 m and endurance at six hours. 60 to 70 per cent common with the combat variant, the recce and AEW versions differ in avionics, a higher wing aspect ratio and the design of their tail unit modules. In summer 2005, the Yakovlev design bureau, part of Irkut Corp., became known to have offered its long-time Yak-130 programme partner, Alenia Aermacchi (subsidiary of Finmeccanica), to pool efforts in advanced UAV development, with the Russo-Italian relevant agreement signed during MAKS 2005. At the Le Bourget air show in June this year, Irkut’s President and Yakovlev’s Director General Oleg Demchenko said for the record that the parties were about to launch practical work in this field. “Two years ago, Italian companies Finmeccanica and Alenia and we signed an agreement on deriving an unmanned aerial vehicle

Yakovlev Proryv UAV family being designed using Yak-130 combat trainer technologies (drawing by Alexey Mikheyev)

Skat UCAV and MiG-29 fighter dimensions comparison (drawing by Alexey Mikheyev)

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from the Yak-130. To date, the Russian and Italian defence ministries have granted all relevant permissions. Practical work under the programme is beginning”, he told the media in Paris. Many an aircraft maker develops drones in Russia these days. Some progress has been made by Irkut Corp., the Sokol design bureau (Kazan), ENIKS and Novik-21st Century companies and others. However, all UAVs they develop range in weight from a few kilograms to hundreds of kilograms and are designed, primarily, for aerial surveillance and reconnaissance. In 2006, the Sukhoi design bureau unveiled at Le Bourget mockups of its three UAVs of the Zond (Probe) family, weight from 2 to 12 t at takeoff and designed for multispectral monitoring, air traffic control and communications retransmission. Sukhoi is known to work on combat UAVs as well, but no detail on its efforts has been published yet. Two years ago, it became known that MiG Corp. had been developing an advanced UAV too. The programme was launched soon after Alexei Fyodorov (now UAC’s chairman of the board and president) assumed office of Director General and Designer General. Mr. Fyodorov, who is very sensitive to the market, had initiated several UAV development programmes in Irkut he led then. However, for two years, MiG leaders have limited themselves to stating the fact of the programme, but kept mum on detail. By August this year, MiG Corp.’s UCAV programme had reached a stage, at which the management decided it was time to go public with some of the results produced. By the time the company launched development of the Skat, it had had a wealth of experience in pilotless airborne vehicles development. Since the late ‘40s, the design bureau had worked on the first Soviet antiship cruise missiles, the KS and KSS (sort of shrunk unmanned MiG-15 fighter), and then K-10 and Kh-20 supersonic cruise missiles for use with Tu-16 and Tu-95 long-range bombers and had taken part in developing the Kh-22 high-speed cruise missile that remains in the inventory of Tu-22M3 bombers. To cap it all, work was under way on recce and attack UAVs (X-155DR and Krechet), unmanned interceptors (K-155 and Gyurza), etc. in the ‘60s. The design bureau continued its work on unmanned designs afterwards as well.

Skat: nuances of design So, what is MiG Corp.’s future combat drone? The Skat UCAV (Skat is Skate, or Guitarfish in Russian) is designed to eliminate pre-reconnoitred hostile static ground targets, first of all, air defence assets, in the face of formidable enemy air defence

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fires and destroy mobile surface threats in solo and package missions in cooperation with manned platforms. In line with the present-day global trend, the aircraft was designed in the low-observable tailless flying wing configuration, with its airframe heavily using composite materials. The aircraft’s lifting body in planform is a triangle with a leading-edge sweep of about 54 deg. The wing s have the same sweep. They have the zero-taper ratio and wingtips angled 90 deg. relative to the leading and trailing edges. It is clear from the Skat’s external look that its designers tend to make all airframe lines, ts and lines of doors and hatches along only few parallel axes, which meets the radar signature reduction requirements. The aircraft’s basic aerodynamic control surfaces are multifunction deflectable surface set along the trailing edges to provide roll, pitch and yaw control and drag braking. Additional

control surfaces are mounted on nearfuselage areas of the wing centre section and feature the forward sweep along the trailing edges (the same 54 deg. or so but in the opposite direction). The Skat’s powerplant is wrapped around a single Klimov RD-5000B nonafterburning turbofan rated at 5,040 kgf and being a derivative of the RD-93 reheated turbofan – a version of the MiG-29’s RD-33, which is mounted on single-engined foreign combat aircraft. The RD-5000B is fitted with a flat exhaust nozzle to reduce its infrared signature. At the first stage of the Skat’s trials, the engine can be equipped with a regular axisymmetric nozzle. The nonvariable air intake is set on top the fuselage nose section. Inside the UCAV’s airframe, there are two 4.4m-long weapons bays with the 0.65x0.75m cross section on the sides of the engine’s air duct and the powerplant itself. Each can house an air-to-surface or antiradiation missile or a 250–500kg smart bomb. The Skat

was unveiled mounting Kh-31P antiradiation missiles and KAB-500Kr smart bombs. Its maximum payload is reported to be 2,000 kg. Tricycle retractable landing gear is of traditional aeroplane type, enabling the UCAV to take off and land from ordinary airfields. Each strut is single-wheel. The levered nose gear retracts forwards into a well under the engine air duct, with levered main gear retracting into the centreline wells in the wing centre section. There have been no reports on the Skat’s avionics suite. However, one might guess that, in addition to the integrated control and navigation systems, it is going to have self-contained targeting systems to acquire, identify and engage targets and ISR and ECM gear to ensure its own survival. In accordance with the data unveiled, the UAV has a maximum near-ground speed of about 800 km/h and a maximum Mach of about 0.8.

Calculations place its service ceiling at over 12,000 m and range at around 4,000 km. The Skat’s dimensions are comparable to those of the MiG-29 fighter, with its length being 10.25 m, wingspan 11.5 m and height 2.7 m. Its maximum takeoff weight is estimated at 10,000 kg.

Cooperation and prospects MiG Corp. has been developing the Skat UCAV since 2005, paying for the programme out of its pocket. Having teamed up with several Russian aircraft industry subcontractors and research institutes, MiG has conducted an extensive research producing a desired design and characteristics and has adopted a schedule to try relevant technologies. The UAV’s aerodynamic configuration has undergone wind-tunnel tests at TsAGI, which proved the design and layout solutions to be right. Under the Skat programme, MiG Corp.’s subcontractors, which logos are spotted by the mockup’s weapons bay door, are the Defence Ministry’s 2nd Central Research www.take-off.ru

Andrey Fomin

military aviation | project

military aviation | project

Kh-31P antiradiation air-to-surface missile

Skat advanced stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicle (drawing by Alexey Mikheyev)

Skat-PD

Institute (the military’s traditional supervisor of scientific of air defence forces), Vega corporation recently appointed UAV industrial integrator by the government, GosNIIAS (aircraft industry’s major centre devising concepts of developing combat aircraft and weapons systems and integrating avionics suites). The Skat’s powerplant has been developed by the Klimov company in St. Petersburg in cooperation with the Soyuz design bureau (Tushino, Moscow) and will be made by the MMP Chernyshev company, if it enters production. Irkut’s subsidiary, Russian Avionics design bureau, is in charge of developing the UCAV’s avionics suite. Another subcontractor, the Hius close corporation (Tver Region), is a new kid on the aircraft-making block, but according to Vladimir Barkovsky, director of the Mikoyan Engineering Centre, it is very experienced in developing and making composite products. www.take-off.ru

Hius develops composite structures to fit the Skat’s airframe. The full-size Skat UCAV mockup shown to the media at MAKS 2007 was made by MiG Corp.’s prototype-making division in summer 2007. It is intended for testing design and layout solutions and optimising the drone’s performance. Next stages of the programme provide for making flying technology demonstrators – the manned Skat-PD and unmanned SkatD versions – and flight-testing them to debug the Skat and demonstrate all of its technologies, including the use of weapons. Vladimir Barkovsky attributes the need for a manned Skat variant to the Russian law imposing stringent limitations on UAV flights. The applicable law needs updating, and this is under way already. MiG Corp.’s managers decline to specify the date the flight tests of Skat prototypes

will kick off. Obviously, test flights will hardly begin in the coming months. However, the priority given the programme by the company gives hope for the Skat’s maiden flight to be round the corner. Should the programme succeed, of which the developer is certain, the Defence Ministry is expected to throw its weight behind it, with the programme to be made part of the governmental defence procurement programme. Given the current trends in military aircraft development, the Skat is facing good prospects on the global market as well. Foreign participation in developing the Skat or its derivative cannot be ruled out, because such large-scale programmes have been increasingly pursued collectively in the West, with the afore-said nEUROn being a good case in point. Thus, the Skat may face bright vistas, given the present-day global combat aircraft tendencies. take-off november 2007

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cosmonautics | mission

ISS NOW RUN BY FEMALE Another replacement in position in orbit Alina CHERNOIVANOVA Photos www.cosmoport.info

There has been a change of the crew of the ISS. In October, a woman, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, headed a long-term orbital expedition for the first time in history of space exploration. She and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko were accompanied to the ISS by the first Malaysian cosmonaut Sheikh Muszafar Shukor. He spent 11 days in orbit and came back to the Earth together with the ISS-15 crew – cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin.

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cosmonautics | mission Another Russian spacecraft went to the International Space Station on 10 October. The Soyuz-FG launch vehicle hauling the Soyuz TMA-11 blasted off the 1st Launch Pad at Baikonur at 17.22 hours Moscow time, with the spacecraft docking to the Zarya functional cargo unit of the Russian segment of the ISS two days later. The 16th main expedition comprising Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson as well as the first Malaysian angkasawan Sheikh Muszafar Shukor arriving under the 13th expedition programme (angkasawan is the derivative of the Malay word ‘angkasa’ – outer space). The three have long space-related careers. Malenchenko first went to orbit in 1994, having worked 126 days at the Mir space station. He flew again in September 2000 as part of the STS-106 mission on board the Atlantis space shuttle under the programme of preparing the ISS for the arrival of the first permanent crew. Third time Malenchenko came to the orbit in April 2003 as crew commander of the 7th main expedition. While in orbit, Malenchenko got married, with his marriage of Russian-American Yekaterina Dmitiryeva being effected in absentia (under the law of Texas, the bride was present at the Mission Control Centre in Houston during the marriage ceremony). This was the first ever in-orbit marriage in history of space exploration. This flight was not the first one to Peggy Whitson. She spent six months at the ISS as

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the first researcher astronaut in 2002, having conducted 21 experiments in the fields of microgravity and medicine. However, this time around, she has much greater authority, having become the first female ISS crew commander. During the six month stint, she will have a crew of two men under her command, one of whom is Malenchenko and the slot of second flight engineer is to be occupied by alternating personnel. Until late October, it had been occupied by NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson, who came to the ISS as part of the STS-117 mission on the Endeavor shuttle in August this year. The STS-120 mission’s Discovery brought on 25 October US astronaut Daniel Tani to replace Anderson. Tani will have stayed at the ISS until December when he will be replaced by ESA astronaut Leopold Eyarts, who is to come on the Atlantis shuttle (STS-122). Finally, US astronaut Garret Reisman will replace Eyarts in February 2008, coming on board the STS-123 mission’s Endeavor. The ISS-16 crew led by Whitson will pursue a complex and rich programme. With the arrival of the Discovery to the ISS, a new construction phase began – the shuttle, also commanded by a female NASA astronaut, Pamela Melroy, brought the second module, Node 2, into orbit. The first one, dubbed Unity, has been part of the ISS since 1998. Node 2 made in Italy will link three lab modules – the US Destiny, the EC’s Columbus and Japan’s Kibo. Columbus will be brought to the ISS in December while Kibo

in early 2008. This will beef up the capabilities of the ISS, allowing its crew to increase from three to six. The Whitson-led crew also will receive two Progress cargo craft and the first EC freighter, the ATV Jules Verne, which launch is slated for January 2008. As usual, the main expedition’s programme provides for several dozen experiments. The third member of the Soyuz TMA-11’s crew, Malaysian Shukor, went to outer space for the first time, but his space epic has gone down to history of Malaysia. Mulling over sending a man into outer space began in Malaysia as far back as the late 1980s in response to a proposal from the Soviet government. However, only in 2002 did Malaysia’s National Space Agency sate that it was ready to meet all relevant requirements. A space flight of a Malaysian was specifically stipulated in the major package agreement between the two countries (under the agreement, Malaysia procures an almost $1 billion worth of Su-30MKM fighters and send a Malaysian national to outer space). Soon after clinching the deal, the Malaysian Space Agency started accepting applications from volunteers eager to become the first angkasawan. Applications were accepted via the Internet, with anybody above 21 having the right to apply. In the end, out of 11,000 applicants, about 3,700, who met the age and education requirements, were selected, of whom subsequent additional tests and medicals left only four, including a female. The four were further reduced to two – Sheikh Muszafar Shukor, who, in the end, went to the ISS with the short-duration crew. His backup was Faiz Bin Halid. 35-year-old Shukor is an orthopaedic surgeon. He teaches medicine in Kebangsaan University. During his 10-day space flight, he conducted a series of experiments, including those aimed at researching cancer cells, proteins and microbes as well as an experiment official dubbed Malaysian Cuisine in Outer Space. Truth be told, there was not much food in question (the pack of nine Malaysian national dishes cooked to Islamic standards (halal) weighed 550 g, but the angkasawan managed to treat his comrades-in-orbit right after the end of Ramadan. By the way, since Shukor also was the first Muslim to be in outer space during Ramadan, the Malaysian ulema had devised for him the world’s first Muslim cosmonaut memo that allowed him to pray in accordance with special rules. Shukor’s space flight inspired Malaysia so much that the country’s vice-premier arrived in Russia to greet the angkasawan upon his return from orbit and, at the same time, talk with the Russians about having the other Malaysian cosmonaut, Faiz Bin Halid, fly to the ISS. The initiative came as take-off november 2007

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cosmonautics | mission a pleasant surprise to the Russian Federal Space Agency (FSA). However, the other surprise could hardly be called pleasant: the Soyuz TMA-10’s lander with the Malaysian on board followed a ballistic trajectory. On the morning of 21 October, Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin, who were of the 15th main expedition, and Sheikh Muszafar Shukor left the ISS and headed for the Earth. At 14.37 hours Moscow time, the lander was to touch down 85 km north of the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan. However, at 14.18, two minutes after entering the atmosphere, Oleg Kotov reported to the Flight Control Centre (TsUP) that the onboard computer

opted for ballistic landing for some reason. About a minute after the sitrep, the lander’s crew experienced g-load exceeding the normal one by two times – about 8.5 g. According to Kotov, electronic gear was sparking and there was a bit of smoke during the descent. At 14.20 hours, two minutes earlier than it would have happened in the automatic controlled descent, the main parachute deployed. “While I was telling Sheikh to hold on, we already landed”, Fyodor Yurchikhin reminisces on the ballistic descent. About a minute earlier that the

estimated time, the lander’s soft landing motors kicked in, and the capsule touched down 10 km away from the Kazakh town of Tolybai at 14.36 hours, undershooting more than 400 km. Already at 14.49 hours, the first search-and-rescue helicopter landed by the Soyuz capsule lying on its side. The lander’s crew did not even have enough time to get really scared. According to doctors, the Malaysian cosmonaut’s pulse rate was 72 beats per minute and that of Yurchikhin and Kotov 80–90 beats per minute. Soon afterwards, the three were flown to Zvezdny Gorodok out of Moscow, and Energia’s ad hoc technical commission launched investigation into the reasons behind the ballistic descent. Mention should be made that last time a Soyuz spacecraft landed in a ballistic descent was May 2003, when Nikolay Budarin, Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Petit were returning from the ISS. They were subject to 8.1g overload and the craft landed 460 km away from the estimated location. Later on, investigation revealed that the lander went into ballistic descent due to an inadequate reaction of the BUSP-M descent control unit – part of the descent control system – to signals it received from the KIOO-18 gyro and angular rate meter. According to FSA chief Anatoly Perminov, this time the reasons for the lander to go ballistic were different. “Most probably, the atmospheric state and the attitude of the craft played their part”, Perminov guessed. Anyway, the ad hoc commission will find out the reasons, but the FSA chief was certain that the incident would not have an impact on those queuing up to fly to outer space in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

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cosmonautics | in brief

FSA Chief on prospects of Russian space exploration The head of the Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, has held several news conferences over the recent months, in which he shared with the media his vision of the state and future of the Russian space exploration industry. According to the FSA chief, Russia will have orbited six more spacecraft of the GLONASS satellite navigation system that is to start serving Russian s already in 2007 and provide global coverage by late 2009. According to Anatoly Perminov, the Russian constellation will have numbered 103 spacecraft, and its status has improved considerably since 2004 with the number of improve navsats having hiked from 25 per cent in 2004 to 60 per cent at present. The FSA head said the space companies’ net income had tripled over the past three years, with their earning capacity having more than doubled. “There remained only seven loss-making companies out of the 103. The annual salary growth in the industry is 25 percent,” Perminov said. Dwelling on the future of manned flight in space, he remarked that the Clipper reusable spacecraft had not been approved by a scientific and technical council. “Scientists believes that another stage of developing an advanced manned transport space system should be the deriving of a spacecraft from an existing design”. According to Perminov, in the world there is “an aerospace-plane programme graveyard: there were eight to 12 such spacecraft under development. Unfortunately, none of the programmes, except the US Space Shuttle, has succeeded”. The chief of FSA thinks that an advanced Russian manned system will have been developed by 2015, and by 2020 with the ISS to wrap up its operation, there will have been a new-type Russian space station in orbit to be used for inorbit assembly of spacecraft for

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lunar and other planetary missions. Anatoly Perminov did not rule out foreign participation in developing such a station. Construction of the new orbital ‘base’ is now part of the medium-term Russian space exploration programme for the period until 2025. The FSA leader specified that the agency was not going to pull out from the Baikonur space launch facility in the near future. Responding to the question whether there is a chill in the RussianKazakh t space operations, he said, “The idea is outlandish”. Perminov sad he had had talks with Talgat Musabayev, head of Kazakhstan’s space agency. “We have got no problems, and more than 40 agreements on t work have been signed”, he maintained, saying that recurring minor disagreements and technical issues are settled in the regular course of work. “I see no alternative to Kazakhstan as far as manned space flights are concerned,” the FSA boss concluded. Speaking about plans to explore the Moon and Mars, Anatoly Perminov said that they should have a scientific base and “one should not stoop to resort to adventurism”. In his opinion, the cost of sending a manned spacecraft to the Mars is estimated at $40–50 billions. “Russia’s budget would, probably, survive that, but FSA’s coffers cannot”, he added. Nonetheless, Perminov specified, “We have come up with proposals for space exploration for the period until 2040. The proposals cover all aspects, including lunar and Martian missions. Now we have to obtain relevant financial and material resources”. The proposals cover several fields, particularly, further use of near-Earth space, development of the Moon and a flight to Mars. Readiness for landing on the Moon is to be achieved by 2025, a lunar base is to be set up between 2027 and 2035 and a mission to Mars is slated for 2035 or later.

According to Anatoly Perminov, FSA has not decided yet on the location for a new space launch centre. “If we develop an advanced manned spacecraft, e.g. for Moon missions, it will need an advanced launch vehicle that needs a new launch pad. Where the latter should be built remains undecided yet, but I think we should consider not only Baikonur to this end, but the territory of Russia as well”, Perminov said. “No matter where we start [construction of a new launch pad], we have to start from scratch. It is a very difficult thing to do in economic and technological . Still, it is doable”. Touching on international cooperation, FSA’s chief noted that cooperation with other countries has surged recently. The agency cooperates with 38 countries. Perminov noted, among other things, that “good relations with Arab countries are evolving” as far as remote Earth sensing, space communications systems and manned flight programmes are concerned. Commenting the South Korean launch vehicle development pro-

gramme and construction of a launch centre in the Republic of Korea, Anatoly Perminov said relevant agreements had been reached and contracts signed and Khrunichev would roll up its sleeves in late 2007. “Essentially, Russia is offering one stage and the launch complex. Full-scale work is to begin in 2008, and the first flight under programme may take place in 2009”, he added. As to a first Russian space tourist planned to fly to the ISS in 2009, Anatoly Perminov said he would be a businessman turned politician. FSA’s chief decline to name the man, citing the cosmonaut candidate’s personal request of anonymity for a while. Commenting on rumours of the feasibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s space flight, Perminov denied any FSA plans to this end, “I do not think it is serious. We have not planned any thing of the kind, let alone doing it for the president. The matter is not on the agenda. I guess the President has enough places to visit and enough work to do”.

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cosmonautics | in brief

Latest space rocket designs at MAKS 2007 manned craft mounted on the mockup to simulate the payload came as a surprise, because the Clipper’s future remains hazy. The Makeyev design bureau’s exposition also included a mockup of a new rocket for the Air Launch system. Unlike the previous configuration, its stages have the same diameter – 2.66 m. The solution stems from the striving for using the Bloc E’s (third stage of the Soyuz carrier) production tooling available at the Progress plant in Samara. The public at MAKS could see a mockup of the ‘old’ launch vehicle of the Shtil family – a submarine-launched ballistic missile derivative. Igor Afanasyev

control engines; and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or methane (which makes up 90 per cent of LNG) to be burnt as fuel. Measuring 35.6 m long, the rocket has a launch weight of 750 t and carries a payload of 21.5 t. The first stage can be used 25 times. The carrier’s lifting capacity could be increased to 35 t by increasing its size or using an oxyhydrogen second stage, while retaining the system’s layout and returnability of its first stage. KBKhA is developing single-type sustainers (210 t of thrust in the first stage and 240 t in the second one), KBKhM and KBKhA are co-developing 11t control engines and NIIMash handles the development of attitude engines. The total cost of Rossiyanka’s development is estimated $670–750 million, and the launch cost is to be within $19 million. The LV will be able to blast off from the Kapustin Yar or Baikonur launch sites. In the latter case, the Energia launch vehicle’s ground infrastructure may be used. The wingless variant of the Clipper

Igor Afanasyev

By tradition, space rocket hardware became a key element of the MAKS 2007 air show. Truth be told, there were not too many truly advanced designs. For instance, the Makeyev design bureau displayed a mockup of the reusable space rocket system dubbed Rossiyanka. The project, no doubt, became a rocket sensation of the air show. The system, which designed under the 2006–15 Federal Space Programme, resulted from the cooperation among Makeyev, KBKhA, KBKhM, NIIMash (Nizhnyaya Salda), NPOA and KBTM. Under the federal programme, the partially reusable booster rocket is to insert 25–35t spacecraft into low orbit while slashing the specific launch cost by 1.5 times and reducing the number of fallout areas by far. The Rossiyanka features a multi-unit first stage comprising four 4.1m-dia. tanks arranged around the tail section and interstage adapter; return of the first stage to the launch site along a ballistic trajectory and vertical parachuteless landing by means of the sustainer and

Igor Afanasyev

Khrunichev displayed mockups of the Angara and Proton LV families, long known by experts and space exploration enthusiasts. However, they included novelties as well, e.g. the Angara-5P two-stage LV designed for inserting the manned system Khrunichev is developing based on its TKS manned spacecraft expertise, and as many as three different versions of the Angara-1 light launch vehicle. TsSKB-Progress from Samara unveiled its R-7 family rocket mockups – the Soyuz-2-1b, Soyuz-2-3 and 16–17t-capable Soyuz-2-3. While the first two are known, the third one became the second sensation after the Rossiyanka. Some data on the rocket have been circulating for a

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while, but the general look and basic characteristics of the future launch vehicle were unveiled during MAKS 2007. Despite the Soyuz-2-3 designation shared with the baseline model, the third variant is radically different rocket featuring enlarged strap-on boosters to house NK-33-1 engines, just like the central booster will. To carry manned spacecraft, the third stage is to be powered by the RD-0110 engine. Fitted with the advanced efficient RD-0124, it will haul unmanned spacecraft. The second- and third-stage blocks have the same diameter, due to which the rocket measures roughly the same 46 m despite its launch weight growing up to 481 t. In spate of a considerable difference from other versions, the 17t-capable Soyuz will likely to launch from a modernised launch complex of the Soyuz rocket, if the programme goes ahead, of course. Meanwhile, the future of this interesting rocket, which load ratio exceeds those of the Zenit and Angara, is a big question mark. The Soyuz-2-3 line stems from the Yamal, Aurora/Onega and Yamal-1 designs that were considered in 1997–2004 but have been as far back from being embodied in metal, as they were a decade ago.

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cosmonautics | in brief

The development of the Russian global satellite navigation system dubbed GLONASS kicked off as many as two decades ago, but the ‘steamroller’ of the 1990s almost ran it into the ground. Mere seven satellites of the constellation were active in orbit as of 2007 despite the measures taken by the government. Meanwhile, effective operation of the GLONASS is possible only in case the whole 24-satellite constellation is deployed. Given the importance of the issue, Russian President Vladimir Putin on 17 May 2007 issued the decree on using the GLONASS global satellite navigation system in of economic development of the Russian Federation, allowing access commercial s, including foreign ones, to navigation data. Under the decree, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) was appointed coordinator of the efforts to maintain, develop and operate the GLONASS system in the interest of civil s. In addition, the government was tasked with determining the powers of the federal authorities in maintaining, developing and operating the constellation prior to 31 December 2007 and with adopting before late 2011 a relevant federal programme to be pursued during 2012–20. Attending the MAKS 2007 air show, President Putin visited the stand of RNIIKP, the core company of the Russian Corporation of Rocket-Space Device Engineering and Information Systems being established now. The President was briefed on the latest developments under the GLONASS programme, proving that the state’s interest in bringing the satnav system up to snuff is no lip service. Roscosmos chief Anatoly Perminov familiarised the President with a full-size mockup of the Reshetnev NPO PM’s advanced Glonass-K satellite and satnav gear and brought him abreast of the status of the programme as a whole. According to NPO PM, new satellites will be fitted with intersatellite

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Igor Afanasyev

Aspects of GLONASS development

measurement equipment that will enhance the operating stability of the constellation. The Glonass-K is slated for orbiting in 2009. During the air show, the Roscosmos chief and Vnesheconombank’s representatives signed an agreement on cooperation and coordination in devising techniques of financing Roscosmos programmes and the GLONASS federal programme in the first place. Introduction, albeit slow, of the Russian satnav system in everyday life is beginning. The Kompas design bureau (Moscow) displayed the first Russian-made GPS/GLONASS navigation receiver during MAKS 2007. Initially, the gadget was developed for the Defence Ministry. It is immune to jamming, high and low temperatures and shocks. The compact NPI receiver is made of Russian electronic componentry, save for its German-made LCD that will lose ground to a Russian one once the device enters full-rate production. The receiver is estimated to cost within the $500–1,500 depending on the scale of production.

Introduction of satnav capabilities to aircraft has been especially high on the agenda, because this enhances flight safety and, as far as military aircraft are concerned, effectiveness of combat operations. The growth of air traffic places greater emphasis on precise following of designated routes and air corridors, which has a heavy influence on flight safety. The current stacking standards stipulate air corridors must be stuck to with a 1-mile precision. GLONASS integrating with the t navigation and aircraft positioning system will allow real-time route checking. The system will update the preset route every five seconds, thus ensuring compliance with all aircraft navigation requirements. The Atlant-Soyuz airline has been the first among Russian carriers to fit GLONASS gear on its aircraft, the Tupolev Tu-154M (RA-85740). The Vnukovo-based 400th Aircraft repair Plant fixed the airliner with the BMS onboard multifunction system from Navigator VNIIRA (St. Petersburg). In addition to GLONASS, BMS can use inputs from the US GPS and

European Galileo satnav systems and GNSS-SBAS (WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS) satellite-based augmentation systems. The gear proved to be effective and functionable. The Kompas design bureau designed a landing system for aircraft-carrying vessels – the first Russian system of the kind, wrapped around GLONASS/GPS. The designers did their best to maximise its reliability and interference immunity and make it adaptable to commercial s’ requirements in the future. The system can be used on offshore rigs and civil vessels and at small airports. The government is to spend about 10 billion rubles ($400 million) on the GLONASS system in 2007. The number of Russian navigation satellites is to be beefed up to 18 navsats in 2008–09 and to the 24 required to complete the constellation by 2011. The precision of positioning is to be the same as that of GPS – 1 to 5 m (it is lower by an order of magnitude so far). Two Proton launch vehicles were to insert six more GLONASS satellites late in 2007.

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