MiG, Su-27SM and China Su news

RSK MiG Developing New Lightweight Tactical Fighter

The Russian Airplane Building Corporation MiG is developing a principally new lightweight tactical multirole combat airplane.

“Today we are working on the ideology of a qualitatively new commercial aircraft – a lightweight tactical multirole fighter,” the RSK MiG general director and general designer, Valeriy Toryanin, reported.

According to him, this airplane is not an alternative to the fifth generation fighter being created by the Sukhoy company. “The developer of the Russian fifth generation fighter already had been determined. The Sukhoy company is it, and RSK MiG does not intend to dispute the decision that was made,” Toryanin said.

He noted that RSK MiG “has not said anywhere that it is making a fifth generation.” “But we also do not intend to be limited only to the marketing of various versions of the MiG-29 fighter while having a unique design bureau within the corporation. We have to be moving ahead,” Toryanin added.

According to him, as of today the concept of the new aircraft which is aimed most of all at delivery onto the worldwide market, already in fact has been formulated. Many potential customers are showing great interest in obtaining such an airplane.

“In previous years, the MiG corporation created a large fifth generation design and engineering reserve. This buildup will be used in the development of the new aircraft,” the MiG general director said.

Source: 29.03.04, Podrobnosti

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Su-27SM Undergoing Military Examination

Airmen of the Center of Combat Application and Cross Training of Air Crews (TsBP and PLS) are successfully mastering the upgraded Su-27SM fighters. “Right now we are conducting as a minimum two flight sessions a week, and in each of them two – three each Su-27SM of the five which were upgraded at the Komsomol’sk-on-Amur Aviation production Association (KnAAPO) take part,” the chief of the TsBP and PLS, General-Major Aleksandr Kharchevskiy, reported to Interfax-AVN on Monday. According to him, the upgraded fighters already have flown 14 – 15 hours each taking into account the haul from Komsomol’sk-on-Amur to Lipetsk. During the military usage, they fully have been confirming the advertised combat and tactical-technical characteristics.

“Our mission is to prepare in June 2004 an interim manual for the use of these fighters in the line units as a result of the military tests of the Su-27SM,” General-Major A> Kharchevskiy noted. Before the end of 2004, there will be a permanent manual for the usage and combat application of the upgraded Su-27SM. “By the end of this year, we are supposed to prepare a permanent manual taking into account the observations, that is, systematically to support fully the line aviation units in which these fighters will enter the inventory,” he said.

In the opinion of air force commander-in-chief, General of the Army Vladimir Mikhaylov, the upgraded Su-27SM approximates to the maximum a fifth generation airplane. It possesses high flight performance and the capabilities for the detection and destruction of targets. It is planned during the year to reequip one of the air force regiment with upgraded Su-27SM fighters.

The Komsomol’sk-on-Amur Aviation Production Association is realizing the upgrade program for the Su-27 multirole fighters developed by the Sukhoy OKB. The whole fleet of Russia’s Su-27 air force fighters is subject to the upgrade. This work is going on within the framework of the state defense order, and also using non-budgetary funds which are earned and attracted from Sukhoy Aviation Holding Company export contracts.

Source: 29.03.04, Krasnaya Zvezda

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By year’s end there will already be 273 such fighters there

The British weekly Janes Defence Weekly for the first time has published secret data about the deliveries of Russian military product to China. Thanks to the export from Russia, which in the last year reached approximately 1.5 billion dollars, this country will possess by the end of 2004 a huge fleet of fighters in the 273 airplanes of the Su-27/Su-30 family. In the opinion of experts, this may cause a new arms race in the region, however, if Russia does not offer the Chinese the most modern airplanes, its own deliveries to China may be curtailed.

((Rest of article is basically a translation from the English of the JDW article and is not translated back into English here.))

Source: 29.03.04, Vedomosti