MAKS news thread

Development of New Aircraft Equipment Going Successfully – Russian Air Force CinC Vladimir Mikhaylov

Development of new aircraft equipment in Russian is going successfully, the Russian air force Commander-in-Chief, Vladimir Mikhaylov, thinks.

He declared this at a briefing which took place within the framework of the MAKS-2003 aerospace salon.

As the CinC declared, “the immediate contact of air force leadership with the chief designers of the country’s aviation firms is enabling it.”

In Mikhaylov’s opinion, the new domestic combat aircraft equipment is not inferior to and in part even exceeds modern Western examples.

The air force CinC announced that at the present time, Mi-28 helicopter tests have been completed and adopted into the inventory, the Ka-52 helicopter (an improved Ka-50 “Black Shark”) is at the validation stage, tests of the Mi-24PM helicopter (for night combat operations) have been completed, the new Ka-60 transport helicopter has been started in production, and a new Tu-160 (sic) military transport is reaching the inventory, which exceeds all Western analogues in its performance.

Moreover, tests are being completed (17 flights remain) of the new MiG-AT combat training airplane, and also the Yak-130 combat training airplane and the Su-32 airplane will be adopted into the inventory.

As Mikhaylov declared, upgrade of Su-24 and Su-25 (an attack aircraft) combat airplanes is on-going successfully.

Upgrade, in the air force CinC’s words, will help develop more perfect aircraft equipment and lead to the creation of the fifth generation fighter.

“The country is protects by the air force as much as this is necessary in peace time,” Mikhaylov summarized.

Source: 20.08.03, RIA Novosti

AVPK Sukhoy to Deliver Su-32 to Russian Federation Air Force before 2010

AVPK Sukhoy plans in 2006 – 2010 to deliver a batch of new Su-32 strike aviation complexes to Russia’s air force, company general director Mikhail Pogosyan reported at a press conference in Zhukovskiy (Moscow Oblast’) which was held within the framework of the aerospace salon (MAKS-2003).

The total and volume of the deliver is not being named, however, according to M. Pogosyan, it is a question of dozens of airplanes.

The Su-32 aviation complex which is built for the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense completed an important stage of tests this year and completed more than 130 flight in the certification program.

As M. Pogosyan noted, certification of this complex will be completed in the near future.
A series of innovations, tested on the Su-32, will be used in the program for the creation of the fifth generation fighter, the AVPK Sukhoy general director reported.

Source: 20.08.03, RBK

– also, the An-70 has made a demonstration flight.