VympelI didn’t understand that in AFM – the MiG-29SMTs they got (not UBTs, is the impression I got) were used airframes that were in poor condition, therefore they halted deliveries?
What used airframes?
VympelThe third MiG-31BM “Blue 60” is currently in EW tested at Kapustin Yar. The tests will be by mid-2008 will be completed and then the modernization of the remaining machines. It will start with two regiments converted. The 148th GLTIs in Sawaslejka be final preparations for the retraining of pilots.
It’s too bad that none of the MiG-31BM pictures are instructive in how to actually identify a MiG-31BM compared to either a MiG-31B or MiG-31BS.
I guess the only time we’ll have an idea is if it’s packing R-37s, and that will probably be this side of never.
VympelUpdate on Tu-160 production (short version, delay due to inadequate finance and shortage of personnel at KAPO because they’re busy with the Tu-214PU etc)
Regular Tu-160 Strategic Missile Carrier for Russian Federation Air Force to Be Completed at Start of Next Year
The Tu-160 strategic bomber which the Kazan’ aircraft builders had planned to deliver before the end of this year, will be completed in the first quarter 2008, they reported to Interfax-AVN at the defense industrial complex. “The delay with completion of the airplane is connected not only with insufficient financing, but also with a personnel problem,” the agency source noted. He explained that at the Kazan’ Aviation Production Association (KAPO), where the Tu-160 is being completed, and right now “an order for construction of special purpose Tu-214 airplanes is being fulfilled and series production of the Tu-334 is being readied.” “There are not enough qualified workers at KAPO for simultaneous and parallel work in the assembly of these assorted airplanes,” the agency source noted.
According to his information, “in the next year, KAPO is supposed to assemble four Tu-214 airplanes in special purpose variants and the fulfillment of this order is priority in the enterprise’s operation.” It is a question about the construction at KAPO of two relay airplanes and two Tu-214PU airborne command posts based on the Tu-214. “At the same time, work is continuing at KAPO on the Tu-214 airplane that will be put into operation within the framework of the Open Skies program in accordance with a Russian military leadership line item,” the source specified to IF-AVN. He emphasized that “it is impossible to resolve the personnel problem in short time intervals and it is impacting negatively on the periods for the construction of all the airplanes – both the Tu-160 and the Tu-214.”
It earlier had been reported that the Tu-160 production program originally had provided for the output of nearly 100 aircraft; however, only 35 airplanes of this type were built. Two of them crashed in flights. The production reserve on hand at KAPO allows the construction of two Tu-160. Right now there are more than ten Tu-160 in the line units of the Russian Far East Aviation.
Source: 22.10.07, Interfax-AVN
I assume the reference to “Far East Aviation” is a mistake. Tu-160s are 37th Air Army at Engels, right?
VympelInformation on the Tu-160 upgrades (of which I understand there are too types, a “deep” modernization and a “small” modernization, the latter of which I think only involves the ability to deliver conventional weapons) is scarce, I’m afraid.
Another article about the resumption of production, but the certainty of the title and first paragraph doesn’t appear to match the actual quote.
KAPO to Resume Production of Tu-160 Bombers
The Kazan’ S.P. Gorbunov Aviation Production Association (KAPO) will resume production of Tu-160 bombers after entering the United Aircraft Building Corporation (OAK) and will be involved with the creation of special aircraft based on the Tu-214, OAK management chairman Aleksey Fedorov reported.
“Kapo will continue to support strategic aviation. And I hope not only with overhaul and upgrade, but also with the resumption of bomber production, most likely the Tu-160.
No less important will be the manufacture of civil aviation equipment, in particular the Tu-214,” Fedorov said.
As reported by RIA Novosti.
Source: 15.10.07, Gazeta.RU
VympelThe appendages you see on the rear fuselage of the missile are the folded tailfins, and other than that there are no remarkable features suggesting anything hugely different from the Kh-55.
You mean in terms of propulsion? Because it’s definitely got an ACM vibe going on compared to the Kh-55s Tomahawk thing.
(We already knew from years back it was going to be a low-observable weapon, though a closer look at it would be nice)
Vympel13 or 14 though they added a new aircraft to the fleet and returned one to service after an upgrade so there could be 14-15.
It’s quite firmly 15 last I heard. The aircraft “returned to service” wasn’t ever actually in service, it was a test airframe owned by Tupolev (ie one of the Zhukovsky examples) that was made of operational standard (and upgraded of course).
The new aircraft is an upgraded type as well.
VympelAh ok I see – what’s the source for the refit being completed in 2015, anyway? Have they made a decision as to whether they’ll scrap Admiral Lazarev yet?
VympelAwesome – I was wondering when we’d finally get a look at those missiles. Looks like a planespotter pic to me.
VympelBecause they have to replace basically everything but the hull and the reactor. And hopefully throw away the useless Granits.
I like the Granits.
Anyway, last I checked Admiral Nakhimov was getting its missile systems modernized, and IIRC that meant improved Granits.
VympelWaaaaait a second. So a 7000k weapon that is cheap, ie reasonably priced, is a fantasy and restarting serial production of exuberantly expensive Tu-160 is a good idea?
I never set up that dichotomy. As I said, Kh-101/102 are already in development (as reconfirmed most recently on the Kremlin website, but I digress) – and can be carried by the Tu-95MS and Tu-160. So why waste money on developing yet another ALCM with the (to me) totally arbitrary range of 7,000km on top of that?
The Tu-160 may be very expensive, but at least development costs have been paid.
That said, the PAK DA program has begun, but is a long way off.
Are you sure that Tu-22M3 produced same year (+/- 3) as Tu-95MS have “significantly less” life span?
I’m going from this recent article about Tu-22M3 upgrades:-
Russia’s Air Force Upgrading Tu-22M3 Bomber
The Russian air force is performing major upgrade of the Tu-22M3 long-range ((sic)) bomber at the present time, the first deputy long-range aviation commander, General-Major Anatoliy Zhikharev, reported to journalists on Saturday.
“The Tu-22M3 long-range bombers are intended both for missile launches and for bombing. But new sights are needed for precision bombing. Thus, the targeting equipment is being upgraded and major upgrade of the equipment for missile launches is on-going for these airplanes,” Zhikharev said.
Answering the question, how much longer will the upgraded Tu-22M3 be in Russia’s air force inventory, the general reported that according to its service life, they will be able to operate until 2015 – 2017.
Source: 27.08.07, RIA Novosti
A decade of life left isn’t a long time, not compared to the plans for the Tu-160s and Tu-95MS, anyway.
If RuAF really needed supersonic long range conventional strike platform Tu-22M3 upgraded to SM, SM2 standards plus IFR would fit the bill wonderfully. But here comes the interesting part – RuAF right now isnt allocating money to such updates.
Yes they are (points above) 🙂
(As well as the obvious Tu-160 upgrades which are going apace, and the Tu-95MS upgrades have already been going on so they’re not even discussed anymore, but they can carry for example Kh-555s).
VympelBut only covers a fraction of those in service at the moment.
Actually, 100 TIs covers almost 2/3s of those in service at a moment – still technically a fraction, yes, but the majority 🙂
Of course, those are probably reserved for T-90As (whether it’s T-90A or T-90M, I don’t know, Russian tank designations are getting very imprecise) rather than those built in the early-mid 1990s (which are equipped with image-intensifier sights and I believe Agava sights on the lucky/command tanks).
The T-90M Vladimir with the wielded turret will probably get these thermal imagers
The T-90A contracts have been going for a bit already. This 100, only being announced a few months ago, is for the next batch.
but by the time it comes to determine what TI to use to upgrade existing tank types and of course the TI to adopt for the new T-95 I doubt it will be foreign made.
T-95 maybe, but upgrades I have no doubt they’ll have Catherine-FCs – they simply don’t have the capacity at Zenit (ie producer of the old Agava and the current Nokturn) to produce TIs en masse, and there’s no indication at all that it’s going to happen in the near future.
The T-95 is far enough away that one can say maybe. But the upgrade for existing tank types has already been determined (again, Rogatka) and will begin in the near term, when trials are complete.
A real possibility might be a purchase of 100 and then licence production to meet the needs of the RuArmy. Afterall there are thermal sights in the BMD-4 proposals
The BMD-4 of course has already entered service. What thermals the gunner is equipped with is unknown, but again I suspect Catherine-FCs.
and to upgrade the BMP-3s etc etc you are suggesting that the only thermal sights in Russian service will be on 100 tanks?
As I said, this Thales contract isn’t the first one – knowledgeable people (e.g. V. Fofanov) had already mentioned that Russian tanks were starting to sport Catherine-FCs well before that announcement.
Vympelno body is planning on invading or nuking Russia.
That’s because they have … a deterrent. 😎
C’mon – which part of Kh-102 is cheap, stealthy, 7K range and in operation?
What’s the point of 7000km range that makes it so much worse than 5000km, and what makes you think you can even make a weapon that has those characteristics and still be cheap? That’s fantasy. (And the Kh-101/Kh-102 are supposed to be stealthy).
I’ll reiterate – a fleet of 30 Tu-160s would be wicked cool. But we simply cant afford to re-start the production. It would be wasteful. For WW3 nuclear role Tu-160 isnt worth the metal its made out of. And for low-threat tactical role we have enough Bears and Backfires to bomb any banana republic into cinders.
The Tu-22M3s aren’t going to be around much longer. Their service life is significantly less than the Tu-160 and Tu-95MS, even with upgrades and service life extensions.
VympelThe Catherine model TI qualifies here, but as I said it is only a matter of time before a Russian manufacturer can step up and fill the position… otherwise they’d have bought thousands of them to upgrade existing Russian tanks.
A single contract for 100 actually covers over 3 years worth of new production T-90s at the current rate (ie 31 a year) – less if you assume the T-72B and T-80B “Rogatka” upgrade for the Army begins and they receive some of them as well. At this point, the budget wouldn’t allow for thousands of TIs, IMO.
VympelIndeed, from thermal imagers to HMGs and trucks, Russian designed replacements are gradually replacing all former ex soviet republic made and ex warsaw pact made items.
True, except for thermal imagers – while the Russians have their own very small thermal imager production base (Zenit’s Nokturn sights for tanks and Zarevo for Mi-24PNs … Nokturn replaced the old Agava), it’s really not enough for volume production, hence all new Russian tanks for example (ie current production T-90 tanks) are getting ESSA sights with Catherine-FC TIs from Thales – Thales recently proudly announced one such deal (specifically mentioning the Russian Army as the customer), though it’s been going on for a bit – export T-90s have of course had ESSA/Catherine-FC for ages.
A pretty significant change from the standard Russian rule that everything the military has should be virtually entirely Russian-made.
Thales has signed a contract with Rosoboronexport for the delivery of around 100 Catherine FC thermal imaging cameras for the Russian Army.
Recently qualified for deployment with the Russian armed forces – a first in Russia for Western equipment – the Catherine FC thermal imaging cameras will be integrated on T-90 armoured vehicles.
This contract further reinforces Thales’s position as a partner to Russian industry in the field of defence optronics for land forces – a position achieved after many years of cooperation on export contracts.
It also marks a decisive step forward in Thales’s commitment to extend its position in the Russian defence market and to step up cooperation and investment with local industry.
VympelNot a chance in hell. RuAF may *want* to produce them, but they cant. The necessary infrastructure to produce Tu-160s serially is gone together with USSR.
On what do you base that on? Frankly, this is simply a matter of will. They did it with Topol-M, they can do it with the Tu-160, or anything else.
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