From Moscow Defense Brief

http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/1-2010/item1/article1/

The program has full support from the Putin and the top Russian goverment officials. As I remember he (Mr. Putin) said if whatever happens we must supply the money for this project . This is not just an aircraft for Russia they look it such an opportunity to create the latest technologies in Russia after the collapse of Soviet union. And they call this program vital for the future of the Russian aircraft industry. So I don’t think its future will be similar with the S-37 or Mig-1.42. And all engine,weapons and radar manufacturers says that they have latest technologies to create the most modern components for T-50 but there is sure necessary money and time. I think the important thing here is to know how to create it not money. Because its soluble. Since 2002 the goverment supplied the necessary money for this project and Im sure they will going to supply more after the first flight. They says everything is going according the schedule;)

New AWACS Under Development in Russia

The Taganrog Beriev Aviation Scientific and Engineering Complex is developing a project for a future long range radar observation and control airplane ((airborne warning and control — AWACS)), the Interfax agency reports.

Development is taking place for the purpose of replacing the fleet of Russian air force A-50 airplanes with an similar designations. The future AWACS complex will surpass appreciably both the upgrade A-50 airplane and the A-50EhI complex being delivered to India, they said at the defense industrial complex.

Source: 21.02.10, Avia.RU

The game changer always doesn’t mean air superiority at all over the world, it also means the best way to protect you and your allies air space.I also think of Russia is arming for protecting itself and its allies not for pressing the Nato.But the amount of the aircrafts are important and they have future projects such an lightweight stealth fighter and stealth bomber. These all are sure for being powerful in the region.

Russia wants to cooperate with South Africa on UAVs, eager to offer airlifter, unveils its stealth fighter

By: Keith Campbell
19th February 2010
Russia would like to cooperate with South Africa in the development of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) for civilian missions. This was one of a number of civil aviation sector proposals made by the Russian government to its South African counterpart late last year.

UAVs are a sector of aviation in which Russia is lagging behind other countries. Last November the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, General Alexander Zelin, publicly complained that Russian military UAVs were inferior to foreign designs. “Unfortunately,” he said, “we haven’t managed to make UAVs that meet the technical and tactical specifications we need.”

As a result, the Russian Air Force would not, in the short term, accept any locally designed UAVs. In fact, Russia bought 12 Israeli UAVs in a $53-million deal late last year. It is likely, therefore, that the country lags even further behind in the civilian use of UAVs.

South Africa is a leading country in the design, development and manufacture of UAVs, and has also been a leader in their operation in civilian airspace. This country is a member of the Unmanned Air Systems Study Group of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (an Unmanned Air System comprises an Unmanned Air Vehicle and its associated ground-based control and support systems and equipment). Thus, cooperating with South Africa would provide a major boost for the Russian industry.

Meanwhile, now that South Africa has cancelled the Airbus Military A400M transport aircraft, Russia is eager to offer the military version of its new-generation Ilyushin Il-76 cargo aircraft to meet the South African Air Force’s airlift needs. The latest version, the Il-76MF, has a 6,6 m longer fuselage than earlier versions of the aircraft, has new avionics, new engines (Perm PS-90A-76) which are fully compliant with European, Japanese and North American environmental and noise regulations and which provide 25% greater take-off thrust and 20% greater range than previous Il-76 models. An Il-76MF can carry a 40 t payload for 5 800 km, whereas an Il-76MD can carry the same payload for 4 800 km.

Originally manufactured at Tashkent, which is now in Uzbekistan, Il-76s will in future also be made in Ulyanovsk in Russia. The Il-76 is, in its civilian version, one of the commercial aircraft for which Russia is proposing the creation of a maintenance hub in South Africa (see Engineering News February 5, 2010).

Although Russia may lag in UAV technology, the country has recently demonstrated that it has caught up with the US at the very cutting edge of aviation technology – manned stealth combat aircraft. On January 29, the prototype Sukhoi Pak Fa fifth-generation stealth fighter made its maiden flight from company’s KnAAPO production subsidiary’s airfield at Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Sukhoi itself is a subsidiary of the State-owned United Aircraft Corporation). Pak Fa is a Russian acronym standing for Prospective Aviation System for Frontal Aviation. In turn, Frontal Aviation is Russian military terminology for tactical aviation or tactical air power.

Equipped with the latest type of radar – active electronically scanned array radar – the Pak Fa, like its American counterpart, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, has an internal weapons bay and can “supercruise” (that is, fly supersonically without having to use afterburners; using afterburners greatly increases fuel consumption). It is fitted with an integrated flight control system which also controls its two NPO Saturn “Item 117” engines.

Flight trials will last until 2012, with an initial production batch for operational trials being delivered to the Russian Air Force in 2015 – these will probably be powered by a new design of engine. (Some 130 F-22s are already in active service with the US Air Force, but under current plans only 183 will be built).

“This is a great success of both Russian science and design school,” enthused Sukhoi director-general Mikhail Pogosyan after the first test flight. “[The] Pak Fa programme advances Russian aeronautics together with allied industries to an entirely new technological level.”

India is negotiating with Russia to join the Pak Fa programme.

Highlights

SA is a world leader in UAVs, while Russia lags in this technology.

Russia has now caught up again with the US in fighter technology with its new stealth design.

web:http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/russia-wants-to-cooperate-with-sa-unmanned-aircraft-is-eager-to-offer-airlifter-and-unveils-its-stealth-fighter-2010-02-19

Russia and India will soon sign a specific agreement on the fighter 5 th generation

(ITAR-TASS). Russia and India will soon sign a specific agreement on the program fighter 5-th generation, said vice president of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), the general director of Sukhoi and MiG “Mikhail Pogosyan.

According to him, the beginning of testing prospective aviation complex tactical aircraft (PAK FA) contributed to signing of specific agreements.

According to Pogosyan, the cooperation of the fighter to the 5-th generation of Russia and India are discussing over the last several years.Test flights, the first of which was held in Komsomolsk-na-Amur in late January this year, will serve as an impetus to the negotiations. ”

“Russia and India have come to sign a specific agreement on the PAK FA, – he said. – It will be signed soon.”

Regarding the development of ties between Russia and India in the field of military aviation, Mikhail Pogosyan noted that the RAC “MiG” is important to participate in the tender for the supply of 126 light fighters for the Indian Air Force. In this regard, he noted that Russia’s side in the competition, despite stiff competition, good prospects. “The tender gives us another opportunity to prove to Indian customers that Russia’s military hardware exceeds the supply Western companies,” – sure Pogosyan.

In August 2007, India announced a tender to supply 126 fighters, estimated at 11 billion dollars. For this sum New Delhi expects to buy 126 new multi-role fighters, although in the future, their number can be reduced to two hundred.

Fight for the contract are the French aircraft manufacturer, Dassault Aviación with fighter Rafale, the U.S. Lockheed Martin with F-16 “Falcon” and “Boeing” c F-18 Super Hornet, the Swedish SAAB with Grippenom “, European consortium Eurofighter, combining aircraft industries of Great Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy, with the Typhoon.

Russia promotes multi-role fighter MIG-35 which has the elements of the fifth-generation.

Date: 19.02.2010

‘Russian Stealth’ may gain market supremacy in ten years’ time

13.02.2010, 12.39

By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila Alexandrova

The Russian defense-industrial complex has delivered a fifth-generation jet that is promised to be far less costly than its US rivals.

The T-50, some have already dubbed the Russian Stealth, made its second flight on Friday.

The test was carried out at an airdrome in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The flight lasted for 57 minutes and all systems operated normally. Several more test flights are due there. Then the plane will be moved to the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, near Moscow, where most tests will be carried out.

The plane’s maiden flight was on January 29, when it stayed in the air for 47 minutes.

The Sukhoi design bureau is the plane’s brain-father. The first flying sample of the fifth-generation fighter was put together at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur-based aviation production association.

The plane’s shape makes it invisible in the optical, infra-red and traditional radar wave bands. The T-50 will have the capability to perform combat tasks in any weather round the clock and extra maneuverability. The minimum runway length requirement for take-off and landing is 300-400 meters.

The new generation fighter’s technical parameters will remain classified for the time being. Presumably, it will be able to fly at a maximum speed of 2,600 kilometers per hour and have fuel endurance of up to 5,500 kilometers. Refueling in flight is a possible option.

The T-50 has a spacious internal compartment for armaments. It may accommodate up to eight R-77 air-to-air rockets or two huge smart bombs 1,500 kilograms each. It will carry externally suspended two extra-long range rockets designed by the Novator bureau. Each of these rockets is capable of destroying planes, including those carrying the airborne warning and control system AWACS, at a distance of 400 kilometers.

Next to the previous generations of fighter jets the T-50 boasts a number of unique capabilities of an attack aircraft and a fighter jet at the same time.

Its main distinction from the predecessors is all available information is processed by the onboard computer and offered to the pilot in the form of prompts. Extra-maneuverability and a super-sonic cruising speed, achievable without turning on the booster, are other noteworthy features. Largely the plane owes them to the fifth generation engine.

The fifth generation jet is less costly to operate. For instance, one flight hour of the fourth generation plane, such as Su-27, costs 10,000 dollars, while that of the fifth generation jet has been slashed to 1,500 dollars.

Experts say the T-50 will cost far less than its US counterpart, although discussing a likely price is too early at this point.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the other day ordered the first batch of the T-50 jets should be supplied to Lipetsk, where pilots will be trained, as early as 2013, and batch production should be started as of 2015.

However, to some analysts Putin’s expectations look unrealistic, because the financing of the T-50 project is rather limited, and the power plant still has unresolved problems. The chief of the Moscow-based Center of Strategies and Technologies Analysis, Ruslan Pukhov, has told the daily Kommersant that the plane may begin to enter duty at routine Air Force units no earlier than 2012-2020. He attributes his skepticism to an earlier decision by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to freeze state budge spending on military research as of 2011.

“In one’s backyard one can make only one new fighter-jet. For launching its batch production very much will have to be done in the field of materials processing, know-hows and personnel training,” the daily Gazeta quotes Colonel-General Anatoly Sitnov as saying. Sitnov in 1994-2001 was chief of armaments of the Russian Armed Forces. “Yet, the plane boasts very many new gadgets and parameters – new opto-electronics, new aerodynamics, and many other things. The basis has been laid. Now time is ripe to build up from it.”

The emergence of the T-50 has prompted some experts to say that Russia now has a response to the United States’ F-22 Raptor. The Russian fifth-generation jet will have a number of advantages over the US rival, the chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, Nikolai Makarov, says with certainty.

“First and foremost, it has a very advanced, practically human-like brain,” he said.

However, the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s military observer believes that comparing the T-50 and US Raptor would be not quite correct. Their concepts are very different. For instance, the Pentagon gave up the intention of making the F-22 super-maneuverable. It is believed that highly-maneuverable, variable thrust rockets the F-22 is armed with make it unnecessary for the pilot to make a tail approach to the enemy for attack. Also, the US fifth generation plane can hit targets at extreme distances, beyond the range of the rockets of all other planes.

The F-22 had quite a few problems. Last year it turned out that its electronics may fail in rainy weather. Research found that moisture gets into complicated systems through cooling devices and may cause high precision instruments to malfunction.

Then there surfaced some problems with repairs and maintenance. It turned out that the most advanced US warplane requires nearly 24 hours of maintenance work after each hour in flight. The cost of one hour of flight operation exceeds 4,000 dollars. And even in that case planes go out of order all too often. According to Pentagon sources, in October 2008 through May 2009 about 50 percent of the F-22s in service were unfliable due to technical failures.

Besides, the Raptor is expensive and very unreliable, so the Pentagon decided against using it in Iraq or Afghanistan. Just recently it curtailed purchases of the F-22 altogether.

Anatoly Sitnov is certain that Russia will polish its T-50 to perfection faster than the Americans may do that to their F-22.

“If one looks back at how the Americans spent 25 years to tune up and adjust their F-22, it will look very likely that our plane will require far less time, because all of its aspects have been researched rather well – this is a second version of a fifth generation jet already.”

The deputy director of the Center of Strategies and Technologies Analysis, Konstantin Makienko, believes that after 2020 two or three types of planes will dominate the market of fighter aircraft – the United States’ F-35, Russia’s T-50 and, probably, some Chinese simulator of a fifth generation jet.

“I believe that the Russian product will have every chance to comfortably control up to 30 percent of the fighter jets market.”

Some countries, such as India, he speculated, may be forming their fleet by purchasing both Russia’s T-50 and US F-35. The Russian-Indian plane may dominate in the markets of South-East Asia and some states of the Middle East and South-West Asia, as well as Maghreb countries – the traditional customers of Soviet and Russian aviation technologies.

Under the optimistic scenario batch supplies, he believes, may begin in 2016-2020, and initial combat readiness, achieved in two or three years after that.

More details about Russian arms sale to the Libya

MOSCOW, Feb 4

Russia will supply combat planes, modernize tanks and launch a plant producing Kalashnikov rifles to Libya, a source told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.

“The package of contracts signed in Moscow during the visit to Russia by Libyan Defense Minister Yunis Jaber envisages the supply of 12 multi-purpose Su-35 fighters, six Yak-130 combat and training planes, the modernization of 145 T-72 tanks, and also the launch of a plant producing firearms, primarily Kalashnikov rifles of the Ak-100 series,” the source said.

The total value of the signed contracts is 1.3 billion euros, or $1.8 billion, the source said.

Aircraft equipment accounts for over $1 billion of the value of the signed contracts, the source said.

A separate contract has been signed on the launch of a plant to produce Kalashnikov rifles, the source said. “The construction of that plant was envisioned by a contract signed in 2004. However, for reasons unrelated to Russia the plant has never been put in operation,” the source said.

“The modernization of T-72 tanks will be conducted by Uralvagonzavod. This contract will ensure workload for the plant for at least two years,” the source said.

Practical work on the fulfillment of the signed contracts will begin in the nearest future, the source said. “The first deliveries will take place this year. As for Yak-130 planes, the contract on them was initialed back in 2007. The delivery of these planes is planned for 2011-2012,” the source said.

Negotiations with Libya are also being conducted on a different commodity nomenclature, specifically, the supply to Tripoli of naval equipment (Project 636 submarines, high-speed Molniya rocket boats), air defense systems (S-300PMU2 Favorit and Top-M2E, modernization of the surface-to-air S-125 Pechora systems into Pechora-2M), combat and transport helicopters (Ka-52 Alligator and Mi-17), reactive volley fire systems (Grad and Smerch).

According to earlier reports, the USSR supplied some 350 combat planes, including 130 MiG-23 fighters, 70 MiG-21 planes, six Su-24 bombers, and six Tu-22 bombers to Libya in 1981-1985. The Libyan Army currently has some 4,000 units of Soviet armored vehicles, a large number of surface-to-air systems, naval equipment, and other weapons.

The Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation and Rosoboronexport have confirmed the signing of weapons contracts with Libya, but are not commenting on the details.

Source: Interfax-AVN

First su-35 export success:) Seems like Its also going to be rather competitive in the other contests!