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Date Posted: 07-May-2004
JANE’S DEFENCE WEEKLY – MAY 12, 2004
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First flight for series Yak-130
HENRY IVANOV JDW Correspondent
Moscow
Additional reporting by Michael J Gething JDW Aerospace Consultant
London
The first series-configuration Yak-130 twin-seat advanced jet trainer/ light strike aircraft flew for the first time on 30 April at the Sokol facility in Nizhny Novgorod, where the aircraft will be produced.
The Russian Federation Air Forces (RFAF) plan to procure 200 Yak-130s to replace ageing L-39s as basic and lead-in fighter trainers with a secondary strike role.
The first flight, planned for late last year, had been postponed several times. Sokol blamed the delays on late deliveries of components. RFAF commander Gen Vladimir Mikhailov has already admitted that there have been problems with the aircraft’s power plant: the ZMKB Progress AI-222-25 turbofan (rated at 24.5kN thrust).
Six engines were delivered in 2003, and eight more are due this 2004, to equip the first batch of four series Yak-130s that Sokol must complete by the end of 2005. ZMKB Progress assembles the AI-222 turbofan (a production version of the DV-2S) in Zaporozhie, Ukraine. Moscow-based MMPP Salyut will undertake series production of the RFAF Yak-130 engines, using parts made at Ukraine’s Motor-Sich.
This Yak-130 series configuration is a further development of the Yakovlev/Aermacchi AEM/Yak-130D demonstrator, which was first flown in April 1996 and has performed 485 test flights. The fuselage now has a smaller cross-section, featuring new nose and air intake profiles. The redesigned wing is smaller by 1.5m2, while the maximum take-off weight has been increased to nine tonnes.
Kevlar armour protects the cockpit area and engines and the Zvezda K-36D ejection seats have been replaced with the newer D36LT3.5 version. In place of the original analogue (dial) instrumentation, three 6 x 8in multifunctional liquid-crystal displays equip the production aircraft. A new Elekroavtomatika-developed fly-by-wire flight-control system, which is reprogrammable to emulate various aircraft types, has been installed.
For the strike role, the Yak-130’s eight hardpoints can carry a 3,000kg weapon load, including KAB-500 smart bombs, Kh-25 air-to-surface missiles, R-73 air-to-air missiles, Platan designator pod, free-fall bombs and unguided rockets.
NPK Irkut now owns Yakovlev (JDW 5 May) and, according to Irkut president Alexei Fiodorov, investment in Yak-130 research and development has exceeded $100 million. However, it will still take “three to four years to get the product ready for export sales”, he says. Irkut hopes to sell more than 1,000 Yak-130s over the next 20 years at a unit price of $13 million.
Meanwhile, in Italy Aermacchi began taxi trials of its own M-346 variant of the original Yak-130D on 28 April. The M-346 is fitted with a digital ‘steer-by-wire’ facility.
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