641st Regiment Russian Military News

Russian Military News October 1999

Ilyushin displaces Antonov 31/8/99
Story by Piotr Butowski, Aviation Journalist
Antonov's long association with the Russian Air Force as the supplier of the bulk of its medium transport requirements has come to an upexpectedly abrupt halt.
This follows the announcement that Ilyushin has been chosen to replace the
An-26 with its new Il-112V, a high unswept wing design with rear loading ramp and powered by two Klimov TV7-117S turboprop engines.
Intended to have a high degree of commonality with the Ilyushin Il-114 short-range passenger and freight transport, the new aircraft is expected to have a maximum payload of 5.5 tons.This has been increased from the previously specified 3.5-ton limit, as has the maximum speed up from 600Km/h (372mph)
to 700km/h (435mph), along with an upspecified increase in operational range to meet new Russian Air Force requirements.
Within the Commonwealth of Independant States member nations, there is a predicted market for around 300 military transports in the 5-ton payload class and a further 1000 sales possible in the civilian sector.

Mi-28N enters production 29/8/99
The night-capable version of the Mi-28, the Mi-28N (Nochnoy/Night), is scheduled to start series production soon at the Rostvertol manufacturing plant of the Mil OKB at Rostov-on-Don.
According to Col Gen Vitaly Pavlov, Head of Russian Army Aviation, speaking at the 60th anniversary celebrations for the plant on July 2, batch production of the Mi-28N will start after a number of test airframes are completed.
General Pavlov also said that both the Mi-28N and Ka-52N would be adopted after evaluations, but a tender will decide which one will be exported and which will be used by Russian Army Aviation.
The price of the Mi-28N is between $12-15m, around a third of the cost of the American AH-64 Apache.
In recent years, the Mi-28 has receded from public view in the marketplace,
whereas the Ka-52 has enjoyed a fairly high profile in the west.
Rostvertol's marketing personnel see a world demand for an Mi-28 type of helicopter of 120-200 machines a year and it seems more likely that both helicopters will be offered for export, rather than just one.
It is more likely to appeal more to existing Mi-24 operators around the world than it's Kamov competitor.

The Mi-28N is equipped with state-of-the-art Russian weaponary and avoinics.
The latter includes Ataka anti-tank missiles, Igla supersonic air-to-air missiles and a trainable 30mm cannon.
The cockpit glazing can withstand direct hits from 12.7mm bullets and splinters from 20mm cannon shells and retain transparency after such damage.
Moreover, the main rotor blades can operate for 30 minutes after being hit by a 30mm shell, and the fuselage and crew seats are capable of safely absorbing the impact of a 12m/sec (40ft/sec) descent and guarantee survival of the pilot and weapon systems operator (WSO).

Modified Mi-24 rollout 19/8/99
In response to deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov's recent directive to accelerate progress on the completion of upgrades on the Mi-24VM, Mil will rollout the first series modified helicopter before the opening of MAKS-99 at Zhukovsky.Klebanov's decision was inspired by concerns that Russia's leading position in the world's arms market could be jeopardised by further delays to this programme in the light of significant competition from Israel and South Africa, both of which are already offering similarly modified versions of the Mi-24 attack helicopter, albeit with less experience of the type.

Lipinski says:Why is army aviation so neglected these days? In my time it was the backbone of the armed forces, and with the AH-64, the American Army has already proven the capability of helicopter gunships.
Russia's helicopter builders had better get their their act together, we may have no new attack helicopters next century, and with our skilled pilots, that is not something that should be allowed to happen.
Exports are vital to all our new helicopter programs, so get the timetables sorted out, and learn to compete and we may have a helicopter force to be proud of once more.

New naval Su-27KUB 01/5/99
On April 29, the first prototype of Sukhoy's latest variant of the Su-27 took to the air in the hands of Viktor Pugachev and Sergei Melnikov.
The new aircraft is the Su-27KUB and is a two-seat side-by-side version of the Su-33 'Flanker-D' carrier-borne fighter and in service will probably be designated Su-33KUB.
Although the aircraft has a similar cockpit layout to the Su-34/32FN strike fighter, the new variant retains the conical nose radome of the other pure fighter members of the Su-27 family.
This allegedly houses the planar array of the Fazotron N-014 radar which raises questions about the stated training function of this aircraft alongside the Su-33.The latter is optimised for fleet air defence with the N-001 radar, whilst the N-014 would confer a specialised air-to-surface capability on the new variant, this suggests that the Su-33KUB would actually complement the interceptor role of the Su-33, rather than act as a simple conversion trainer.
More significant than the use of side-by-side seating, is the adoption of a radically new folding wing, designed by Su-33 programme manager, Konstantin Marbashev.
The span has been increased by 1.3m, thus allowing to reduce approach speed to 240km/h (130 kts)- a significant benefit for carrier operations.
The adaptive aerodynamics of the new wing (i.e. leading edge and trailing edge adapt automatically to prevailing flight conditions) demonstrate such excellent flight characteristics, however, that it is likely that the new wing could be fitted to other Su-27 variants, including the Su-34/32FN.
For a given fuel load, endurance can be extended by 15-20 percent and retrofitting the latter with the new wing could greatly enhance the overall performance of this 45,000kg (100,000Ib) strike fighter.

Sukhoy plans two new aircraft per year
At a press conference held on the 25th of May, Mikhail Simonov, Director General and Genaral Designer of the Sukhoy Design Bureau, affirmed that the company will maintain the tradition of flying two new aircraft types per year.
Planned for the near future is the construction of an upgraded iteration of the Su-27IB/Su-32FN/Su-34 design- the Su-32MF, it was not made clear hoe this differs from the original production aircraft.
The other major programme this year will be the construction of a family of light, single-engined aircraft based on the S-54 design.
The S-54 is an advanced trainer based on Su-27 aerodynamics, the S-55 is an export fighter variant and the S-56, an export carrier-based fighter variant.
He also declared that the company will continue to fund the developmant of the the fifth generation S-37 Berkut 'Forward-sweep' research aircraft out of its own resources.

Lipinski says:What is the Sukhoy planning for the S-37's future, have they even agreed on a name?
Hear all about the MFI program on my 5th-generation fighters page-

MiG-29SMT completes test programme
On the 29th of December 1998, the first series production MiG-29SMT was rolled out by the manufacturer.Afterwards the aircraft was taken to Zhukovsky to commence flight trials.It will then fly to Lipetsk for  full service evaluation.
A further 24 are expected to be completed during 1999 and the Russian Air Force hopes to upgrade between 150-180 aircraft to the SMT standard.
The upgrade work will be carried out on aircraft built in the last ten years and should extend their service lives to 2020 (probably if more are upgraded).
With the Russian economy recently in a state of flux, stable funding for the project cannot be guaranteed, consequently MAPO-MIG is likely to use funds from the export sales to bolster the program in emergency.
Russia has offered the SMT upgrade to every East European operator of the type at $4 million each.Another bargaining tool is the fact that the manufacturer claims to be able to complete an SMT upgrade in just 45 days :)
Poland has not taken up the offer, but Syria, India are interested also.
17/5/99
The flight test programme for the MiG-29SMT is due to be completed in June of this year.Currently the aircraft is baing flown by test pilots from ANPK MiG (sic) and military pilots from the Air Force Flight Test Research Centre.
In January a total of 100 test flights were flown, of which 40 were conducted by military pilots.The first true prototype of the MiG-29SMT (Bort no. 917) has also completed weapons trials, and confirmed it's ability to use the entire range of armaments planned for this upgrade.