Russia To Build Over 4,500 Aircraft By 2025

[FSMonster]

These numbers are superficial. Virtually anything could be designated as either civilian or a military 'aircraft'. We're talking about a 17-year old time span in which these numbers aren't all that unattainable.

I would be very interested to know if Russia is planning to increase it's manufacturing base by opening new assembly plants and factories.
There appear to be plenty of customers for their military planes and there's lots of room in the civilian market, but the question is whether the newly consolidated industry can even deliver?

 

[Jade]

Putin vows to establish leadership in aircraft manufacture


Vladimir Radyuhin




MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin kicked off Russia’s biggest post-Soviet air show on Tuesday vowing to use oil windfall to boost the plane-building and other high-tech industries.

Opening the MAKS-2007 international airshow in Zhukovsky near Moscow Mr. Putin called on Russian aircraft manufacturers to “more actively enter the world market for passenger and transport aircraft with competitive products” and “retain leadership in producing combat aircraft”.

“Russia has new economic possibilities and will use them to prioritise high-tech sectors.”

The six-day airshow will showcase Russia’s latest military aircraft, including MiG-35, Su-35, and MiG-29K built for the Indian Navy, as well as helicopters and civilian planes.

More than 780 domestic and foreign producers from 110 countries are participating in the biennial event.

Russia, which once accounted for a quarter of global aircraft production, last year rolled out 26 civilian aircraft.

However, the United Aircraft Corporation set up earlier this year plans to overtake Boeing and Airbus in two decades, and manufacture 300 airliners, 100 transport planes and more than 100 combat aircraft a year by 2025. On the opening day of MAKS-2007, Rosoboronexport signed a $350-million contract with Indonesia for the supply of six Sukhoi fighters.

Organisers hope this year’s airshow will bring in more deals. than the record MAKS-2005, when contracts worth $1 billion were signed.

 

[Wall83]

Yeah right, 4 500 by 2025 .
With the russian economy they should be glad if they be able to build no more then 500. They arent even able to build ten Su-34 a year at this point.

Military aircraft that may be constructed by the year 2025.
~200 Su-34
~200 PAKFA (If they ever get the project off the ground)
~8-10 Tu-160

 

[Ozzy Blizzard]

Military aircraft that may be constructed by the year 2025.
~200 Su-34
~200 PAKFA (If they ever get the project off the ground)
~8-10 Tu-160

Which is an impressive force structure for any air force. The days of a 2000+ fighter force are long gone, and boasting of a return to those days seem to be emotively driven at best.

 

[Wall83]

The biggest problem with russian miltary production is basicly money. There are just not enough. With that sad it is still very strange that russia cant build more aircraft a year then it does.
If you compare it with china who construcs about 100 fighters a year russia is far behind. You can see this in all fields, submarines, fighters, tanks, helikopters ecs.

 

[F-15 Eagle]

Which is an impressive force structure for any air force. The days of a 2000+ fighter force are long gone, and boasting of a return to those days seem to be emotively driven at best.

That is not true at all, there are more than 2400 combat aircraft in service with Russia. To say the days of a 2000+ fighter force is gone is a pretty blank statement with no facts to back it up. People say Russia will build 200 PAK-FA but that is not based off of any facts, with around 900 fighters in service with the VVS, that should give a good idea about how many T-50's Russia might build, but we will have to wait to see how many they really build. Russia palns for 200 SU-34's to replace some 300 SU-24s and 300 YAK-130 to replace 255 Su-25. The U.S. alone plans to build 2458 F-35s to replace F-15/16/18s and A-10 and AV-8B.

 

[Salty Dog]

The biggest problem with russian miltary production is basicly money. There are just not enough. With that sad it is still very strange that russia cant build more aircraft a year then it does.
If you compare it with china who construcs about 100 fighters a year russia is far behind. You can see this in all fields, submarines, fighters, tanks, helikopters ecs.

I believe the problem with Russian military production is more infrastructure rather than money. Aircraft manufacturing plants require new machines and tooling to build airframes, assemblies, avionics, etc. These machines are very expensive and not easy to come by. In post Soviet Union / Cold War Russia, much of the infrastructure especially for advanced fighters with sophisticated material has fallen by the wayside as requirements and a previous financial crisis stagnated the industry. The aero engineers, skilled machinists, electronics techs, etc, retired and were not replaced. All this has led to delays in RDT&E, reduced production of replacements for the current Russian fleet as well as for Russian aircraft customers (India for example), etc.

I have not seen any new projects from Russia. PAK-FA is still just a paper project and the Su-35/Mig-35 are just upgrades of the Su-27/Mig-29. Tu-160 has no follow-on and aging Tu-95/Tu22 are kept with upgrades.

 

[KGB]

The intention was to eventually produce 2 civilian aircraft for every military aircraft. This doesn't sound so much like a plan to rebuild the air force. It sound like the intention is to rebuild the aerospace industry and sustain it by taking some market share from Boeing, Airbus etc. That, and the sales of military aircraft would help stabilize their aircraft industry's base. That would make good business, as the amount of air travel worldwide continues to increase.

 

[B-2_Bomber101]

we should let them but force then into an allience or we should not but spy on them with a spy satalite

 

[kamikazeranger]

thats right, if russia gets ahold of good aircraft techno then we wil suiffer

 

[Wall83]

The russians must start buliding planes in high numbers in the next comming years, otherwise the russian airforce will be totaly gone by 2025-2030.
If they start cunstructing 100 fighters a year from 2009 they will have 1600 planes by 2025. I dont think this is gonna happen and dont think the future russian air force will consist of more then max 700-1000 aircraft.

 

[Feanor]

I would disagree. Given that the Su-27 and MiG-29 are a bit younger then the teen series American fighter jets, and given that a large number of these aircraft are stored at storage bases because of lack of funds for keeping the units operational, it's quite possible to maintain current air force strength for some time. The question of course comes to mind; what next? The current Russian air force is far larger then what a country like Russia realistically needs.

We need to give up the stereotype of the Russian super power, and realize that Russia is at best a regional power with a large nuclear arsenal. It doesn't have a global network of alliances, nor a force projecting naval presence. The current military size, in my opinion, is too large and too poorly organized. While it's quite possible that Russia will indeed build over 4000 aircraft (the Su-30 Super Flanker alone has been produced in numbers close to 500 over the last decade) this doesn't mean that the Russian air force will grow, or shrink.

In essence only time will show what will happen to the Russian air force and aerospace industry.