Russian Air Force News & Discussion

[Klaus]

There will still be 58 new and several dozen older MiG 29s and 96 MiG 31s.
MiG simply failed to develop any competitive new combat aircraft since the 1990s and instead kept upgrading the MiG 29, which was already inferior to the Su 27 and the latest version, the MiG 35, still doesn't match Sukhois current Su 35S.

 

[Feanor]

According to two articles, published on RIAN and ruaviation some time ago, the plan is to have 96 Su 35 and MiG 31 each by 2020.
In addition to the 60 Su 27SM already in service further upgraded aircraft will be handed over this or next year already, so perhaps 80 to 100 might remain in service.

Do you have a source that they plan to upgrade additional legacy Flankers?

The MiG 29s are mostly planned to be phased out, except from the 34 SMT/UBT and the MiG 35, assuming that the latter will be ordered at all.

And of course the MiG-29K/KUB in the AVMF.

@Feanor: the article mentioned that the VVS will receive 10 new-built An 124, together with some repaired aircraft, so the total number could be 20.

What I read was 20 upgraded, and 20 news ones to be ordered. Perhaps 10 is the first contract.

There will still be 58 new and several dozen older MiG 29s and 96 MiG 31s.
MiG simply failed to develop any competitive new combat aircraft since the 1990s and instead kept upgrading the MiG 29, which was already inferior to the Su 27 and the latest version, the MiG 35, still doesn't match Sukhois current Su 35S.

Actually it's simple. Sukhoi landed mega-contracts in China and India using their political clout. MiG didn't. They couldn't even secure follow-on orders for the MiG-29s India had bought in the Soviet era. In fact it wasn't until recently that they were even able to land a modernization contract for them.

 

[Klaus]

There was a news article in the AIR International magazine 12/11 or 01/12. The author wrote that in 2012 the RuAF would receive additional upgraded or overhauled Su 24s, Su 25s and Su 27s. To be honest, I don't know whether they will get more Su 27SMs, but this would seem logical to me as the other Sukhoi aircraft are all upgraded ones. It could also be that the Air Force just intends to extend the service life of the basic Su 27S by some years.

 

[Feanor]

There was a news article in the AIR International magazine 12/11 or 01/12. The author wrote that in 2012 the RuAF would receive additional upgraded or overhauled Su 24s, Su 25s and Su 27s. To be honest, I don't know whether they will get more Su 27SMs, but this would seem logical to me as the other Sukhoi aircraft are all upgraded ones. It could also be that the Air Force just intends to extend the service life of the basic Su 27S by some years.

They will probably be overhauls, as repairs are continuing on existing Su-27S and P. I doubt they will fund more SMs with Su-35S being delivered right now. Repairs are done at an ARZ plant, while SM upgrades are done at KnAAPO.

 

[Twinblade]

Pictures of Multirole transport aircraft on display at Defexpo 12.

 

[Feanor]

Pics of Su-35S bort 01 black flying with 2 RVV-SD missiles between the engines, and two RVV-MD missiles on the wingtips. They may be mockups. The photo was taken March 2012 at the 929th Flight-Test Center in Akhtyubinsk.

bmpd -

I suspect they're mockups, as this is a little early for the next-gen missiles to be at live-fire testing. They maybe there for aerodynamic testing, since the Su-35S is currently undergoing state trials. However they may be indeed be live munitions intended for live-fire testing, which would mean that the programs for developing a new generation of air to air munitions is progressing much faster then anyone could have predicted.

EDIT: Requirements have been set for a new strike UAV, with the development of the onboard systems given to Tranzas, and the airframe to Sokol. The proposed mass of the UAV is to be 5 tonns. A recon UAV is also supposedly under development.

http://lenta.ru/news/2012/04/02/uav/

It'll be interesting to see what these designs borrow from the abortive Skat project, and what they take from the Israeli UAVs currently in use.

 

[Haavarla]

Interesting. Doesn't all Mock-up missile in the VVS arsenal come with a spesiffic color code?

 

[Feanor]

Interesting. Doesn't all Mock-up missile in the VVS arsenal come with a spesiffic color code?

I don't know. Possibly.

Here's a couple of interesting shots with the Yak-130 carrying 4 KAB-500s. The aircraft is a preserial one, bort 04 white. It's in Akhtyubinsk undergoing some sort of trials.

bmpd -

That's a big payload for a small plane.

 

[Haavarla]

Yeah, the Yak-130 could see some deals in South America.
If it does, the singel seater Yak-131 could be closer than ever before..

 

[Feanor]

Yeah, the Yak-130 could see some deals in South America.
If it does, the singel seater Yak-131 could be closer than ever before..

I've heard rumors that the Peru expo was a bust.

Though the Yak-130 already has solid deals with Algeria and Syria, and negotiations are underway with Kazakhstan and Belarus. If both purchase a sizeable number, then we'd be looking at a production of maybe ~200 aircraft in the 2020 timeframe. And the VVS will certainly need more then they currently ordered, post 2020.

 

[Klaus]

Some years ago they claimed they would order 200 themselves, but since then the number of combat aircraft in the VVSs inventory has decreased by more than a quarter. 76 is not sufficient, anyway.

 

[Haavarla]

Well.. one contract at the time here.
The Russian MoD do have a nack of signing smaller contracts at first or in reality splitt them up in smaller contracts.

However, 200 advanced trainers may be somewhat optimistic here..

 

[Feanor]

Well.. one contract at the time here.
The Russian MoD do have a nack of signing smaller contracts at first or in reality splitt them up in smaller contracts.

However, 200 advanced trainers may be somewhat optimistic here..

Depends on the time-frame I suppose. I would expect to see closer to 100 Yak-130s in the 2020 timeframe. If purchases continue past that point they may well hit the 200 mark. There is also continuing talk of a heavy strike-UAV on the Yak-130 airframe.

EDIT: They just managed to set up maintenance for the D-18T engines for the An-124 at the 121st ARZ. Previously to this the engines were repaired at a Motor Sich factory in Ukraine.

http://lenta.ru/news/2012/04/05/d18t/

 

[jack412]

Haavarla, you were in a structural discussion about the t-50 1,2,3 on another site, I thought this article would give some light, it seems t-50 4 will be the correction

PAK FA news

 

[Haavarla]

Thats from the latest Air International. I have it, but thx.
There's a debate over at F-16.net where the cracks grounding the T-50-01 are presents on the other prototypes as well..

My take was that KnAAPO might have figured out these structure errors on the T-50-02 and 03 due to the Static stress test airframe.
It was put to stress testing before the first flight ever happend.

Well, lets just wait and see, the T-50-02 have made reecent flight though..

 

[jack412]

It's all part of the joy of the early life of test and development, I'm sure there will be lots of data from the static, t-50 1 and 2/3 to move on with. The good news is that it was found early and won't impact too much in the scheme of things. It's only a real problem if it was found a lot later, like the f-111 where they had to stop the production line for a redesign.

 

[Feanor]

Russia and Ukraine have reached an agreement on joint production of the An-70. The engines and wing will be produced in Ukraine, everything else in Russia, with final assembly at VASO (Voronezh). The VVS plans to acquire 60 of them, likely for the VDV, as they were the ones who voiced a desire for it. Ukraine plans to acquire 2 of them.

ÀÐÌÑ-ÒÀÑÑ

 

[Haavarla]

Feanor@
Can you pls make out what these charts tell us.
Its between the F-15C and Su-27SK i think.
Some acceleration, climb and sustained turn charts with different fuel load etc..

 

[Feanor]

Honestly I don't know enough about the subject to make a meaningful translation. Also a couple of the images are tiny and unreadable.

 

[Klaus]

Does anybody know how many Tu 160s are operational at the moment? Afaik 35 have been built in total, but many of them had to be scrapped as the Ukrainian Air Force didn't have the money to maintain them.