All Ilyushin Il-38 (NATO reporting name: May) antisubmarine warfare planes will be upgraded to the Il-38N level, Russian Naval Aviation Chief Igor Kozhin said.
“The defense minister has assigned a task to upgrade the entire Il-38 plane fleet,” Kozhin said. According to him, the Il-38 plane has had “virtually no accident” for almost 50 years.
“Despite its age, the upgrade has allowed bringing it to a qualitatively new level,” the Naval Aviation’s chief said.
In the autumn of 2016, the seventh upgraded Il-38 antisubmarine warfare plane started undergoing ground and flight trials at the Ilyushin Company’s flight test and development base.
The Navy received the first Il-38N plane in late 2014. In all, about 30 Il-38N antisubmarine warfare planes are planned to be delivered to the Navy.
The Il-38N plane is equipped with the Novella target search and track system that can detect aerial targets at a distance of 90 kilometers (56 miles) and above-sea targets at a range of 320 kilometers (199 miles). The system can track 32 above- and underwater targets simultaneously.
The Il-38N plane can also conduct electronic intelligence.
