CIVIL AVIATION
• More Tu-204-300 and A320 for Vladivostok Avia
• Beefing up Red Wings’ fleet
• Another Tu-214 built
• Aeroflot-Cargo gearing up for getting Il-96-400T
• Aeroflot kicks off discarding its Tu-154 fleet

MILITARY AVIATION
• Blackjacks over the Caribbean

JDAM and JSOW а la russe
Last summer, the Bazalt federal unitary company, which turns 70 this year and is Russia’s major diversified company specialising in developing and manufacturing close-in battle weapons for the Army and aerial weapons for the Air Force, held a presentation, during which the company’s leaders shed some light on weapons systems under development. Bazalt Director General Vladimir Korenkov said that the company was completing the development of several cutting-edge air-launched precision-guided weapons systems expected soon to start fielding with the Russian Air Force and being sold abroad in addition to rocket launchers, mortar bombs, hand grenades and self-propelled gun rounds well known abroad, as well as unguided aerial weapons of all types long and widely employed by RusAF. The novelties in question include, in the first place, the advanced PBK-500U commonised gliding cluster-bomb unit (CBU) with homing submunitions and a special set of glide-and-guide tailkit modules to fit production gravity bombs. The development of the two systems is a kind of response of Russian designers to the US development of the JSOW gliding CBU and a series of JDAM smart bombs already in the inventory of the US Air Force, US Navy’s air arm and a number of other militaries. Take-off’s correspondent Yevgeny Yerokhin attended Bazalt’s presentation

CONTRACTS AND DELIVERIES
• Beriev and Vega carry on with AEW systems
• Mi-171 for Mongolian military
• Ka-226T throws its hat into Indian tender ring
• IFC increases Russian airliner exports to Latin America
• Russian-German JV gets first order for A320 conversion
• First Ukrainian An-148 delivered
• Il-114-100 finds new buyers

Sukhoi fighters on Asian market
According to the annual arms output rating of Russia’s major defence manufacturers published by the Russian independent Centre of Analysis of Strategies and Technologies last year, the Sukhoi company ranked first in 2007, having more than doubled its income. Its proceeds exceeded $1.9 billion last year, which accounted for almost half the gross revenue of the United Aircraft Corporation. Sukhoi produced such high production and sales results owing to its export success in the first place, with customers having taken delivery of over 50 aircraft of the Su-30MK family. In 2007, Sukhoi’s exports exceeded $1.35 billion, totalling almost a quarter of the aggregate revenue earned from all Russian weaponry exports that year. More than half of the Sukhoi aircraft exported last year went to Asian countries. The Asian market remains key to Sukhoi that has clinched deals to deliver upwards of 550 Sukhoi fighters to the region, of which more than 350 have been delivered. This is the lion’s share of the Sukhoi aircraft exported after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which makes the Asian market especially important to the company. Andrey Fomin reviews Sukhoi’s success and prospects on Asian market

Su-35: two prototypes under tests!
The second prototype of the advanced Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighter completed its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia’s Far East, on 2 October 2008, controlled by the Sukhoi design bureau’s test pilot Sergey Bogdan, an Honoured Test Pilot of the Russian Federation. The mission lasted about an hour. Sergey Bogdan tested the operation of fighter’s powerplant and fly-by-wire system in various modes, examined its stability and controllability and became completely satisfied with the aircraft’s performance. It means that already two Su-35 prototypes are undergoing flight tests now with the third one to join them soon. The first Su-35 aircraft made its maiden flight earlier this year, on 19 February, and have successfully fulfilled more than 40 test sorties by the beginning of October. Joining the second flying prototype to flight test programme enables to fasten Su-35’s testing process that is to be completed in a couple of years. According to Sukhoi, the full-rate production of the cutting-edge 4++ generation fighter and its deliveries to both domestic and foreign users are slated for 2011. “The Su-35 entering service will bolster the national defence capability and enable Sukhoi to remain competitive on the global market until its fifth-generation fighter becomes ready for deliveries”, Sukhoi’s press release emphasises. Andrey Fomin analyses Su-35 programme progress

New weapons for advanced Sukhoi fighters
In early June, the Tactical Missiles Corp. launched a campaign to promote a number of latest air-launched guided missiles on the market. The weapons promoted include the new-generation Kh-38ME air-launched modular guided missile and several heavy upgrades, including the Kh-58UShKE antiradiation missile equipped with a wideband passive radar homer, Kh-59MK2 air-launched guided missile with a self-contained target area recognition capability and KAB-1500LG-F-E laser beam-riding smart bomb. All these weapons will be incorporated in Su-35’s weapon suite being available for other new Russia’s combat aircraft as well. Yevgeny Yerokhin reviews the new Tactical Missiles weapons

MiG-29K back at Nitka
Vikramaditya’s arresting gear kicks off trials in Crimea
On 1 September, the Crimea-based Nitka training facility saw the kick-off of tests of the first arrestor designed to fit the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier, with the Sevmash company in Severodvinsk working on it under the Russian-Indian Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier overhaul and upgrade contract on order by the Indian Navy. The MiG-29K prototype serialled 312 had arrived from Russia to test the first arresting gear at the Nitka facility in the Crimea-based Saki airbase. A Take-off correspondent Victor Drushlyakov covered the tests

INDUSTRY
• IFC orders large batch of Tu-204s from UAC
• MC-21 clearing ‘second gate’
• Sukhoi SuperJet 100 to begin certification tests
• UAC’s second subsidiary registered
• Tu-142s upgraded in Taganrog
• AL-55I trials on MiG-AT started
• Another Yak-130 enters trials
• First Taganrog-built Be-200ChS to be ready in three years
• Work on Beriev A-42 continues
• Beriev’s new programmes
• Be-32’s rebirth?
• Kamov company turns 60

Tikhomirov’s radars: from phased array to AESA
Interview of Tikhomirov-NIIP Director General Yuri Bely
A key component of formidable combat capabilities of advanced fighters is the sophisticated fire control system wrapped around an efficient radar. All Sukhoi Su-27/Su-30 family fighters – both exported and in service with the Russian Air Force – are fitted with fire control systems developed by the Tikhomirov-NIIP research institute. A Tikhomirov-NIIP phased-array radar debuted on the MiG-31 interceptor, and phased-array radars have been equipping Sukhoi fighters starting with the Su-30MKI. This year, the advanced Su-35 multirole fighter entered the trials, with Tikhomirov-NIIP developing the Irbis-E passive phased array radar – the most refined in its class – to fit it. As far as the future fifth-generation fighter is concerned, the company is developing its first active electronically scanned array radar (AESA). To learn the status of the programmes, Take-off’s editor Andrey Fomin met Tikhomirov-NIIP Director General Yuri Bely who was kind enough to grant us an interview

Aircraft computers made in Ryazan
Take-off has repeatedly covered various spheres the State Ryazan Instrument-Making Plant (GRPZ) – a major Russian manufacturer of airborne radars – operates in, including its productionising of the active phased array and development of heliborne radar. In addition, GRPZ develops a family of airborne digital computers and airborne computer systems for various applications. Take-off’s correspondent Yevgeny Yerokhin has been to the plant again and seen Nikolay Andreyev, chief of the airborne computer department of the corporate scientific and technical centre

COSMONAUTICS
Air Launch:
Indonesian prospects of Russian space programme
During the Russian president’s official visit to Indonesia in September 2007, about a dozen memoranda and agreements were signed, of which the principal one was the agreement on a $1 billion loan to Indonesia for acquisition of Russian armament and associated equipment. During their official meeting with the media, the two presidents confirmed their interest in stepping up bilateral high-technology cooperation, including joint space programme. This means, among other things, that they gave the green light to the well-known Air Launch programme that became an international endeavour. The programme provides for orbiting small spacecraft by launch vehicles blasting off not from the ground as usual, rather from an altitude of 10 km after air-dropping from an An-124-100 Ruslan carrier aircraft. The first air launch has been slated for 2010. Igor Afanasyev and Dmitry Vorontsov review Air Launch project and its prospects