In late February 2012, the Russian Defence Ministry and the MiG Corp. signed the long-awaited contract for a 24-ship batch of MiG-29K/KUB multirole carrierborne fighters. Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and MiG Corp. Director General Sergei Korotkov signed the contract. Under the deal, the manufacturer shall have delivered 20 single-seat MiG-29K fighters and four two-seat MiG-29KUB combat trainers to the Russian Navy from 2013 to 2015. The warplanes will be fielded with the Northern Fleet’s carrierborne fighter air regiment and operated as part of the carrier air group (CAG) of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.

In the coming several years, the Russian Air Force shall field almost 50 cutting-edge Sukhoi Su-35S supermanoeuvrable multirole fighters in production by the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO), a subsidiary of the Sukhoi company.  Last year, the early production fighters of the type were handed over to the Russian Defence Ministry for their official tests. A preliminary report is due before year end on the first stage of the trials. It is to clear the fighter’s full-scale production and their operation by line units. The contract for 48 Su-35S fighters to be delivered to RusAF until 2015 was signed at the MAKS 2009 air show in August 2009.

The Arsenyev-based Progress aircraft company – a subsidiary of the Russian Helicopters holding company – is ramping up the output of Kamov Ka-52 multirole army combat helicopters. The machine’s governmental trials were complete last November, and the helicopter was cleared for service entry. The first four production-standard Ka-52s built by Progress were shipped to the Army Aviation Combat and Conversion Training Centre in the town of Torzhok in December 2010. Delivery of production-standard Ka-52s to the Chernigovka air base in the Russian Far East kicked off in May 2011, with eight machines shipped there at first and then followed by four more by the year end. Thus, the Russian Air Force’s first full-fledged Ka-52 air squadron was stood up in Chernigovka. Another five brand-new Ka-52s made by Progress by late 2011 joined the aircraft fleet of the Army Aviation Combat and Conversion Training Centre in Torzhok earlier this year (unfortunately, one of the latest aircraft was lost in a fatal air crash on 12 March 2012, with the probe failing to reveal any hardware fault).

Russia has retained its competence in production of the heavy-lift helicopters of the Mi-26 family, featuring the world’s best lifting capacity and being in full-rate production by Rostvertol JSC. During 2007–2010, three Mi-26TC helicopters were delivered to Chinese customers that have been using them actively on fire fighting, disaster relief and special transport operations.

The Mil Mi-28N attack helicopter, which is in full-rate production by Rostvertol JSC (a subsidiary of the Russian Helicopters holding company), entered service with the Russian Army Aviation under the presidential executive order dated 15 October 2009. By early last year, the Russian Air Force had received about 24 production-standard machines of the type and fielded them with the unit stationed at the air bases in Budyonnovsk and Korenovsk (before that, the first four production-standard aircraft had been received by Combat Conversion and Training Centre in Torzhok in 2008). Last summer, Rostvertol shipped four more Mi-28Ns to Torzhok, followed by six more in October. By year-end 2011, the manufacturer had completed the assembly of and delivered another batch of six aircraft.