Document ID: CEP20010522000336
Entry Date: 05/22/2001
Version Number: 01
Source-Date: 05/22/2001
[Report by Igor Korotchenko: "Russia Ready To Fight for 21st Century Arms Markets. Program for Creating Future Russian Fighter Plane Has Been Launched" ]
[FBIS Translated Text]
Russia has reconfirmed its status as one of the world's most advanced aviation powers and has aptly met the challenges of our time by coming up with a program for creating a Russian fighter plane of the
future. Last Friday [18 May], heads of enterprises united by the main association of new aircraft technology designers, as well as heads of leading Russian aviation industry scientific-research institutes, signed a general agreement on
participation in the creation of a future aircraft system. The signing process took place at the Sukhoy Aviation Military-Industrial Complex in the presence of Rosaviakosmos [Russian Aerospace Agency] General Director Yuriy Koptev. The
document was signed by the heads of the State Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Systems [GosNIIAS], the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute [TsAGI], the All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials Science [VIAM], the [P.I.
Baranov] Central Institute of Aircraft Engine Manufacturing [TsIAM], the National Aviation Technology Institute [NIAT], the A. Lyulka-Saturn Open Joint-Stock Company, the Tekhnokompleks Science and Production Center [NPTs], the Aerospace Equipment
[Aerokosmicheskoye Oborudovaniye] corporation, the Aviapriborkholding holding company, the Vympel State Aircraft Engine Manufacturing Design Bureau [GMKB], the Zvezda-Strela State Science and Production Center [GNPTs], the Sukhoy Aviation
Military-Industrial Complex [ABPK], and the Sukhoy Experimental Design Bureau.
The importance of the agreement lies in the fact that leading Russian designers have coordinated the basic principles of their cooperation, distribution of duties and responsibilities associated with their participation in a major corporate
program of nationwide significance. The document is open for signing by others, and in the very near future series-production plants and other enterprises of the Russian aviation industry will join in. It was pointed out repeatedly in the
past that the fate of the Russian aviation industry depends on whether a combat aircraft of the future is launched into series production or not. Thus Russia has given an appropriate response to the development in the United States of the latest
JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) combat aircraft.
Three thousand JSF fighter planes will be built for the US and British armed forces. At the same time, the JSF is bound to become the best-selling aircraft in the first half of the 21st century. It will replace US-manufactured
third- and fourth-generation fighter planes (about 50 percent of the world's combat aircraft fleet). A total of between 5,000 and 6,000 JSF aircraft will be manufactured. When it appears on the market, the Russian fourth-generation Su-27 and
MiG-29 will become noncompetitive. This makes it imperative for us to concentrate maximum effort on the creation in the Russian Federation of a fundamentally new fighter plane model.
For that reason work on the creation of a new Russian aviation complex must proceed at an accelerated pace. According to Yuriy Koptev, its preliminary plan [avanproyekt] will appear as early as by the end of this year. If the
available resources match these plans, it is expected that the new aircraft will be launched into a series production in the year 2010. In 2011-2012 it will begin to be supplied to the Russian Air Force arsenal and will emerge onto the world
aircraft market -- simultaneously with the appearance of the American JSF there.
The Russian Air Force formulated preliminary specifications for the development of a multirole frontline aircraft back in 1998. The services of the Sukhoy, Mikoyan, and Yakovlev experimental design bureaus were enlisted for the
project, and the Sukhoy Experimental Design Bureau played the main role in it. Over the years that followed certain research and technical know-how has been amassed. Sukhoy has come out with particularly advanced designs. It relied in
its work on the results achieved in the course of implementing the program for the creation of the experimental S-37 Berkut aircraft with forward-swept wings. In April 2001 the requirements for the future aircraft were further specified, and
according to Air Force Commander in Chief Anatoliy Kornukov, his department again issued preliminary specifications for it. A month later, under the auspices of the Sukhoy Aviation Military-Industrial Complex, an association was created which
proceeded to tackle that vital task.
Let me point out that the Sukhoy Aviation Military-Industrial Complex's leading role in the development of the fifth-generation fighter plane is guaranteed primarily by the scientific and technical and technological potential of the
[aircraft] system as well as by a stable market for the products that will be manufactured. In addition, the documents on reform of the Aviation Military-Industrial Complex have basically been coordinated, and it is now planned to create on its
basis a holding company with a vertically integrated structure. Russian Aerospace Agency General Director Yuriy Koptev underscored that "this meets the demands of our time."
The exact technical appearance of the future Russian fighter plane is not yet known. It can only be said with confidence that it will resemble neither the S-37 nor the 1.44 experimental aircraft designed by the MiG Russian Aircraft
Manufacturing Corporation. Judging by the already published Russian Federation Air Force data, the aircraft's takeoff weight will amount to 20 tonnes (a class intermediate between MiG-29 and Su-27). It will be equipped with AL-41F engines.
The future aircraft must meet generally accepted criteria of a future fighter plane such as supermaneuverability, low radar and infrared signature, and supersonic speed.
The aircraft will be equipped with phased-array radar. The pilot will be able to select his targets with the help of a helmet-mounted target designation system. The set of airborne weapons will include future air-to-air missiles
of various range capabilities, as well as air-to-surface missiles.
The designers see financing as their main problem. There are plans to resolve it with the help of three sources: the state defense order, the program participants' own funds obtained through military-technical cooperation, and
funds provided by strategic partners. The required funds could also be procured by drawing CIS countries, primarily Belarus and Ukraine, as well as some foreign countries into the project. According to provisional estimates, the new aircraft
will cost up to $30 million on the foreign market, so that in terms of price it will be perfectly competitive with the JSF.
The implementation of the program for the creation of a future fighter plane will be a key task in the development of the Russian aviation industry and in the consolidation of its positions on the world hi-tech market.
[Description of Source: Moscow Nezavisimaya Gazeta in Russian -- Daily Moscow newspaper aimed at an elite audience; financed by Boris Berezovskiy but no longer considered his mouthpiece.]
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