december 2009 • Special edition for LIMA 2009 CHERNYSHEV jsc Moscow Machine-Building Enterprise “reliable engine – Su-30MKM reliable partner!” in RMAF service [p.4] MiG-29K back on deck Manufacturing, after-sale service, aero engines overhaul [p.16] • RD-33 (MiG-29, MiG-29UB, MiG-29SMT fighters) • RD-33MK (MiG-29K, MiG-35/MiG-35D fighters) • TV7-117SM (IL-114 regional airplane) Overhaul, spare parts delievery • R27F2M-300 (MiG-23UB fighter) MMRCA • R29-300 (MiG-23M, MiG-23MS, MiG-23MF fighters) trials • R-35 (MiG-23ML, MiG-23MLD, MiG-23P fighters) [p.10] TBO and TTL expansion of the overhaul engines Tikhomirov’s AESA [p.30] MC-21 programme 7, Vishnevaya Street, Moscow, 125362, Russia [p.24] Phone: +7 (495) 491-58-74, Fax: +7 (495) 490-56-00 e-mail: [email protected], http://www.avia500.ru/ aero engines Recent aerospace news from Russia & CIS [p.2,14, 20, 26, 32] OBORONPROM Corporation, a Russian Technologies State Corporation company, is a diversified industrial-investment group in the engineering and high technologies sectors. The Corporation integrates more than 25 leading Russian companies in helicopters and engines manufacturing. The enterprises of the Corporation produced goods and provided services SU 30MK worth over $4 billion in 2008 ONLY THE BEST St.Petersburg Rybinsk Moscow Rostov-Don Kazan Perm Ufa Samara Ekaterinburg Kumertau Novosibirsk Ula-Ude Arseniev “Russian Helicopters” Company, a whole subsidiary of OBORONPROM Corporation, is the leading Russian designer and manufacturer of rotary-wing aircraft equipment advertising “United Engine Corporation”, a whole subsidiary of OBORONPROM Corporation, is the leading Russian industrial group producing engines for aircraft, aerospace industry, gas compression stations and power plants IRKUT UNITED INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION “OBORONPROM” Corporation 27 Stromynka st., 107076 Moscow, Russia e-mail: [email protected] www.sukhoi.org www.irkut.com www.oboronprom.ru december 2009 Editor-in-Chief Andrey Fomin Deputy Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Shcherbakov Editor Yevgeny Yerokhin Columnist Alexander Velovich Special correspondents Alexey Mikheyev, Vladimir Karnozov, Victor Drushlyakov, Andrey Zinchuk, Valery Ageyev, Alina Chernoivanova, Natalya Pechorina, Dear reader, Marina Lystseva, Dmirty Pichugin, Sergey Krivchikov, Sergey Popsuyevich, Piotr Butowski, You are holding the latest issue of the Take-off magazine, special Alexander Mladenov, Miroslav Gyurosi English-language supplement to VZLET Russia’s national aerospace magazine, dedicated this time to LIMA 2009 airshow. Design and pre-press LIMA aerospace exhibition on Malaysian island Langkawi is one of the Grigory Butrin most respectable international airshows in South East Asia, so it gathers Web support potential customers not only from Malaysia but from all over the region. Georgy Fedoseyev Russian participants’ interest in it is owing to the country and South East Translation Asia returning as the leaders in importing Russian-made aircraft and Yevgeny Ozhogin cooperating with Russia in the aerospace field. For example, this year the Royal Malaysian Air Force has received its last Sukhoi Su-30MKM Cover picture supermanoeuvrable multirole fighters under the contract for 18 aircraft Sergey Kuznetsov of the type signed in 2003. The inaugural demonstration of the first Su-30MKMs delivered to RMAF by Russia’s Irkut Corporation in 2007 Publisher took place at previous LIMA 2007 and had a great success. This time Malaysian Su-30MKMs are going to become the main participants of the LIMA airshow again. No doubt, unique supermanoeuvrability of the Sukhoi fighters and excellent skills of RMAF pilots will together produce a Director General great show within LIMA 2009 flight demonstration programme. Andrey Fomin Although earlier this year Irkut Corp. successfully fulfilled the whole contract on 18 Su-30MKMs delivery to RMAF, more fighters of the Deputy Director General type could be in demand in Malaysia soon as it decided to withdraw in Nadezhda Kashirina the future its MiG-29N aircraft fleet delivered by Russia’s MiG Corp. in Marketing Director 1990s. In such case Su-30MKM, possibly in further upgraded version, for George Smirnov example armed by BrahMos super-long range air-to-surface missiles or fitted with a brand-new AESA radar, could become the best choice for Director for international projects Malaysia in terms of RMAF fighter fleet combat efficiency and operational Alexander Velovich logistics. Apart from Su-30MKM topic in this issue we have focused on the other most important novelties and recent events in Russian aerospace News items for “In Brief” columns are prepared by editorial industry, with preference given to those of them that could be of special staff based on reports of our special correspondents, press interest to the current and potential customers of Russian aircraft in releases of production companies as well as by using information Malaysia and South East Asia in a whole. distributed by ITAR-TASS, ARMS-TASS, Interfax-AVN, RIA Novosti, I wish you fruitful work at the LIMA 2009 air show, useful contacts and RBC news agencies and published at www.aviaport.ru, www.avia.ru, lucrative contracts! www.gazeta.ru, www.cosmoworld.ru web sites Items in the magazine placed on this colour background or supplied Sincerely, with a note “Commercial” are published on a commercial basis. Editorial staff does not bear responsibility for the contents of such items. Andrey Fomin, Editor-in-Chief, The magazine is registered by the Federal Service for supervision of Take-off magazine observation of legislation in the sphere of mass media and protection of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation. Registration certificate PI FS77-19017 dated 29 November 2004 © Aeromedia, 2009 P.O. Box 7, Moscow, 125475, Russia Tel. +7 (495) 644-17-33, 798-81-19 Fax +7 (495) 644-17-33 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.take-off.ru c o n t e n t s CONTRACTS AND DELIVERIES . 2 Mi-35M gearing up for shipping to Brazil An-74TK-300D delivered to Laotian government December 2009 Su-30MKM In service with RMAF This summer, the last two Sukhoi Su-30MKM twinseat supermanoeuvrable multirole fighters from the batch of 18 aircraft ordered in 2003 entered service with the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). With this delivery which took place on 17 August 2009, Irkut Corporation fulfilled completely the contract signed six years before providing RMAF with the most modern and combat effective multirole fighters. Now all of 18 superagile Su-30MKMs are in service with the 11th squadron of the Royal Malaysian Air Force stationed at Gong Kedak air base in the Kelantan province, on the coast of the South China Sea, 300 km north of the 4 national capital, Kuala Lumpur. The international debut of the advanced Malaysian fighters took place two years ago, at LIMA 2007 airshow at the island of Langkawi. This time, three Su-30MKMs are also the participants of the international aerospace and marine exhibition at Langkawi and, no doubt, will become the main stars of the demonstration flight programme at LIMA 2009. MMRCA tender T rials kick off in India Two advanced MiG-35 multirole fighters made by the MiG corporation this year were headed for India on 7 October to take part in the trials as part of the MMRCA 10 (Medium MultiRole Combat Aircraft) tender. Starting from mid-August, US fighters F/A-18E/F and F-16E/F and French Rafale had completed their trials in India as contenders under the MMRCA tender providing for the Indian Air Force (IAF) to buy 126 multirole fighters worth upwards of $10 billion. Swedish Gripen and European Typhoon will be last to join the flight evaluation by the tender’s organisers. Although the rivalling planes’ developers and IAF keep mum on how the current flight trials unfold, the Indian media and Internet forums keep tabs on what is going on at Bangalore airbase and other Indian airfields where MMRCA contenders are flown under the conditions set by the organisers. Based on the media and Internet reports, let us try and look into how the flight evaluation of the contenders is going on. 12 Phazotron-NIIR ready for Indian tender MILITARY AVIATION . 14 Sukhoi to deliver 64 brand-new fighters to RusAF The first Irkut-built Yak-130 has flown 15 MiG-29K B ack on deck! In later September, the MiG Corporation conducted successful flight trials of the advanced MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB multirole carrierborne fighters ordered by the Indian Navy (IN). The trials took place on board the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft- carrying cruiser of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy. The first deck landing on the Admiral Kuznetsov in the Barents Sea was conducted on 28 September by MiG Corp. chief test pilot Pavel Vlasov flying the MiG-29K prototype serialled 941. MiG Corp. test pilots Nikolay Diorditsa and Mikhail Belyayev followed him on the production MiG-29KUB twinseater painted in the customer’s colour scheme. In the course of two days, both aircraft performed several takeoffs and deck landings that proved the feasibility of safe operation of advanced fighters from aircraft carriers. Interestingly, the MiG-29K/KUB’s flight tests on board the Admiral Kuznetsov had 16 taken place on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the first deck landings of Russia’s fourth-generation supersonic fighters and had become a kind of MiGs’ comeback to the deck. On 1 November 1989, a prototype MiG-29K of the previous model touched down on and then took off from this ship that was designated as Tbilisi at the time. Several more series of tests were conducted over several years afterwards, but for a number of reasons a decision was taken to have the Sukhoi Su-33 (Su-27K) shipborne fighter enter inventory of the Russian Navy’s air arm. History has made another twist, and now advanced MiG-29K/KUB being in full-rate production for a foreign customer could be used by the Russian Navy in the near future.