Date Posted 14 March 2008

Russia to Start Deliveries of MiG-29K Carrier Based Fighters to India in May

Deliveries to India of carrier-based ((PALUBNYE)) MiG-29K fighters for the "Admiral Gorshkov" aircraft carrier that is being upgraded by Russia will begin in May of this year, India's naval chief of staff, Admiral Surish Mehta, reported to journalists on Friday.

"Right now we are on the threshold of the delivery stage. The transfer to us of the first series-built MiG-29K will take place in May of this year," the admiral said.

According to him the contract is being fulfilled with a small delay.

Altogether it is planned to deliver to India 16 carrier-based fighters, including 12 combat and 14 combat training airplanes, within the framework of a contracted that had been entered into earlier.

Source: 14.03.08, RIA Novosti

Production of Be-200 Airplanes to Be Moved from Irkutsk to Taganrog

A decision has been adopted on the transfer of Be-200 amphibious airplane production to Taganrog, the head of the largest Russian exporter of military aircraft, Oleg Demchenko of the Irkut corporation, reported to journalists on Thursday. "A decision has been adopted on transfer of the production of the unique Russian Be-200 amphibious airplane from Irkutsk to the aircraft plant in Taganrog. Forty percent of the equipment already has been transferred, and it is being put in place for production," Demchenko said.

At the same time, he indicated that one of the most important components of the airplanes, the wings, will as before, be manufactured in Irkutsk.

The Be-200 amphibious airplane will be manufactured in the future cooperatively, but it still is unknown, according to Oleg Demchenko, who will be included.

Source: 13.03.08, Gazeta.RU

Irkut Abandoning the MTA

The Irkut and Il'yushin companies have divided up projects. Irkut will concentrate on the creation of the new-generation MS-21 passenger airliner, the corporation's president, Oleg Demchenko, announced: the company will be developing it along with Sukhoy Civil Airplanes. Irkut is stopping financing of development of the MTA Russo-Indian medium range military transport airplane, which is being designed by Il'yushin. "Il'yushin, for its part, is pulling out of the MS-21 project, Demchenko explained: the decision was made at the beginning of the year.

Irkut has held discussions on the MTA project with the Indian military and the Indian HAL aerospace corporation since the beginning of the 2000s. In November 2007, an intergovernmental agreement was signed on the airplane's joint development. The MTA and the Russo-Indian fifth generation fighter project and the only huge future intergovernmental projects for the development of new military equipment in which Russia is participating, the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies expert, Konstantin Makienko, notes.

The Il'yushin general director, Viktor Livanov, has said that the company is able to realized the project on its own.  But there are not enough people for Il'yushin for it, the aircraft industry enterprise's manager thinks: Irkut has pulled out of the project, having realized its hopelessness.

The MS-21 project has a potentially large market demand and is better financed, AviaPort agency expert Oleg Panteleev explains Irkut's decision: 1.6 billion rubles already has been allocated for the concept design alone.

Source: 14.03.08, Vedomosti, Correspondent:  Aleksey Nikol’skiy

Date Posted 13 March 2008

Smolensk Aircraft Plant to Build 35 - 40 Yak-18T Airplanes This Year

((Title says it all.  Not further translated.))

Source: 13.03.08, Gudok

Date Posted 11 March 2008

RSK MiG signed a contract with India’s defense ministry on Friday for the upgrade of 66 MiG-29 fighters before 2013, the PTI Indian State Information Agency has reported. The airplanes will be equipped with new “Zhuk-MEh” radar and their service life will be increased from 25 to 40 years.

Cost of the contract is one billion dollars. Approximately 30 percent is for construction of a service center for radar overhaul, warehousing of spare parts, simulators and other object which will allow servicing these aircraft in India.

They refused to comment at RSK MiG.

Discussions about the upgrade of the Indian MiG-29 have been going on for several years and their successful conclusion increases Moscow’s chances to win the tender taking place right now in India for the delivery of 126 fighters for a total of 10 billion dollars, a member of the defense ministry public council, Ruslan Pukhov, says: right now it is the largest military tender in the world.

India’s air force is buying airplanes for the resolution of real combat missions, the Center of Analysis of Strategies and Technologies expert Konstantin Makienko says. Consequently, Algeria’s February refusal of 34 MiG-29SMT fighters (price of the contract is 1.3 billion dollars) did not appear to have any impact on the Indian military and it is not possible to explain the cancellation of the Algerian deal by the performance of the Russian airplanes alone, the expert says. And the financial loses from Algeria’s demarche are being compensated to a significant degree by the new deal, Makienko explains. The 15 MiGs which are being returned by Algeria, will go into the Russian air force inventory, a government official states: right now the question is being resolved about the settlement of the financial aspects of this decision.
 
Source: 11.03.03, Vedomosti, Correspondent:  Aleksey Nikol’skiy

((The airplane has modern (mostly American) avionics, increased flight range and improved visibility from the cockpit.  The engine remains the M-14P, which is manufactured in series at the Voronezh Mechanical Plant.))

Source: 11.03.08, AviaPort.RU, Correspondent:  Dmitriy Kozlov

Indian Defense Minister Plans to Concur on Cost of Heavy Aircraft Carrying Cruiser “Admiral Gorshkov” Upgrade to “Vikramaditia” Aircraft Carrier by End of March

((Title says it all.  Not further translated.))

Source:  11.03.02, ARMS-TASS

---

Search older news items.

search for 

The Aviation Store

Please note:  These news items are a free service of Roy's Resources.  Rates for translation normally start at 10 cents per word and drop for longer jobs and repeat business.  If you would like any other Russian text translated at the usual rates, please feel free to contact Roy at roy@royfc.com.  See the translation page for further details.

You are visitor numbersince 26 August 2004
By 26 August 2004, there had been about 38,105 visitors

---