Major jostling for position as aerospace restructuring moves on (1740 words)

Published: 3/12/2001

On the 6th of March, during a presentation to the press of upgraded combat aircraft at Gromov's Flight Test and Research Institute (LII) in Zhukovsky, senior Russian Air Force (RusAF) officers appeared to make public their supplier preference, when both the air force commander, General Anatoly Kornukov and his deputy responsible for equipment, Lieutenant General Yuri Klishin shook hands, for the benefit of the assembled cameras, with AVPK Sukhoi's General Director, Mikhail Pogosyan, at an event where RSK MiG took a notable distant second place. The role of the Sukhoi old guard in the form of Mikhail Simonov, still Sukhoi's general designer, left those in attendance in no doubt that the “patriarch of Russian fighter aviation” as he was described by Kornukov, is no longer relevant to the development of the company. At the press briefing following the aircraft display Kornukov offered him only one minor question. Pogosyan however, was passed all the other questions about AVPK Sukhoi's activities. The general absence of key personnel from entities that participated in the creation of the main aircraft on display, the Su-30K (Side 302), referred to as the prototype for the Su-30KN, was seen by some commentators as a reflection of strains within the industry - in this case between Sukhoi and its producers. Aleksei Fiodorov, Chairman of Irkutsk Aircraft Production Association (IAPO) was not present and reported to be in India. No senior personnel from Sukhoi's other manufacturing partners, KnAAPO and NAPO, were present and there was no explanation for their absences, despite the important role these enterprises have played in the upgrade programmes of Sukhoi aircraft. There is speculation that the rumours of Pogosyan's possibly precarious position as General Director of AVPK Sukhoi may have led them to avoid being too publicly identified with him. A more plausible reason however, is the emergence of the plans for the new integrated producers, likely to be outlined by government in the middle of March. The plans are likely to create new vertically integrated joint-stock companies led by the design bureau, as planned for some period of time, posing considerable threats to the industry's status quo. General unhappiness among producers is particularly specific for KnAAPO. The Kharbovsk regional governor, where KnAAPO dominates the industrial economy, recently launched a brisk offensive against the federal government, accusing Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov of lying about the plans for privatisation of the entity. He claimed that plans existed, despite denials by President Putin in the Regional Council, and that KnAAPO would be privatized and incorporated into a Sukhoi structure. The latter has been planned for sometime and resisted with vigour by the largely Siberian-based entities, which see it as both an economic risk in the event of the contraction of capacity and also a significant dilution of the status of the management teams who currently operate with impunity in the conduct of their respective entities' business. There is little love lost between the production head and there new potential masters, with the few expressed privately that the factories won the Indian and Chinese contracts for the Su-30, with the assistance of the export Rosvooruzhenie and the its replacement and the contracts were won “ in spite of Sukhoi's stupidity. Pogosyan's support from the RusAF against the producers has however, come at a price after lengthy and acrimonious relations between air force and designers. He has had to accept the “low cost “ Su-27/Su-30 upgrade project of Mikhail Korzhuyev, former head of Russkaya Avionika (Russian Avionics/RA), and now director for development programmes with IAPO. A former General Director of OKB MiG, Korzhuyev has had considerable run-ins with the current heads of the design bureaux, particularly Nikolai Nikitin of RSK MiG. The former, favouring the avionics upgrade over the more complicated package including vectoring pursued by Nikitin. The MiG package however, is regarded by the Air Force as too expensive and not competitive for that reason with the Korzhuyev option. Some sources report that as a result of the challenge RA presented, Sukhoi and MiG had put pressure on the government to shut down the emerging integrator, in the belief that it posed a threat to the traditional stranglehold of the design bureaux, by giving additional opportunities for the producing plants to bypass the traditional structure of Russian fighter aircraft design and production as controlled by Sukhoi and MiG. Interestingly however, despite his victory against the established interest, Korzhuyev only made a brief appearance on 6th March, despite his IAPO team's focal role in the Block 302 upgrade, and left without participating in the press conference. The loss of Colonel General Sitnov, head of MoD procurement, was seen as a success for MiG and Sukhoi. Klishin was expected to have followed as a result of his close relationship with Korzhuyev's upgrade programmes, most notably the MiG-29SMT. In the event, the purge bypassed the two most senior Air Force officers and the RusAF provided additional funding for the development of the modular upgrade concept, extending its possible installation from the Mi-29SMT to Sukhoi aircraft, aided by IAPO providing a Su-30K (the Side 302) and several million dollars. The IAPO team turned the donated Su-30K interceptor into a multi-role fighter, with guided bombs, anti-radiation and anti-ship missile capabilities. The aircraft commenced flight tests in early 1999, and after an effective presentation at MAKS '99, had its first weapons firings a year later. Since then, the Side 302 has undergone 76 official test flights, some flown by RusAF pilots for equipment and weapons evaluation. This year, RusAF provided a Su-27UB jet trainer (Side 20), which was turned into a specimen for the Su-27UBM multi-role aircraft at IAPO within two weeks. Since April 1998, Korzhuyev's team has succeeded in improving its original avionics suite. Now the carrier aircraft can use, not only air-to-ground weapons (such as X-31A anti-radiation, X-31P anti-ship, X-29T TV-homing missiles and KAB-500/-1500 laser-guided bombs), but also the advanced RVV-AE (R-77) air-to-air missile. Use of these weapons - none of which is carried either by the original twin-seat Su-27UB trainer or Su-30 interceptor - was made possible by upgrading the existing RLPK-27 radar and adding the MVK onboard-computer to the existing avionics suite. Additional equipment was included in the existing navigation and aiming chains, using Russian Avionics' “by-pass channel” technology. The MVK processes the incoming data from the radar allowing terrain following, map freezing and other new functions. This is achieved through the use of radar beam sharpening and synthetic aperture technologies. Another important innovation is the use of GLONASS and NAVSTAR satellite navigation systems, which allow a considerable improvement in navigation and aiming capability. According to Pogosyan, thirty Su-27UB could be modified into the UBM variant for the equivalent cost of one newly built Su-30 fighter. This means that the upgrade work on a single airframe costs $1-$1.5m. The low-cost and the efficient modernisation is the key to RusAF's enthusiasm for Korzhuyev's ideas. According to the RusAF press release issued on 6th March, “the economic situation in Russia does not allow for the MoD to have annual funding at 3.5% of GNP, as earlier envisaged. MoD does not have sufficient funds for the purchase of newly built hardware, so that upgrade programmes will be the main solution to keeping national defence at an adequate level. By 2005, the MoD will spend the bulk of its cash resources on modernising combat aircraft already in service, focusing orders on fewer manufacturers.” Developed by Korzhuyev's team, the upgrade programmes Su-27UBM and Su-30KN are being offered officially to the MoD by Sukhoi design bureau, IAPO and United Avionics Consortium of St. Petersburg. The existence of Sukhoi's name in the list is understood to be the price Pogosyan had to pay (Sukhoi engineers did not participate in refitting the Side 302 with the new avionics). Previously under Mikhail Simonov, Sukhoi had favoured the RPKB (Instrument-building design bureau of Ramenskoye), the integrator for the Su-30MKK and Su-30MKI programmes, proposals. However, RPKB failed to prepare a low-cost alternative to Korzhuyev's offer, though attempts were made, notably with help from KnAAPO. On 6th March at Zhukovsky, Su-27UBM (side number 20) demonstrated its capabilities to, General Kvashnin, the MoD's Chief of Staff. Taking-off from the LII facility, the aircraft located and identified five ground targets and simulated weapon firings. The attacks were displayed in real time in the command centre from the liquid-crystal displays in the Su-27UBM cockpit. The demonstration, according to sources, was designed to convince Kvashnin of the merits of this upgraded variant of the Su-27. Kornukov said, “Now we can proceed with our upgrade programmes, we intend to have 6-8 upgraded aircraft of each type - Su-30KN, Su-27KUB, Su-24, Su-25, Mi-8 and Mi-24 - by the year-end.” The Air Force focus on the presentation of the Sukhoi fighters (modified by IAPO using Korzhuyev's ideas) and the absence of MiG's products, has been seen as a further sign of the decreasing importance of RSK MiG - further heightening debate on the future of the fighter designer as an independent entity. At the press-briefing, Kornukov talked of the prospects for the MiG-29SMT/UBT and MiG-31BM upgrade programmes, “We hope we can very soon sign an agreement with RSK MiG and Sokol manufacturing plant for upgrade work on the MiG-29 and MiG-31, provided the agreement is on our terms”. It remains to be seen what exactly the RusAF commander means by “our terms”, but there seems little doubt that as the customer, the Air Force is determined to get what it believes it needs. It therefore seems likely that the MoD will continue to apply pressure on RSK MiG to give up its own MiG-29SMT variants and to accept Korzhuyev's modular avionics packages - like Sukhoi, IAPO and Mil. Mil displayed the upgraded Mi-24N and Mi-8MTKO to the press at Zhukovsky and claimed 50%-60% avionics commonality with the Su-30K (Side 302). Kornukov reiterated that they required common solutions on upgrades of the various types of in-service aircraft.

Article ID: 2406