«Aviation week & spase tehnology» May 5,2008

Archery Practice

Moscow targets weapons evaluation and expanded training role for Yak-130

The Russian air force is preparing to begin live-weapons trials with the Yak-130 advanced jet trainer. The outcome will be key to both the aircraft's future service and its procurement numbers.

Evaluations covering the infrared R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missile, as well as a range of air-to-surface guided ordnance, will be carried out from the air force's flight test center at Akhtubinsk- often known by its Russian acronym of Glits. The test program is scheduled to begin around the end of April, and the aircraft's "combat employment" will be examined starting in August, according to program officials.

The Yak-130 has already passed the first phase of state acceptance trials, says Yakovlev chief designer Konstantin Popovitch. This clears the way for the aircraft to be used in the basic jet trainer role. "Now we are cleared for series production of the aircraft as a jet trainer. Once the next stage of trials is over, we will have clearance for the series production aircraft to be employed as a combat trainer." The air force is eager to introduce the successor to the L-39 Aero as quickly as practicable, Popovitch suggests, since the aircraft's present situation is "not good." The intent has always been that all Yak-130s in the air force inventory will be combat-trainer capable. The air force now has 62 aircraft on order. A first batch of 12 is to be delivered in 2009-10, with a further 50 to follow during 2010-15. Beyond this, Popovitch suggests the air force has a notional requirement for up to 240 more of the type.

The second stage of state tests being carried out at Glits will clear the way for the aircraft to be used as a combat trainer. The weapon trials program may run into 2009 before being concluded. The air force has already identified to industry the initial weapons it's interested in clearing on the aircraft. The use of a helmet-mounted sighting system will be included in the tests.

The aircraft is also capable of being fitted with a laser-designator pod. While the air force had this written into the requirement from the outset, Popovitch says a lack of funding previously stifled any genuine interest. This now seems to be changing.

Popovitch says ground and wind-tunnel tests have already been carried out to support the weapons trials at Akhtubinsk. The wind-tunnel tests covered the of subscale models to examine weapon release and separation. Ground tests included engine ingestion clearance.

The air force has always aspired to use the Yak-130 both for jet and advanced combat training. The intent, says Popovitch, is to download as much combat training as possible from the front-line service aircraft to the Yak-130.

He points out that Russian combat aircraft have traditionally had a shorter service life than their Western counterparts, providing greater impetus to try to minimize the amount of training required on type before a pilot is given initial operational clearance.

Combat aircraft had a life of 2,000-2,500 hr., so training sorties ate into the airframe life. The task became to train the combat skills of the pilot, but at a lower cost, he notes.

At present, there are two final assembly sites for the aircraft, at Nizhny Novgorod and Irkutsk. After several years of insufficient work, Nizhny Novgorod is now busy, including upgrading the MiG-31 Foxhound. The plant can produce 12 Yak-130s a year. Irkutsk has the same maximum production rate, although this output could be raised relatively simply if justified by demand. Major subassembly manufacture is split between the two sites, with Nizhny Novgorod responsible for the main fuselage and Irkutsk for the wing and vertical fin.

The first 12 aircraft for the Russian air force will be built at Nizhny Novgorod, while the first export order for the type, placed by Algeria, will be met by Irkutsk. The Algerian aircraft are-like the Russian air force's first batch-due to be delivered in 2009-10.

The aircraft's performance was "very good" during the first stage of the state trials, says Popovitch. Two were flown intensively during a two-month period, accumulating 100 flights and generating up to four or five sorties a day.

The program had to recover from the loss of a prototype in 2006 as a result of a problem with the quadru-plex digital flight control system. The backup flight control channel did not initiate, following a failure in the primary, with both pilots ejecting as the aircraft rolled inverted.

The flight control system problem was identified and fixed during "six months of intensive work."

Yakovlev also continues to harbor ambitions to develop dedicated combat derivatives of the basic aircraft, although no work is currently ongoing in this area.

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