Sukhoi Superjet 100

Russia Delivers Sukhoi Superjet 100 to Laos Company

The manufacturer of Sukhoi Superjet 100 said on Friday that the first of three aircrafts produced in Russia had been already handed over to the Lao Central air carrier in Laos.

According to the official information furnished by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, the civil aviation department of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the plane had arrived from Ulyanovsk to the Wattay International Airport in Laos.

Under the terms of the contract concluded with the privately owned Lao Central air carrier in 2011, the company should provide three SSJ-100 airliners. The planes will be used for domestic and international flights, including those to Singapore, Hanoi, Bangkok, and other cities.

The SSJ-100 aircraft is capable of carrying up to 100 passengers for 4,500 kilometers. It was originally developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in cooperation with US and European aviation corporations, including Honeywell, Boeing, Liebherr Aerospace, Messier Dowty, Thales, and Snecma.

Aeroflot, the Russian leading air carrier, is considered to be the largest SSJ-100 customer with a total order for 30 aircrafts. At the same time, it should be noted that Armenia’s Armavia was the first airline to start commercial operations with the SSJ-100 in April 2011.

Ufaneftekhim Mounts the New Hydrocracker

JSC Ufaneftekhim, Bashneft’s subsidiary company, has finished works on installation of the R-101C hydrocracking reactor.

The reactor equipment was manufactured on the principles of international integration at Belleli Energy CPE (Italy). The works on design of the equipment and all the organizational arrangements were performed by the oil refining engineering center of the Generation Industrial Group.

The R-101C hydrocracking reactor is designed for carrying out hydrogenation reactions aimed at cleaning raw materials from sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen-containing, and organo-metallic compounds, as well as hydrocracking reactions in the presence of petroleum tailing hydrogen in one step and with the maximum volume of diesel and kerosene fractions. Technical characteristics of the reactor are as follows: overall dimensions of the reactor – 35,880 x 4,970 x 4,600 mm; main body material – heat-resistant steel with stainless steel surfacing; weight without internals – 363,000 kg.

The installation works have been performed by the specialists of the Generation Industrial Group.

Russia Plans to Resume Yastreb Project

The Russian Air Force Command has asked Sergey Shoygu, the Russian Minister of Defence, to consider resuming works on the A-90 reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft. The designers have been working hard to eliminate all the drawbacks after the project was suspended two years ago.

The A-90 system is based on the Discomfort radio-electronic reconnaissance and jamming device created by the Voronezh-based Sozvezdie concern as part of the Yastreb project that was treated as a fairly promising one. But in January 2012, Anatoly Serdyukov ordered to suspend its financing, as it became clear that some of the components were lagging behind schedule. Nonetheless, Sozvezdie concern kept on working at its own expense and managed to carry the work to completion.

Talking about the financial aspects of the project, Alexander Konovalov, President of the Institute for Strategic Assessments, notes that radio-electronic warfare tools deserve the most generous support. Therefore, if the project is resumed, it means that there may be more sophisticated and complex tasks for the A-90 designers to work on.

Russia to Enhance After-Sales Service of Weapons

According to Denis Manturov, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Russia intends to improve the maintenance of weapons and military equipment that have been sold to other countries in order to strengthen its position in the global market.
Being currently in Abu Dhabi, the Russian minister is taking part in IDEX-2013, the largest defence exhibition ever held in the Middle East.

According to the official data, Russian companies plan to conclude the contracts for the full life cycle of weapons and military equipment. This issue is currently being discussed with the Russian Ministry of Defence. In addition, according to the minister, Russia will not only effect military-technical cooperation with foreign states, but also train foreign specialists.

Mr. Manturov stated that the volume of the Russian arms deliveries amounted to $ 15 billion in 2012, with the Middle East accounting for more than 20% of the Russian arms exports, countries of the Pacific Rim – for about 43%, and the CIS countries – for 13%.

He noted that the arms deliveries to the Russian Ministry of Defence would remain a priority for the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation. “The weapons are primarily developed to supply the needs of the Russian Ministry of Defence, as the main function of our defence industry is to ensure the national security,” Mr. Manturov explained. However, according to him, this idea doesn’t prevent our foreign colleagues from executing orders and participating in international projects.

NPO Splav Working on the New Missile

JSC NPO Splav (a part of NPK Techmash) has presented the S-8OFP 80-mm air-launched missile with a high-explosive penetrating warhead, thus introducing a new generation of unguided air-launched weapons for aircrafts and helicopters of the front-line and combat aviation.

The S-8OFP missile is launched from the standard modules of B8M-1 and B8V20-A pods.
The development of a basic backbone unguided air-launched missile of the NARV S-8 system gives the opportunity to create a number of high-performance air-delivered munitions, including small smart and guided missiles. The missile is equipped with a high explosive penetrating projectile. The engagement range is up to 6 km. The missile length varies from 1,4 to 1,5 m, with its weight not exceeding 17 kg. The warhead weight is 9-9.5 kg.

The unguided air-launched missiles are considered to be a highly effective and versatile device to engage the ground targets from delivery aircrafts. According to the statement posted on the Rostec website, they are the most popular air-delivered munitions due to their high reliability, ease of use, relatively low price and minimum costs required to hit the set targets.