Russian Ground Forces to Adopt New UAVs

The Orlan and Granat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be put into service with the Russian Army this year. This came in a statement made by Vladimir Chirkin, the Commander of the Russian Ground Forces, at the 11th International Defence Exhibition IDEX-2013.

According to the Commander-in-Chief, the first UAVs are scheduled to be included into the inventory of the Ground Forces later this year. The vehicles in question belong to Orlan and Granat types developed under the technical assignment of the Ministry of Defence.

It should be noted that the exhibition features an unmanned fighting vehicle elaborated by the UAE. “We can discuss whether they have produced it on their own or assembled from imported components. But the fact is that we have no fighting vehicles at this moment. Our UAVs are designed for solving communications, reconnaissance, and radioelectronic warfare problems. At the same time, I can not say that we are hopelessly lagging behind, but this issue hasn’t been dealt with for the last two decades,” Mr. Chirkin explained.

It’s necessary to mention that as of the summer 2012, the United States Army had more than 36,000 UAVs for different purposes, including reconnaissance, communications and fighting vehicles.

FL Technics to Maintain SSJ100 Aircrafts

FL Technics, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and SuperJet International, the joint venture between the Italian Alenia Aermacchi and Russian Sukhoi Holding, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of the SSJ100 maintenance in Europe and Asia.

Under the terms of the concluded agreement, FL Technics will become a partner of SuperJet International authorized service centers in the sphere of the SSJ100 maintenance and will perform depot and line maintenance of these air frames. In addition, FL Technics will soon be entitled to provide services for the SSJ100 line maintenance in Southeast Asia.

“We are pleased to see FL Technics as our international partner in the field of maintenance and repair. One of our main goals is to provide prompt and comprehensive after-sales service of the new SSJ100 aircrafts. We believe that the cooperation between FL Technics, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and SuperJet International will make a significant contribution to the development of the Russian aviation industry and successful promotion of the SSJ100 aircraft in the international market,” – said Andrey Nedosekin, the Senior Vice President for after-sales support of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft.

Russian Army to Develop Anti-Meteorite Systems

The Russian Aerospace Defenсe Forces will work out a number of measures aimed at protecting the Russian territory from falling meteorites and other dangerous space objects.

According to Igor Makushev, the Commander of the Western Military District’s aviation, the Aerospace Defence Forces have been ordered to handle this issue and come up with a plan to protect Russia from different space dangers.

The statement comes days after a meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere undetected by existing space-monitoring devices and slammed into Russia’s Urals on Friday with a massive boom that blew out windows and damaged thousands of buildings around the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,200 people in the area. NASA estimates the meteorite was roughly 15 meters in diameter. At the same time, none of the existing systems, either Russian or American, detected this space object until it entered the atmosphere.

The scientists said it was impossible to spot the meteorite, as it was coming from the direction of the Sun, while radars were set to detect objects flying within a predetermined speed range.

NIKIMT-Atomstroy Develops Unique Welding Chambers

NIKIMT-Atomstroy (a subsidiary of the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation) has developed and manufactured a unique chamber specially designed for welding and building up the aircraft structural elements made of titanium alloys in a controlled atmosphere. The corresponding order has been placed by the Beriev Aircraft Company.

The chamber having a volume of 3 m³ is equipped with three glove boxes and three inspection windows on the one side, and one glove box and one inspection window on the other side. These facilities are designed for an assembly fitter helping a welder move the construction or hold it during the welding process.

As a part of the tests, several control samples were welded using high-purity and top-grade argon applied by the customer. The resulting welds were characterized by the absence of discoloration and had a shiny silver color. This result was achieved through the use of the argon purification system and two control devices (gas detectors). Besides, this system provides control over the argon composition.

It should be noted that the company’s specialists are currently working to produce chambers for welding in a controlled atmosphere with a volume of 20 m³ and 40 m³.

Russia’s SIBUR and RIL Start Joint Venture in Jamnagar

During the foundation stone ceremony RIL and SIBUR, the Russia‘s largest petrochemical company, have signed a technology license agreement facilitating the use of SIBUR’s proprietary butyl rubber production technology at the new facility.

Under the terms of this agreement, SIBUR should design a Basic Engineering Package and provide highly-experienced technical personnel on both project and operational stages. RIL will supply monomer from its oil refining and petrochemical site in Jamnagar and provide the joint venture with the world-class infrastructure and utilities.

The Jamnagar butyl rubber plant was initially expected to be launched in mid-2014. However, according to the official information, the plant is likely to be commissioned in 2015. The joint venture is expected to be among the world’s top five manufacturers of butyl rubber.

Today, India’s demand for butyl rubber created mainly by tyre industry is fully supplied by import from Northern America, Middle Asia and European countries, including Russia.

“Reliance is excited to join a group of global butyl rubber producers. India is considrered to be a vast market for these products. We look forward to serving this market,” stated Nikhil Meswani, the Executive Director of RIL.