Vladimir Karnozov/MOSCOW
Export activities at OKB Sukhoi continued to keep the design bureau afloat last year although it was also boosted by a rise in funding from the Russian Government.
Speaking at the annual shareholders meeting on 26 May, OKB Sukhoi general director Mikhail Pogosyan indicated that the company would be increasing the tempo of work this year, with plans for over 2,000 test flights of its various products compared with 1,200 last year and 800 the previous year.
Sales and profits advanced strongly in comparison to the previous year. This was partly due to a substantial increase in the volume of funding from the Russian ministry of defence.
In 1999 Moscow's share of OKB funding was only 2%; last year it rose to 18%. The company's fiscal year 2000 report says that the increase in MoD funding permitted OKB to "largely cover its own investments" in national defence programmes and to substantially increase the volume of work .
Although reliance on revenue from foreign contracts declined from 97% in 1999 to 81% last year the company's export success effectively kept OKB Sukhoi in business as a viable entity.
The major achievement on the export front was completion of flight tests on the Su-30MKK that permitted the related KnAAPO factory to launch production and deliver the first aircraft to China.
Among the major activities undertaken last year were development and testing of the Su-30MKI and Su-30MKK export variants of the basic multi-role twin-seat fighter, customer support for licence production of the Su-27SK in China and Su-30MKI in India, and upgrade work and deliveries of Su-24M strike aircraft to Algeria.
The Moscow-based design house has a workforce of about 4,000. The major focus this year is said to be development of the Su-32 interdiction aircraft and upgrade packages for the Su-24M, Su-25 and Su-27 tactical aircraft.
In addition, flight-testing of the Su-37 single-seat fighter with thrust-vectoring engines and the upgraded Su-33 single-seat and Su-27KUB twin-seat naval fighters are planned.
Later this year the S-37-1 Berkut experimental fighter with forward-swept wing will resume its flight-test programme after maintenance work on its D-30F engines. Sukhoi says this year the aircraft will face "much more aggressive tests than previously", since its maiden flight in 1997.
OKB Sukhoi also intends to test fly two new commercial designs this year. The S-80 28-seat twin-boom twin-turboprop and Su-38L single-piston agricultural aircraft are to fly in the next few weeks.
The share of civil programmes in the OKB workload continues to grow. Founded last year, the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft branch is working on two major projects, a family of regional airliners in the 50 to 90 seat category and a supersonic business jet.
Sukhoi is also preparing to begin development of next-generation combat aircraft and recently signed a framework agreement with12 other companies, including AVPK Sukhoi, TsAGI, GosNII AS, Tekhnocomplex, Lyulka-Saturn, Vympel and Zvezda-Strela to boost work on fifth-generation fighter technologies. The next phase will be to sign up production factories, Sukhoi says.
Source: Flight International
