NPK Irkut - Yakovlev's new owner - is targeting $15 billion export market for trainer
Yakovlev's first production Yak-130 trainer made its debut flight from Sokol's Nizhny Novgorod plant in central Russia on 28 April, bringing to an end a six-month delay caused by the late delivery of key components.
Powered by two ZMKB Progress AI-222-25 engines, the aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 9,000kg (19,850lb). Moscow-based MMPP Salyut was selected by the Russian air force to supply the engines, and last February shipped its first examples to Sokol. The company will supply a further 13 engines this year to equip Yakovlev's initial production batch of four aircraft.
The Yak-130 features a re-programmable digital flight control system capable of emulating various aircraft types, including advanced strike platforms, an Elektroavtomatika integrated avionics suite and a navigation and targeting system enabling the use of precision-guided weapons weighing up to 3,000kg to be carried from eight pylons. An open avionic architecture and multiplex databus also allows for the possible integration of Raytheon's AIM-9 Sidewinder short-range air-to-air and AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles and other Western weapons.
With research and development funding for the Yak-130 having so far exceeded $100 million, NPK Irkut, which last month completed its takeover of Yakovlev, is hopeful of securing an $8-15 billion market for the trainer through Russia's Rosoboronexport arms agency. Rosoboronexport says the Yak-130 could secure between 400-1,200 orders from a projected global jet trainer market for 2,500 aircraft over the next 15 years. The design is expected to have a production unit cost of $13 million.
The Yak-130 project is being partially funded by the Russian defence ministry, which in 2002 selected the design as the Russian air force's future combat trainer. The service hopes to procure 200 new trainers to replace its ageing Aero Vodochody L-39s.
VLADIMIR KARNOZOV / MOSCOW
Source: Flight International
