Douglas Barrie/LONDONAlexander Velovich/MOSCOW
THE RUSSIAN air force is to receive only 13% of its budget request for 1996, a decision, which is threatening to cripple short-term equipment upgrades and long term acquisition plans.
Nikolay Anisimov, assistant for finances to the air force's commander in chief, says that the funding being made available is barely enough to cover salaries and fuel costs. No funding, he adds, has been made available for planned modernisation projects, aircraft procurement or research and development.
The highest-profile project to suffer because of the funding drought is Mikoyan's fifth-generation fighter programme, needed to meet the air force's Mnogofunktsionalny Frontovoy Istribitel (Multi-role Frontal Fighter, or MFI) requirement.
Intended to replace the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, Mikoyan began work on the project in the early 1980s, with its design being chosen to meet the requirement in 1986. The project, which carries the internal Mikoyan code of Article 1.42, has yet to be flown. Two prototypes, are believed to have been built, with taxi trials carried out in late 1994.
Recent comments in the Russian press by Anatoliy Belosvet, deputy general director of MAPO-MiG, paint a stark picture of the programme's future. Belosvet admits that the air force cannot afford to buy the MFI in credible numbers. Instead, he says, MAPO-MiG will look to use the 1.42 programme as a technology demonstrator for a more affordable fifth-generation fighter (Flight International, 24-30 January).
Belosvet suggests that in general terms, a new fighter would sit between the MiG-29M programme and the MFI, as now specified by the air force.
The uncertain fate of the MFI, conceived under the aegis of the Soviet Union, is a result of the collapse of what was a state-orchestrated procurement process to meet future combat-aircraft requirements. So far, there is no clear indication as to what if anything will supersede this.
There have been unconfirmed reports that the air force has asked Sukhoi to offer an affordable fifth-generation-design alternative to the Mikoyan aircraft. A Sukhoi project, the S.32, is a fifth-generation fighter design, although very little is known about it.
Mikoyan has already worked on a fifth-generation light fighter concept. to meet the air force's Legkiy Frontovoy Istribitel (Light Frontal Fighter, or LFI) requirement. This programme was intended to complement the MFI, but work fell into abeyance in the late 1980s.
With the likelihood of the Article 1.42 ever entering operational service diminishing, the air force's short-term options seem to be limited to the Su-27M Flanker programme. The Flanker upgrade, which carries the T-10M designation, has been in development since the mid-1980s. By 1990, proto-type Su-27Ms were under test, at the Akhtubinsk state flight test centre.
More than a dozen pre-production test models of the Su-27M have been built, and under original air force plans, the aircraft should have entered service no later than 1995. An order for two further Su-27Ms, placed with the Komsomolsk plant at the end of 1995, may mark the first of the production-standard aircraft. A dozen-plus aircraft for a test programme should be sufficient. An in-service date of 1998/9 for the first unit of Su-27Ms is now likely.
If the Su-27M and the MiG-29M are procured in substantial numbers it would also indicate a further delay in the fielding of a fifth-generation fighter.
The air force's planned bomber programmes also appear to be in a state of disarray. Sukhoi's T-60S project to replace the Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire appears to be continuing, but its progress must be under serious question. The latest effort, the Sukhoi bomber programme, probably had its genesis at the same time as the MFI, but so far the design bureau has refused to discuss the project.
The Su-27IB fighter-bomber, originally intended to enter service in the latter half of the 1990s, is also suffering from severe budget restraints. An in-service date somewhere around the turn of the century would now seem more feasible.
The air force would also like to replace its Tupolev Tu-160 and Tu-95/142 strategic bombers with a new aircraft. Tupolev officials admitted in 1992 that they were working on an unspecified new bomber, and the programme may be internally known as Project 245. Project 145 was the internal code for the Tu-22M Backfire.
Mikoyan also looked at a stealth bomber design, coming up with a blended canard platform similar to the Northrop Grumman B-2. More-conventional control surfaces, however, were included in the design. The requirement, ostensibly for a stealthy subsonic aircraft, is certain to be suffering from the air force's parlous finances.
A tentative in-service date well into the second decade of the next century is probably the best that the Russian air force can now hope for.
Source: Flight International
