Yak-130: News

mack8 wrote:Another Yak-130 contract in the works, to be signed in 2014:
http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20131225/986450921.html#ixzz2oV7E2qzj

very logic since the first order of 55 will be completed in 2014

Russian air forces will order more Yak-130 operational trainers
Russian Aviaton » Tuesday December 31, 2013 14:05 MSK

Russian air forces plan to purchase another batch of Yak-130 operational trainers after implementation of the current contract, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the Commander-in-Chief of the air forces, Viktor Bondarev.

"We are pretty sure that we will sign this contract", — Bondarev said during his visit to Irkutsk Aviation Plant.

The existing contract assumes delivery of 55 Yak-130 operational trainers. A total of 42 jets of the type have already been delivered to the customer. Irkut Corporation delivered 18 Yak-130s to the air forces. Two more Yak-130 jets should be delivered to the Ministry of Defense by the end of 2013 (on account of the 2014 order).

According to the Commander-in-Chief, the air forces need a lot of Yak-130 operational trainers, because the Minister of Defense, Sergey Shoygu, decided to expand the recruitment for the Air Force Academies in 2013-2014.

Irkut Corporation over-fulfilled the plan for 2013 in terms of deliveries of Yak-130 operational trainers
Russian Aviaton » Thursday January 23, 2014 15:02 MSK

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian air forces, Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev, Assistant Secretary of Defense, Colonel General Alexander Zelin, and Director of Military Aviation Programs Directorate of UAC, Vladimir Mikhailov, visited the Irkutsk Aviation Plant on December 25th 2013.

During the visit the parties have summarized the results of implementation of the state defense order by Irkut Corporation in 2013. «Irkutsk Aviation Plant fulfilled and even over-fulfilled the delivery plan, – Viktor Bondarev noted. – Two Yak-130s to be delivered in 2014 are almost ready; the jets will be delivered ahead of schedule», - Irkut noted.

According to the Commander-in-Chief, in 2013 18 Yak-130 aircraft were delivered to Borisoglebsk training center of the Russian air forces and 14 Su-30SM fighters were delivered to Domna air base. «We have visited Domna earlier…in order to take a closer look at operation of the new jets. I would like to admit that these fighters are great and the pilots are satisfied. I am glad to say this, – he noted. – As a matter of fact we have been criticizing the industry for late deliveries and low quality of the products for years. Irkut demonstrates that the situation is improving: the industry manufactures high-quality products and delivers them every quarter instead of delivering all the jets at year-end. Therefore the pilots are performing flights regularly. The work of Irkutsk Aviation Plant sets a good example for other enterprises».

The Commander-in-Chief of the air forces expressed confidence that the Ministry of Defense will sign new contracts with Irkut Corporation for delivery of Su-30SM and Yak-130 aircraft. Viktor Bondarev noted that in accordance with the president’s decision, the recruitment to the air force academies will be expanded. «The young men, who chose the real manly profession – aviation, as their lifework, will need more of these awesome jets, – the Commander-in-Chief said. – These vehicles will give boost to development of the air forces and will help us train the new generation of pilots, who will protect our country».

Does anyone know if any country has shown interest in buying the YAK130 as a light attack aircraft???

There have been claims about tests done with the Yak-130 as a Su-25 replacement, where the Yak-130 together with UCAVs operate over a battlefield and the Yaks use stand off weapons to engage point ground targets. The reports I heard suggested they thought the Yak needed more armour for the role, which would reduce its performance to below what the Su-25 can already achieve so the word is that they are looking at initially upgrading the Su-25 and then replacing it with a new dedicated CAS aircraft.

Hi garry do u, know any info what will replace it? will this will be a turbo prop design or jet powered?

Hard to say.

A turbo prop would reduce heat emissions to a minimum but the prop blades would be vulnerable to damage and unless you used a pusher prop design would take up valuable nose space that would otherwise have sensors and other equipment.

In terms of jet power the ideal on paper should be the turbofan because of the lower temperature exhaust being less of a target to IR guided missiles, but a turbo jet is used in the Su-25 and I have read it throttles up and down faster which is more useful in tight areas like in the mountains of Afghanistan.

With DIRCMS fitted shielding the IR signature is not so critical, and of course more modern missiles don't need an extremely hot source to target anyway... there is even the idea that with thrust vectoring nozzles the IR signature could be reduced by deflecting the engine nozzles in flight... this gives the combined bonus of reduced IR signature AND extreme low level manouver capability.

There was an all black plastic model design with a pusher propeller system that was shown in the mid 1990s that pretty much looked like an Su-25 but with the wing moved to the rear with a tail mounted coaxial prop fan with two sets of canards at the nose with two sets angled down and two angled near horizontal... the most interesting thing was the joints on the wings which seemed to indicate folding wings for naval use.

It was from an obscure design bureau I don't know much about... SABA or SABCA or something.

There was also a two fuselage straight wing design with two crew compartments that would increase the amount of nose mounted sensors to allow both optical and radar to be nose mounted and it had a rather stealthy look but I have not read much about that either.

The last I read they were going to upgrade the Su-25SM, and then go for a new 5th gen CAS aircraft.

I have no idea what it might look like however...

This is the twin fuselage model I told you about:

During the tests with the Yak-130 they found with the pilot flying the aircraft in the front concentrating on not hitting the ground the crewman in the back could focus on finding targets and threats.

They also found that with two crew the rear guy could directly take the live feed from a UCAV and control it to move it to a better position to give him live target data or even attack the target itself without the need for a 12,000km long satellite link.

The two different noses meant one could carry a radar for night and all weather long range detection and tracking of ground and air targets while the other nose could be filled with Optics and other sensors and target marking equipment without using up a wing pylon.

I should point out I have also seen another very similar model with two widely separated engines.