Be-200 Multirole Amphibian

MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Defense Ministry has signed a contract with the Beriev Aircraft Company for the purchase of six Beriev Be-200 amphibious planes, Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) said on Friday.

“The contract is worth 8.4 billion rubles [$268 million],” UAC said in a statement.

“The first two planes will be basic Be-200ChS models, while the following four will be the Be-200PS version without firefighting equipment,” the statement said.

It is the first purchase of Be-200 planes by the Russian military.

The Defense Ministry may order eight more planes in the future, according to UAC.

Be-200 is the world's largest multipurpose amphibious aircraft, designed for firefighting, search and rescue, maritime patrol, cargo and passenger transportation.

The plane can carry 12 tons of water or 7.5 tons of cargo, or up to 72 passengers.

At least five Be-200ChS firefighting planes are currently in service with the Russian Emergencies Ministry.


http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20130524/181331305/Russian-Military-Orders-6-Be-200-Amphibious-Planes.html

So, 4 of them will be without firefighting equipment. So the question is, who will be using them, and what will they be using them for?

Zivo wrote:So, 4 of them will be without firefighting equipment. So the question is, who will be using them, and what will they be using them for?

Nice question. The only logical answer i could think is that of replacing old Be-12 in black sea fleet

This is 6 new planes for the Russian Navy... two are clearly to be available for fire fighting duties as well as other roles, while the other four will likely replace the Be-12s, with the follow on order of another 8 likely completing this.

The Russian Emercom units already have such aircraft and would be the main user of the fire fighting model.

Is there an accurate estimate on how many Be-200 are operated or have been ordered? I thought this contract was the same than another one signed in 2010. When I searched for information, it turned out that the 2010 "contract" was just a "pre-contract agreement". It is a shame that the aircraft does not get many large contracts because it has operated succesfuly for a number of countries.

In 2010, Beriev Aircraft Company and Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia signed a pre-contract agreement related to delivery of eight Be-200ES aircraft.

http://www.beriev.com/eng/Be-200_e/Be-200ES_e.html

In 2008/ 2009 there was supposedly an order for 4 Albatrosses to be delivered in 2013.
Not sure what happened to that.

This is an amazing plane, IMO. Perhaps the sector will be developed along with Ekranoplans..

It is a very specialised type of aircraft and more expensive to operate than standard aircraft used in the role, which are normally modified civilian airliners... the Il-38 May and P-3 Orion are two examples of that.

The problem with amphibious aircraft is that they need more maintainence, though of course they can do things normal fixed wing aircraft can't. To get the same capability you would need an airliner based aircraft plus a helicopter to pull people from the water.

I often wondered about whether a feature of amphibious large jets could land on the water and lower variable depth sonar to look for targets.

Traditionally an aircraft like a May had to drop sonobouys which are expensive because they are expendible... using a dipping sonar you can drop the sensor below layers of ocean so you can hear better and with it being retrievable you can spend a big more and get a better sensor that is more sensitive and use it more often...

Obviously very dependent on sea state...

Beriev to deliver first Taganrog-built Be-200ChS before year-end

http://en.take-off.ru/pdf_to/to29.pdf

Beriev Aircraft Company to manufacture two Be-200 aircraft in 2014
Russian Aviaton » Monday October 27, 2014 18:56 MSK

Beriev Aircraft Company will manufacture Be-200 amphibian aircraft using its own production facilities for the first time over the last 15 years, deputy governor of Rostov Region Alexander Grebenshikov told RBC.

According to him, the enterprise plans to manufacture one or two aircraft of the type this year. The plant may start mass production of the aircraft next year. «If the output will reach 3-5 aircraft per year we may consider it as a mass production”, - Grebenshikov said.

The amphibian aircraft will be purchased by EMERCOM and Russian Ministry of Defense. Foreign countries have also shown interest in this aircraft. Deputy governor added that Be-200 was being manufactured by Irkut Corporation, however, the production was moved to facilities of Beriev Aircraft Company.

Be-200 is a Russian amphibious aircraft developed by Beriev Aircraft Company; it was being manufactured by Irkutsk Aviation Plant. In 2008 production of Be-200ChS aircraft was transferred to Beriev Aircraft Company’s production capacities. Some of the jet’s parameters are still unmatched. It is designed for firefighting.

Beriev Aircraft Company specializes in design and production of different versions of Be-200 jet, repair and upgrade of Tu-95MS, Tu-142MK (MZ, MP), Tu-142ME aircraft. It is part of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). In 2014 - 2018 the company should deliver 8-12 aircraft to Russian Ministry of Defense.

28,26% of the company’s registered capital is owned by Irkut Corporation, 30,39% - by Sukhoi Holding Company, 32,36% - by UAC, around 8% - by minority shareholders (individuals and legal entities). The company’s revenues for 2013 were 2,68 billion rubles, net loss - 887,4 million rubles.

" Indonesia will buy four Russian Beriev BE-200 aircraft for its armed forces and will also be used to conduct cloud seeding to create artificial rain to extinguish forest or land fires. "We have submitted the proposal and included it in our strategic plan to buy four aircraft. This would be sufficient," the countrys Air Force Chief of Staff, Marshal Agus Supriatna, stated after meeting Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Friday. He noted that the Beriev BE-200 aircraft is ideal for conducting water bombing operations in areas affected by fires. With additional Beriev aircraft being deployed to conduct cloud seeding operations, we would also be able to complete the operations quickly, he added.



"Many sorties are needed. An aircraft needs 20 to 30 minutes to fetch water from the sea and 15 to 17 seconds to load before flying for 30 minutes to reach a location," he explained. To extinguish the current fires in Sumatra, the government has leased two Russian amphibious aircraft to conduct cloud seeding operations to create artificial rain. During the government of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, two BE-200 aircraft had been used to conduct a similar operation for several months and were leased on a contract worth up to US$5.4 million. Indonesia has also been offered the option to buy the aircraft. The BE-200 aircraft can scoop tons of water without the need to land by just positioning itself above the water level.

Commander of the Palembang Air Base Lieutenant Colonel MRY Fahlefie remarked that the BE-200 aircraft had landed in Palembang to take part in the aerial firefighting operations by using water from the Strait of Malacca. "Later, the aircraft will fetch water from the Strait of Malacca, and so, it will be deployed at the Pangkal Pinang Airport," he added."

Source: http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2015/10/31/055714712/Govt-to-Buy-Four-Russian-Beriev-Aircraft-for-Water-Bombing

Militarov wrote:[i]" Indonesia will buy four Russian Beriev BE-200 aircraft for its armed forces

Good news....if political considerations weren't an issue, the Be-200 would be a good choice for Australia as well for fighting bush fires

Cyberspec wrote:

Militarov wrote:[i]" Indonesia will buy four Russian Beriev BE-200 aircraft for its armed forces

Good news....if political considerations weren't an issue, the Be-200 would be a good choice for Australia as well for fighting bush fires

Beriev A40 would be probably even better choice for bigger countries, however seems project fell victim partially to politics, partially to lack of will to fund two similar projects.

Militarov wrote:Beriev A40 would be probably even better choice for bigger countries, however seems project fell victim partially to politics, partially to lack of will to fund two similar projects.

Silly decission re: A-40....they would be ideal to station at Tartous ....or lets say Venezuela or Nicaragua

Cyberspec wrote:

Militarov wrote:Beriev A40 would be probably even better choice for bigger countries, however seems project fell victim partially to politics, partially to lack of will to fund two similar projects.

Silly decission re: A-40....they would be ideal to station at Tartous ....or lets say Venezuela or Nicaragua

Yeah they could have been used as platform for many applications. There was proposed version with Progress D27 turboprops, it would make it ideal for ASW, SAR, AWACS, Maritime patrol as it would increase perfromance on sea and increase flight time... But oh well.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 30 -. RIA Novosti, Ivan Kapustin first amphibious aircraft Be-200ES, produced at the plant Beriev name Beriev Taganrog, entered the service of the Southern Regional Center (SRC) MOE until the end of 2016, said at a press -Conferences GUMCHS reporters Head of the Rostov region Valery Sinkov.

"According to our plan, which we follow to the end, the SRC MOE should get the plane," - said Sinkov.

He added that one of the Be-200ES in the State Ministry of Emergency Situations SRC is already there, it was received in April. According to him, as the aviation and rescue center is responsible for the entire Southern Federal District, one of the aircraft will not be enough.

He told reporters CEO of Beriev Beriev name Yuri Grudinin rollout ceremony at Be-200ES, an order for six aircraft for the Emergency Situations Ministry, and five aircraft for the Russian Defense Ministry will perform the factory by 2018.

Be-200ES multipurpose amphibious aircraft designed to solve problems of fire suppression, emergency assistance in areas of extreme disasters, search and rescue on water, sanitation and freight traffic. The aircraft can reach a maximum cruising speed of 700 kilometers per hour. At the same time the speed of the aircraft on patrol during search and rescue operations - 300-560 kilometers per hour. Amphibious aircraft can carry up to 12 tons of water. Filling with water is carried out both at the airport and on the open water in the planing mode in 15 seconds.

AFAIK the Be-200 is operated by EMERCOM in Russia as it is deemed too small for anything other than rescue for the Navy which has only a couple for the rescue role and no plans to buy more.

The A-40 on the other hand is big enough to carry all the equipment needed to replace aircraft like the Mail and the May in their varied missions...

Note the new A-40s will be different from the old ones because the old aircraft had four engines... they had two engines D-30s as used on the old model Il-76s with 14 tons cruise thrust, but to boost their performance they had 2 ton thrust engines mounted beneath the main engines as boosters for takeoffs.

The new aircraft will have PS-90A based new engines with 16 tons thrust that wont require the booster engines for takeoffs. This should make them simpler and lighter and rather more capable.

Production of amphibian Be-200BC aircrafts in Taganrog
















http://bmpd.livejournal.com/2476157.html

The contract for the delivery of Be-200 aircraft to the Ministry of Defense of Russia is terminated

As RBC's agency reported on August 30, 2017, the Moscow Arbitration Court granted the claim of the Defense Ministry of Russia about the recovery from the PJSC "Taganrog aviation scientific and technical complex named after G.M. Beriev" as an unscheduled advance of more than 6.726 billion rubles.

The specified amount was paid to the Ministry of Defense as an advance on the contract concluded in 2013 on the supply of five [actually six] Amphibian Be-200BC aircraft, but none of the aircraft was ultimately delivered to the agency.

Based on the results of the case, the Moscow Arbitration Court decided to terminate the contract concluded between the Ministry of Defense and TANTK, to collect from the aircraft factory an unearned advance and 200 thousand rubles. duties in favor of the state.

On the bmpd side, we recall that the PJSC "Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex named after G.M. Beriev" (TANTK) concluded on May 23, 2013 with the Ministry of Defense of Russia a state contract for the supply of Russian Navy aviation to two Be-200BC aircraft and four modified aircrafts Be-200PS (without extinguishing function) with a total cost of 8.4 billion rubles. The delivery was to be made under the terms of the contract in 2014-2016, but the construction of these aircraft (serial numbers 03-09, 03-10 and 03-51 to 03-54), according to known data, did not advance further than the initial stage. It was reported that as early as in 2016 the Ministry of Defense of Russia suspended the implementation of this contract.

franco wrote:The contract for the delivery of Be-200 aircraft to the Ministry of Defense of Russia is terminated

As RBC's agency reported on August 30, 2017, the Moscow Arbitration Court granted the claim of the Defense Ministry of Russia about the recovery from the PJSC "Taganrog aviation scientific and technical complex named after G.M. Beriev" as an unscheduled advance of more than 6.726 billion rubles.

   The specified amount was paid to the Ministry of Defense as an advance on the contract concluded in 2013 on the supply of five [actually six] Amphibian Be-200BC aircraft, but none of the aircraft was ultimately delivered to the agency.

   Based on the results of the case, the Moscow Arbitration Court decided to terminate the contract concluded between the Ministry of Defense and TANTK, to collect from the aircraft factory an unearned advance and 200 thousand rubles. duties in favor of the state.

On the bmpd side, we recall that the PJSC "Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex named after G.M. Beriev" (TANTK) concluded on May 23, 2013 with the Ministry of Defense of Russia a state contract for the supply of Russian Navy aviation to two Be-200BC aircraft and four modified aircrafts Be-200PS (without extinguishing function) with a total cost of 8.4 billion rubles. The delivery was to be made under the terms of the contract in 2014-2016, but the construction of these aircraft (serial numbers 03-09, 03-10 and 03-51 to 03-54), according to known data, did not advance further than the initial stage. It was reported that as early as in 2016 the Ministry of Defense of Russia suspended the implementation of this contract.

How very sad, a very good aircraft held back because of internal incompetence.

They may hold another contract eventually as such aircraft are rather important, until whatever the issue was with the initial contract.

The Ministry of Defense of Russia has again gathered to purchase Be-200 amphibious aircraft

As reported on August 30, 2018 by the agency TASS, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Alexey Krivoruchko said that the contract to supply the Ministry of Defense three amphibian aircraft Be-200 is planned to be concluded in the near future. The first plane the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation plans to receive in 2019.



"We agreed with the Beriev Airborne Scientific and Technical Complex [TAG] [Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex] to purchase the first batch of three aircraft, and a contract will be signed soon." Everything is going according to plan, and we expect the arrival of the first aircraft in the troops in 2019 year ", - said A. Krivoruchko, specifying that these aircraft will be executed in search and rescue equipment.

On the bmpd side, we recall that on May 23, 2013 the Russian Ministry of Defense has already signed with the TANTK. G.M. Beriev State contract for the supply of Russian Navy aviation to six Be-200 amphibious aircraft - two Be-200ChS aircraft and four modified Be-200PS aircraft (without firefighting function) - a total cost of 8.4 billion rubles. The delivery was to be made under the terms of the contract in 2014-2016, but the construction of aircraft under this contract (serial numbers 03-09, 03-10 and from 03-51 to 03-54) at TAHTK has turned into a long-term construction and in fact, data, has not advanced further than the initial stage. In 2017, the Ministry of Defense terminated this contract. In August 2017, the Moscow Arbitration Court granted the claim of the Ministry of Defense of Russia for recovery of more than 6.726 billion rubles from the PJSC "Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex named after G. Beriev" as an undrawn advance on this contract.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3323590.html

https://flot.com/2018/%D0%9E%D0%B0%D0%BA21/

Google Translate wrote:The United Aircraft Corporation is working on a project to resume production in Russia of the A-40 "Albatross" amphibian aircraft. About itRIA News reported the press service of the UAC on the eve of the opening of the exhibition "Gidroaviasalon-2018".

A-40 Albatross (Be-42, article "B") - Soviet multi-purpose amphibious aircraft, was developed to replace the Be-12. The project was stopped after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its maximum takeoff weight is 90 tons, which can not boast of any aircraft of this class in the world.

In 2016, the head of the naval aviation of the Black Sea Fleet, Gennady Zagonov, announced that the newest anti-submarine A-40 seaplanes would replace Be-12 amphibious aircraft as part of a complete renovation of the park.

I understand Be-200 is quite a bit smaller but its more modern & seems like a pretty obvious choice for a new maritime patrol plane if not building based on an existing airliner/transport like with P8/PC-130.
Restarting A-40 seems pretty unlikely.

The Be-42 has more capacity than the Be-200 so would be a better aircraft choice... especially in the later models that replaced the 14 ton thrust D-30s with 16 ton thrust PS_90s... as it meant the small booster jets could be removed and it could be a twin engine aircraft instead of a four engined aircraft with the internal engines used only on takeoff.

The problem is that amphibious aircraft are more expensive but they have capabilities and features conventional aircraft don't have...

The question really is how often the Be-12s have actually had to land on water to do their job.

I always thought in a small area like the Black Sea , an amphibious ASW aircraft could land on the sea and lower a dipping sonar to search for subs instead of throwing away disposable sonar bouys... Perhaps UAVs based on helos with dipping sonar that can land on the water surface and do the search without the wasteful use of disposable sonar bouys might solve the problem... the problem is range and speed.

Contract for 2 with option for 3 more firefighting version has been signed for a Chilean Forrestry company http://charly015.blogspot.com/2018/09/be-200-para-chile.html
They had a big disastrous fire in 2016.

Also 4 orders plus 6 options for a US forrestry/leasing company http://charly015.blogspot.com/2018/09/de-nuevo-el-be-200-y-eeuu-actualizado.html


Apparently part of the delay they've had is the 404s blocked providing the D-436 engine so they're working on a re-engine to the French/Russian SaM-146 (as seen on Sukhoi Superjet)

hoom wrote:
https://flot.com/2018/%D0%9E%D0%B0%D0%BA21/

Google Translate wrote:The United Aircraft Corporation is working on a project to resume production in Russia of the A-40 "Albatross" amphibian aircraft. About itRIA News reported the press service of the UAC on the eve of the opening of the exhibition "Gidroaviasalon-2018".

A-40 Albatross (Be-42, article "B") - Soviet multi-purpose amphibious aircraft, was developed to replace the Be-12. The project was stopped after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its maximum takeoff weight is 90 tons, which can not boast of any aircraft of this class in the world.

In 2016, the head of the naval aviation of the Black Sea Fleet, Gennady Zagonov, announced that the newest anti-submarine A-40 seaplanes would replace Be-12 amphibious aircraft as part of a complete renovation of the park.

I understand Be-200 is quite a bit smaller but its more modern & seems like a pretty obvious choice for a new maritime patrol plane if not building based on an existing airliner/transport like with P8/PC-130.
Restarting A-40 seems pretty unlikely.

Of course, A-40 is a soviet desing and it seems abandoned project since Be-200 is undreway
A-40 and Be-200 are very similar, only the size, A-40 is about 1/3 larger than Be-200
A-40 was designed for a cold war scenario with hundred of submarines operating in all the seas and oceans, today is no necesary a seaplane larger than Be-200

However ,if you compare Be-12 with Be-200 are very similar:

Plane:  length  winspang  EW    Max.TOW    Range
Be-12:   30m     30m       24t.     36t.        3.300Km
Be-200: 32m     33m       27t.     38t.        3.300km

Be-200 can replace Be-12 of Black Sea Fleet
Is not reasonable to produce A-40 if you already have a good airplane like Be-200 in production and the number to produce are only one or two dozens

Ru.Navy will need only half a dozen or 10 as much for Black Sea Fleet, and after, perpahps could contract similar ammount for Baltic.
Also Pacific fleet could need PS variant (SAR)
A-40 was a soviet project for replace near 150 Be-12 in service in that years. Today has not sense two different seaplanes in production at the same time

In fact MoD already signed a contract for several Be-200 in the PS versión (SAR) but the contract was cancelled, and now could retake the program
This indicates MoD have interest in Be-200 and A-40 is just a vintage project from the 80s