Russia Orders Yak-130 Trainer & Light Attack Jets
May 22, 2012 11:28 EDT
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Russia’s air force (VVS) aged badly in the wake of the Cold War, and the lack of replacements soon made itself felt in all areas. One of those areas involved advanced jet trainers, which form the last rung on the ladder before assignment to fighters. Russia’s Czech-made L-29 and L-39 trainers were left with questionable access to spare parts, and a competition in the 1990s saw Yakolev’s Yak-130 collaboration with Italy’s Finmeccanica beat the MiG-AT and Sukhoi’s canard-winged SU-54 light fighter. Unfortunately, Russian budget realities allowed orders for just a dozen early production Yak-130s, even as the L-39 fleet dwindled drastically.
Some export successes kept Yak-130 production going, via confirmed orders from Algeria (16) and Vietnam (8), and an unclear agreement with Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, Russian trials continued until December 2009. In December 2011, however, Russia finally placed a significant order that can get production started in earnest…
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“The Russian military has abandoned plans to develop a light attack aircraft based on the Yak-130, as Zelin says a prototype dubbed the Yak-131 did not demonstrate a high enough level of protection for its pilot.”
The VVS will continue to use modernized SU-25 SM close air support planes for this role, and eventually plans to order a total of 80 upgrades. They’re also talking about designing and fielding a successor aircraft to the heavily-armored SU-25 fleet, but that’s a project for 2020 at the earliest.
Dec 12/11: Irkut reports orders for 55 aircraft by 2015, out of 65 Yak-130s envisaged in the current 2011-2020 armaments plans. This is a big deal for Irkut, whose customers for the last 2 decades have been export clients. Other reports suggest that Russia may eventually place orders for as many as 300 of the planes, which can also become heavily-armed counter-insurgency and light attack planes. ITAR-TASS | Irkut Corp..
