Yak-130 will hit the "Abrams" and "Leopards"

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Yak-130 will hit the "Abrams" and "Leopards" Military Review - Free Press - Military News. Weapons of Russia and the world.: 

Translated by google

The United Aircraft Corporation intends to modernize the Yak-130 combat trainer. As a result, a machine with enhanced combat qualities should appear. This was announced at the Dubai Airshow 2019 air show by the head of the UAC, Yuri Slyusar .

The Yak-139 is becoming not just a combat training aircraft, but to a large extent combat, said Slyusar.

It is assumed that the complex of necessary weapons will be able to choose the customer to most fully meet their needs, as well as on the basis of financial capabilities. That is, ideally, each country will buy its Yak-130. And those who want to buy it for their Air Force are quite enough. At the air show in the United Arab Emirates, the KLA held a series of negotiations with potential customers. Deliveries are now being made to previously concluded contracts in Bangladesh, Laos and Myanmar. Preparing to sign a contract with Malaysia.

The training function of the machine will also be improved; the upgraded Yak-130 will be able to better prepare pilots for fourth and fifth generation combat aircraft. Although this quality was initially on top. That is, even now, the Yak-130 is able to simulate the "behavior" of a wide range of modern aircraft that are in service not only in Russia, but also in NATO countries - the Su-27, MiG-29, MiG-31, Su-30, Su-34, Su -35, MiG-35, Su-57, F-16, F-15, F-22, F-35, Rafal, Typhoon ...

The Yak-130 is considered a completely new aircraft - it was put into service in 2010. What can not be said about his concept and outline studies. In this connection, the modernization of the aircraft can not be called hasty and premature.

The need to create a new training aircraft to replace the obsolete and very worn-out Czech L-39 Albatros ripened back in the late 80s. In 1991, a tender for development was announced, in which Sukhoi Design Bureau, Myasishchev Design Bureau, Mikoyan Design Bureau and Yakovlev Design Bureau took part.

After summing up the interim results, participation in the competition was continued by the Mikoyan Design Bureau and the Yakovlev Design Bureau. Times were interesting. Migovtsy developed their car "821" in conjunction with French aviation companies. Yakovlevites chose the Italian company L'Alenia Aermacchi as a partner.

Looking ahead, it should be said that approximately in the middle of the path the partners quarreled. And each company reserved the right, using joint developments, to build its own training aircraft (TCB) and sell it on the foreign market. The Italians brought the matter to a victorious end and are now producing their own aircraft, which is called the M-346. The aircraft is popular, limited quantities are bought by Poland, Israel, Azerbaijan, Singapore.

In 1994, Yakovlev Design Bureau won the tender and began the construction of a prototype, which in 1995 was demonstrated in a static exhibition at the Le Bourget air show.

The first flight took place in 1996.

Factory testing of the machine continued until 2002. After that, the prototype “for familiarization” was handed over to military pilots.

In 2005, the concept unexpectedly changed. Yakovlev Design Bureau has developed a training aircraft. However, the urgent need to upgrade the TCB fleet disappeared in a “natural” way - instead of 12 existing flight schools, only 3 remained in the country. At the same time, the flight hours were reduced. Therefore, it was decided to remake the Yak-130 in a combat training aircraft. This is one of the reasons that Italians left the project - large purchases of promising TCBs were planned in Europe. The second reason was that they insisted on installing avionics and engines of only Western production.

Alterations were significant. They touched both the airframe and aircraft equipment. Since it was necessary to place additional equipment in a limited volume, the layout became denser. The structure of the airborne equipment was introduced radar "Spear", which controls the guidance of modern missiles on the target. As an additional option, you can use the optical-location station, which operates both in the visible and in the infrared spectra. On the wing there were additional pylons for hanging missiles or containers with special equipment in order to increase the combat characteristics of the aircraft.

To increase the thrust-weight ratio of the aircraft, it was necessary to change the engine by installing two AI-222?25 with a thrust of 2500 kgf each on the Yak-130. For a light aircraft that weighs 4,600 kg when unloaded, this is more than enough.

For the first time in Russia, a fully digital equipment control system was used on the Yak-130. That is, there is not a single analog element. This is an unavoidable measure, since only in this way it was possible to simulate flight on various aircraft depending on the program entered into the processor memory. The electronic remote control system (EDSU) allows you to simulate various modes of engine operation and deviations of flight controls, which are characteristic of various aircraft mastered by cadets.

EDSU also provides the necessary level of security. At the initial stages of pilot training, the EMDS compensates for piloting errors. When they get the necessary experience, the program begins to imitate the "behavior" of various aircraft.

The cabin is double, with catapult seats for the instructor and cadet. During the flight, not only all airplane modes are recorded, but also pilot actions. Moreover, the pilot’s actions are recorded by a video camera and recorded in a video file.

Lightweight Yak-130 is capable of carrying a serious 3-ton combat load. Armament is mounted on nine nodes of the suspension - 8 under the wing and 1 under the fuselage.

The armament is diverse, including all types of missiles - “air-to-air” for air combat and “air-to-surface” for delivering strikes against ground targets. As well as cassettes of unguided rockets of various calibers and free-falling bombs. There is no built-in gun. But it can be used in a hanging container. In this case, the gun can have both 23 mm and 30 mm caliber. Reconnaissance equipment or electronic warfare complex can also be placed in the container. In general, everything is "as in adults."

How can you increase the combat effectiveness of an aircraft that seems to already have everything you need? Moreover, it should be borne in mind that the aircraft has already been “compacted” once, when they switched from TCB to UBS. Therefore, it will not be easy to replace the Spear radar with a more efficient radar, which takes up a larger volume, weighs more, and consumes more electricity. But the Lance is quite suitable for combat missions, which should be solved by a light attack aircraft, which the Yak-130, in fact, is. This radar works normally with modern air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles.

It is logical for the attack aircraft to enter the reservation of the cockpit and the main components and assemblies. And also to duplicate pipelines and electrical networks. All this increases the survivability of the aircraft, which is extremely important for an attack aircraft operating in the zone of enemy fire.

As for strengthening the composition of the armament, in Dubai, in relation to the Yak-130 modernization project, it was presented almost the same as now included in the ammunition: guided missiles, NURS, a container with a 30-mm cannon, an electronic warfare container.

So we can assume that the main reason for modernizing the aircraft is to create an open architecture with the goal of making machines for specific customers with minimal technological effort.


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