MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry's 121st aircraft repair plant led by Colonel Vyacheslav Artemyev will hold planned modernization of MIG-29 Fulcrum planes of the Russian Air Force in 2002, Andrei Karasev, deputy constructor general and first deputy director of the Mikoyan design bureau's engineering center, said on Thursday.
The works on extension of the planes' service life and modernization of their radar, communication and navigation equipment in accordance with the SMT program will be carried out with the engineering support of the MIG aircraft corporation, of which the Mikoyan bureau is an integral part, Karasev said.
All elements of the MIG-29 modernization have been practiced and tested on separate planes. The Voronin production center produced the first serial MIG-29SMT plane that is undergoing flight tests in the framework of the Pervy program at the Gromov flight research institute located in the town of Zhukovsky, Moscow region.
Specialists say they have for the first time realized the entire set of modernisation elements in this plane. The MIG-29SMT is fitted with the Zhuk-M new generation jamming radar, new information and control system of the cockpit and larger fuel tanks that can be refueled in the air. The modernized fighter will require smaller maintenance expenses, and its engines and airframe will have longer service lives. After operational development the plane boasts a system of processing data on serviceability of its components.
The SMT program is aimed at modernization of Fulcrums in the inventory of the Russian Air Force and foreign countries. According to experts, the CIS and other foreign countries currently operate some 800 MIG-29 planes.
The source refused to disclose the volume and nature of the MIG-29 modernization for the Russian Air Force, but said that it would take several stages. The 121st plant has fully mastered the technology of the fighter's service life extension and simultaneous modernization.
The plant has mastered the production of spare parts using laser cutting instead of stamping, installed new equipment for gas-thermal spraying when restoring spare parts, introduced ultrasonic clearance of spare parts from maintenance dirt and implemented several new technological solutions.