MOSCOW. May 29 (Interfax-AVN) - The IL-38V May plane modernized by the Ilyushin aircraft corporation will be put up for flight tests in June, Ilyushin Director General Viktor Livanov said on Wednesday.
Ground tests of the aircraft are nearing completion, Livanov told Interfax-Military News Agency. In particular, testing of on- board equipment is underway. This includes special devices and the new Novella sighting and search system designed by the Leninets holding company of St. Petersburg.
The Novella system includes a radar, television-IR subsystem, IR sensor, radio-hydro-acoustic station, magnetometer and electronic intelligence device, Livanov said.
According to him, joint state tests of the IL-38 will last for at least 12 months. Modernization of May planes is envisaged by the Russian armament program for the period up to 2010, the director added.
Asked about prospects of modernizing IL-38 planes from the Indian Navy's inventory, Livanov said that the first Indian plane arrived in Russia on March 30 and was staying at the town of Zhukovsky in the Moscow region.
He declined to comment on Russian media reports that five May planes would be modernized at the Indian order within three years and that they would be fitted with the new Morskoi Zmei (Sea Snake) sighting and search system.
According to Livanov, modernization of the Indian planes is still at the stage of research, development and tests. The Indian and Russian schemes of IL-38 modernization will have substantial differences.
The IL-38 is designed on the basis of the IL-18 Coot passenger plane. It is powered by four AI-20M engines developing 4,250hp each. The regular patrolling speed at an altitude of 500 to 2,000 meters is 350 to 400 kilometers per hour. The practical range of operation is 6,500km and ferry range up to 7,100km.
A total of 58 IL-38 planes were built from 1967 to 1972. More than 30 of them are still in the inventory of Russia's Northern and Pacific Fleets.