MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Flight tests of the modernized Kopyo-M onboard radar station in the container variant, mounted on the SU-25TM Frogfoot attack plane, will begin in the second half of this year, Vladimir Babak, the Sukhoi Design Bureau main designer, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
He explained that "the Kopyo-25 radar-tracking complex was tested earlier on the SU-25TM. This is similar to the station installed on MIG-21bis Fishbed modernized fighters of the Indian Air Force."
"The Kopyo-M modernized radar station created by the Fazotron-NIIR corporation, has the increased characteristics on target detection range and on integrated productivity," he said.
"Use of the new radar station will give the SU-25TM attack plane additional capabilities in combat operations on suppression of ground targets," he added.
Fazotron-NIIR exhibited the Kopyo-M modernized radar station for the first time at Aero India 2003 in the Indian town of Bangalore. The asset employs new computers, including a new signal processor with a capacity of 1.44 billion mixes and a data processor with a capacity of several hundred million operations per second.
This made it possible to enhance the radar station's range by about 20 percent and expanded its possibilities of hitting ground and sea targets.