PARIS. June 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Flight tests of the new YAK- 130 combat and training plane will begin in November this year, President of the Yakovlev Company Oleg Demchenko said on Wednesday.
"The YAK-130 exhibited at Paris Air Show 2003 is the first mass-produced item made for the Russian Air Force," Demchenko told a news conference in Paris.
In response to a question from Interfax-Military News Agency, the president said the Air Force has ordered four planes from his company. "But we are hoping to get one more order for 10 planes that will be built before 2004. We feel state support in this work," he said.
According to Demchenko, the YAK-130 has great export prospects.
"About 2,000 planes of this class in the inventory of many nations are to be replaced before 2014. With the help of Rosoboronexport (Russia's major arms trader - Interfax-AVN), we are hoping to get 30 to 40 percent of this market," he said.
Rosoboronexport Deputy Director General Ivan Goncharenko told the news conference that the YAK-130 will be in demand.
"We do some marketing research, and I am sure that the YAK- 130 has prospects," he said.
The new aircraft is mass-produced by the Sokol aircraft- building plant in Nizhny Novgorod. The plant is a component of the Kaskol group.
Kaskol President Sergei Nedoroslev told the news conference that the YAK-130 is a priority for the plant, and main efforts will be focused on it.
The YAK-130 is the only Russian plane exhibited in Le Bourget this year. It is a dual-purpose aircraft that can be used as a trainer or as a light assault plane.
As a trainer, the YAK-130 guarantees high-quality training of flight personnel for practically any type of fourth-generation planes. As a light assault plane, the YAK-130 is capable of carrying all types of up-to-date weapons and guarantees efficient accomplishment of combat missions.
The plane has six pylons for suspending armament. They can carry ammo weighing nearly 3t such as eight aviation bombs of 250kg each made in Russia or abroad as well as up to four KAB-500 aviation bombs guided by television and laser. Light armor protects the cockpit and the power plant section, where the plane's main equipment is contained.
The YAK-130 has a take-off weight of 9t, maximum speed of 1,060kmph and practical ceiling of 12km.
The price of an aircraft is about USD12m-15m. According to experts, the demand of the Russian Air Force for the YAK-130 is estimated at 200 items.