MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The latest Zhuk-MSFE onboard radar designed by the Fazotron-NIIR corporation has been installed in the first SU-27KUB deck combat and training fighter, Fazotron-NIIR Director General and Constructor General Anatoly Kanashchenkov said on Wednesday.
"The new Zhuk-MSFE phased-array radar has passed the entire cycle of laboratory and bench tests and operational development. The radar has recently been installed in the SU-27KUB fighter," Kanashchenkov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Zhuk-MSFE passed bench tests, confirming design specifications. Mathematical backing was tuned up and climatic trials of components were conducted during the bench tests, he said.
According to Kanashchenkov, the radar earlier known as Sokol is intended for installation in export-oriented planes of the Sukhoi design bureau. MSFE is the Russian abbreviation for "upgraded, Sukhoi, phased, export-oriented."
The flight test program for the SU-27KUB with Zhuk-MSFE is being finalized at the moment, the official said.
"This situation is caused by organizational matters, not by the necessity to solve some technical problems," he noted.
Zhuk-MSFE has a totally new layout and architecture of the phased array. The radar's scanning angle amounts to 70 degrees, and azimuthal view is 140 degrees, Kanashchenkov said. According to design specifications, the radar will detect and track over 24 aerial targets simultaneously and fire at up to eight of them simultaneously.
Fazotron-NIIR consists of over 25 enterprises. The corporation's annual output and sales growth has amounted to over 50 percent lately. Export is the main source of funds for the corporation at the moment.