MOSCOW. Jan 16 (Interfax-AVN) - The Aerokosmicheskoye Oborudovanie Corporation (Airspace Equipment) has attracted in excess of USD100m's worth of investments for developing avionics to be mounted on fifth-generation aircraft, the corporation's Director General Sergey Bodrunov told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
"The corporation invests assets in developing avionics for fifth-generation aircraft. With this end in view the corporation has attracted about USD100m's worth of investments," Bodrunov said.
He also said that at the present time the corporation had been offered more than 30 new systems, including Bars, Panda, and Osa radars, as well as helmet-mounted target-designation systems, a large number of sensors, and contemporary aircraft computers.
"The corporation has won the tender for developing avionics to be mounted on fifth-generation fighters. This project requires at least another USD200m's worth of investments," he said.
According to him, it will cost at least USD111m to develop weapons control systems, based on new-generation active phased- array radars.
Bodrunov said that the corporation would have to integrate key enterprises, involved in developing avionics for the fifth- generation aircraft. That is exactly why both the government and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency stand for expanding and restructuring the corporation, he said.
According to Bodrunov, the corporation transformed will comprise another 20 plants and design bureaus.
"Later on the corporation will merge with other large national enterprises, dealing with aircraft instrument manufacture, thus, integrating investment, intellectual, and production capabilities. An integrated organization like that will be capable of facilitating an efficient operation of the national aircraft-building corporation, being established," Bodrunov said.
The Aerokosmicheskoye Oborudovanie Corporation is one of the largest integrated organizations in the national defense industry. It incorporates more than 30 aircraft equipment designers and manufacturers, based in Russia and CIS member- states. The Corporation invested USD42m's worth of own assets into research and development in 2002, while in 2003 this figure increased almost 1.5-fold to total USD61m, which accounts for about 11% of the corporation's gross revenue.