Story ID: 558_UAC Overview.doc
UAC Brings Greater Cohesion To Russian Aerospace
By: Charles Alcock
Caption: UAC subsidiaries are exhibiting under one roof at this year’s Farnborough show.
Word Count: 1010
The successful consolidation of key parts of Russia’s aerospace industry into the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) is more evident at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow then at any time since the group’s formation back in February 2006. In several press briefings in the months ahead of this year’s show, CEO Mikhail Pogosian, who has been at the helm for much of this vital re-ordering of the once scattered Russian design bureaus, research bodies and production facilities, was eager to stress the very tangible ways that the UAC structure has benefitted the industry’s day-to-day operations.
  
Here in Farnborough, the UAC combined exhibit brings together key subsidiary companies, including Sukhoi, MiG and Irkut. The aim is to project a sense of cohesion that will allow the Russian group to match Western rivals, such as Airbus and Boeing. This process will take more concrete form later this year when the National Aerospace Design Center–encompassing all individual design bureaus–is opened at the Moscow-area Zhukovsky air base later this year.
  
The first key achievement the UAC restructuring has been to integrate the various business units and design and research centers into one organization that can achieve far greater operational efficiency than was the case when the subsidiaries operated in isolation. UAC’s subsidiaries now benefit from a more streamlined management chain that can more effectively implement decisions. 
  
Secondly, the digital design methods that have been used by Sukhoi to develop some of its more recent programs, like the new Superjet SJ-100 airliner, have now been implemented across of the major design centers and product lines so that physical, “paper” drawings have almost been eliminated. This makes developing a new aircraft a continuous “design to build” process with no more mock-ups or other modeling required.
  
Thirdly, there is now the ability to bring all of the resources and personnel talent available across the industry into a single program. Designs may still carry the “Mikoyan” or “Tupolev” designator, but all current and future design projects will have participation from all of the aircraft development centers that have talents that can be brought to bear.
  
Lastly, in what is considered to be a major shift away from the Soviet system of aircraft production that has continued to be practiced in Russia for almost a quarter of a century, the network of aircraft and engine overhaul and repair plants that had always belonged to Russia’s defense ministry have been made part of UAC. This change was exercised at Pogosian’s own initiative. “This is almost a revolution, because it gives an absolutely new sense of relations between our aircraft customer and the aerospace industry in that it puts more of the responsibility for after-delivery support on the industry,” he told a recent press briefing.
  
“There are tangible, positive results to this change in organization,” said Pogosian. “In 2012, the average aircraft availability rate in the [Russian] air force was 40 percent, but in 2013 when these repair plants were being absorbed into UAC and there was more attention being paid to support issues and processes, so the availability rate rose to 50 percent. For 2014 we have a target rate of 60 percent. This is one of the major tasks for UAC now.”
  
Meanwhile, UAC is also stepping up progress with its PAK-DA program to develop a new strategic bomber for the Russian air force. Currently, this program is at the stage where fabrication of some of its components and modules can begin, but there is no finalized design yet. The digital design process allows for an easier creation of print-to-build production documentation and this is speeding up the construction of prototypes. The PAK-DA is slated to fly in 2019 and once in service it will replace three types of aircraft: the Tu-160 Blackjack, the Tu-95 Bear and the Tu-22M3 Backfire.
  
Two of the major programs that are on the front burner for UAC are the Su-35S Super Flanker and the famous T-50/PAK-FA fifth-generation fighter aircraft. Twelve of these aircraft have been delivered to the air force’s 6987th Aviation Base, which is co-located with UAC’s Komsomolsk-na-Amure Aviation Production Association (KNAAPO) plant that builds them. 
  
Twelve more Su-35S aircraft will be delivered this year to the air force, the first of which will go to the service’s combat flight training base at Lipetsk and the other 11 to follow next year. Fourteen more Su-35S models will be delivered in 2015. The aircraft has seen a successful introduction into service and in joint state acceptance flight tests the Su-35S has proved integration with 17 types of air-to-air, air-to-ground, and air-to-surface munitions.
  
The T-50 PAK-FA continues to add more flight test aircraft to the program, with five prototypes now undergoing validation flights. One more prototype will be delivered for the flight test schedule in 2014 and then two more in 2015. In 2016 the program is scheduled to begin a low rate of deliveries to operational units. One of the prototypes was damaged when it caught fire during a test flight, but the aircraft is expected to be repaired and returned to the program.
  
The T-50 is scheduled for a series of incremental improvements, such as replacing the NIIP Irbis radar with an AESA model and switching the Saturn 117S turbofan for a new fifth generation engine. According to Pogosian, these improvements will extend the service life of the T-50, which is expected to remain in production beyond 2050. UAC also is taking the lead in the modernization of several other fighter aircraft in Russian inventory: the MiG-29/35 combat aircraft, the MiG-31 and the Yak-130. The latter has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the next attack aircraft to be used by the Russian air force in a move that would see the jet trainer reworked as a fighter with new radar and avionics.
  
Collectively, the UAC group now claims to hold a 15-percent share of the worldwide combat aircraft market.