ZHUKOVSKY, August 27 (RIA Novosti) – An array of large-scale contracts have been signed on the first day of the MAKS-2013 airshow, just outside Moscow.

Defense

The United Aircraft Corporation and the Defense Ministry have signed a 80 billion ruble ($2.5 billion) contract for the servicing of aircraft, avionics and related equipment, the UAC said in a press release.

The contract, the largest so far, was signed in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

UAC president Mikhail Pogosyan said the corporation’s current portfolio of orders for the Defense Ministry was for over 300 planes while the total volume of orders as part of the state arms procurement program would be about 600 aircraft.

Under a separate deal, the Defense Ministry will receive three modernized A-50U AWACS aircraft this year, said Vartan Shakhgedanov, deputy general designer at the Vega concern that produces the planes.

A contract for a fourth plane is expected to be signed shortly, he added.

Shakhgedanov also said the Defense Ministry would receive the first of the two advanced Tu-214ON planes equipped for the Open Skies international program, at the MAKS airshow. The contract for the two aircraft is worth 5 billion rubles ($150 million), he added.

The Defense Ministry currently uses four An-30 aircraft and one Tu-154MLK-1 under the Open Skies Agreement.

Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Corporation have signed a contract for the delivery of a VIP version of a Superjet-100, to be delivered before the end of the current year.

The 19-seat plane will be used to facilitate Russia’s military collaboration with other countries.

Civil Aviation

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co., the UTair airline and VEB Leasing signed a contract for the delivery of six Sukhoi Superjet-100LR planes worth $217.2 million.

Deliveries of the 103-seat planes will start next year. The three companies previously signed a preliminary agreement for the delivery of 24 Superjets as the first stage of the implementation of a leasing agreement signed prior to that.

UTair is planning to operate the planes both on domestic flights (western Siberia and European Russia) and on flights to Europe.

The Superjet-100 (SSJ-100) is a short-to-medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in collaboration with US and European aviation corporations including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.

UTair and VEB Leasing also on Tuesday signed a memorandum of intent for the lease of 10 MS-21-300 airliners. Under the deal, the aircraft will be provided between 2018 and 2020.

MS-21 aircraft, currently in development, are to replace all models of Tu-154 and Tu-134 aircraft, as well as the Yak-42 in Russia, with initial deliveries due to start in 2017.

Space

Two launches of Russian Soyuz rockets will be made from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana before the end of the current year and four next year, French Space Agency head Jean-Yves Le Gall told RIA Novosti at the MAKS-2013 airshow on Tuesday.

On September 30, Russia will orbit four 03b Networks satellites to provide broadband Internet access in remote areas, and on November 20 will send up the Gaia telescope for the European Space Agency.

The O3b Networks satellites are designed and built by Thales Alenia Space to become a part of the first medium-Earth-orbit satellite constellation providing broadband Internet access in remote areas of the world.

Next year, Soyuz-ST rockets will orbit a Galileo navigation satellite, new O3b clusters and a Sentinel satellite as part of the ESA’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program, Le Gall said.

There are no plans to increase the number of launches from Kourou, he said.

The Soyuz-ST is a modification of the three-stage Soyuz-2 rocket with a Fregat upper stage adapted for launch in high heat and humidity prevalent in Kourou.