The Russian Air Force took delivery of its first production-standard Yak-130 combat trainer ferried from the Sokol aircraft manufacturing plant in Nizhny Novgorod to the Combat and Conversion Training Centre (CCTC) in Lipetsk on 18 February. The aircraft was flown by the crew with the Russian Defense Ministry’s Chkalov State Flight Test Centre (GLITs), who participated in the Yak-130 successful official trials completed late last year. Now, CCTC’s instructor-pilots will devise training and combat instructions for future combat pilots of the Russian Air Force will master the aircraft. CCTC expects several production Yak-130s more this spring, and then advanced combat trainers will start fielding with the Air Force academy in Krasnodar where most of RusAF flying personnel are trained.

GLITs military test pilots Col. Mansur Nizamov and Col. Dmitry Samodurov brought the first Yak-130 from Sokol’s airfield to Lipetsk. “It is an excellent plane”, said Mansur Nizamov after having landed in Lipetsk. “It is so easy to control that all I had to do after taking off in Nizhny Novgorod was to turn the autopilot on, and the aircraft has brought us to Lipetsk all by itself. Another of its strengths is that both rookies can learn the ropes on it and old hands can fly it to hone their skills. In addition, the Yak-130 can be used as both a trainer and a combat aircraft”.

In the skies over Lipetsk, the new aircraft was met by CCTC chief Maj.-Gen. Alexander Kharchevsky flying a Su-34 tactical bomber. “This is the first combat trainer built in this country over the past 50 years”, Maj.-Gen. Kharchevsky told the media during the first Yak-130’s acceptance ceremony. “Lipetsk-based CCTC is to accept five more aircraft like this. Our personnel will learn the Yak-130 through and through and work out methodological recommendations for all RusAF air units and training centers. Then, Yak-130 deliveries to the Air Force academy in Krasnodar will begin for cadets, our future pilots, to refine their flying skills”.

As is known, RusAF selected the Yak-130 as the baseline combat trainer for basic and advanced flight training in a tender in 2002. Then, the Russian Defense Ministry awarded the launch order for 12 production aircraft to the Sokol plant in Nizhny Novgorod. However, the advanced aircraft had had to undergo an extensive test program prior to its service entry. The first prototype in the production-standard configuration took to the skies in Nizhny Novgorod on 30 April 2004. The second flying prototype followed suit a year afterwards, with the third one in March 2006. Alas, the latter was lost to a flight accident on 26 July 2006 and was replaced with another flying prototype in summer 2008. Those aircraft shouldered the bulk of the official tests from 2005 to 2009.

The preliminary report, which cleared the manufacture of the early production combat trainers for the Russian Air Force, was issued in November 2007 in the wake of the first phase of the trials, during which the Yak-130 was tested in its trainer capacity. April 2009 saw the Yak-130 complete the combat trainer phase of its official trials, carrying the baseline weapons suite, with the combat trainer hauling an expanded weapons suite in December the same year. RusAF Commander-in-Chief Col.-Gen. Alexander Zelin signed the Yak-130 combat trainer’s official test completion report on 17 December 2009, clearing the warplane for service with his command.

By then, Sokol had made three early production Yak- 130s, with the fourth one being completed. The first production aircraft (c/n 01-01), serialled 90 after getting its paintjob, first flew on 19 May last year. At the MAKS 2009 air show, it was shown as a static display of the Russian Air Force that officially accepted it in late July. However, this plane has not been given to a combat unit, because a decision has been taken to use it for a number of special tests. Once these have been over, it will follow other production Yak-130s in RusAF’s stable.

The first Yak-130 to arrive to CCTC in Lipetsk was the second production aircraft (c/n 01-02, side number 91). The third aircraft, which was test-flown in Nizhny Novgorod as far as last year, is ready for delivery to CCTC. Overall, this spring is to see CCTC accepting six production-standard Yak-130s. Once the pilots master the aircraft and devise a training regimen, they will train instructor pilots with Air Force academies and training centres, and then Yak-130 will start fielding with the Air Force academy in Krasnodar and its affiliates as well. According to Sokol Director General Alexander Karezin, the company is going to fulfill the contract for 12 production-standard Yak-130 before the end of the year. RusAF is intent on getting more than six dozen such aircraft prior to 2015, opined Oleg Demchenko, Designer General of the Yakovlev design bureau and Irkut Corp. president.

“The Yak-130 is the first aircraft designed from scratch and built in the post-Soviet period”, Demchenko says. “We have not only developed and built the aircraft but have established an up-to-date production facilities for its large-scale production as well. The Yak-130’s service entry will allow an improvement in the flying skills RusAF pilots in the run-up to mastering new-generation warplanes”.

The Yak-130 is designed for combat training of air crews and combat operations in any weather against aerial and ground threats, Oleg Demchenko says. Its total war load on its nine weapons stations is 3,000 kg. Advanced aerodynamics, new-generation avionics, latest aircraft systems and sophisticated powerplant ensure effective training and fighting, high flight safety and low flying-hour and life cycle costs. The Yak-130’s flight performance and maneuverability in subsonic flight are similar to those of up-to-date fighters. The combat trainer will ensure cutting-edge training of pilots for Russian and foreign in-service and future warplanes, including fifth-generation fighters. To boot, the Yak-130 is the basic component of the Russian Air Force training complex including an integrated flight data recording system, computerized classrooms and flight and specialized simulators.

There have been orders for the Yak-130 from foreign customers as well. The Irkutsk Aircraft Plant, a subsidiary of Irkut Corp., has productionised the aircraft for foreign buyers. Its first Yak-130 completed its maiden flight on 21 August 2009. It was built under the contract for 16 Yak- 130s, awarded by Algeria in 2006. It became known in January 2010 that the Libyan Air Force had ordered a number of Yak-130s, too. According to the media, six aircraft of the type have been ordered. Talks on Yak-130 sales are under way with several other countries.

Source: Yakovlev