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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 0128.PDF
Russia agrees deal with India for aircraft carrier ALEXANDER VELOVICH/MOSCOW RUSSIA HAS AGREED to sell to India the Kiev-class 37,OOOt aircraft carrier Admiral Gorsbkov (formerly the Baku) in a move which may have wider implications for the strategic bal ance in the Asia-Pacific region. India operates two ageing for mer UK aircraft carriers, the 28,700t Viraat and the 19,500t I 'ikrant, and is in the initial stages of design work on a class of 17,000t "air-defence ships". The Indian navy is undertaking an upgrade of the 23 British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS.51s which it operates from the carriers. It also intends eventually to deploy a navalised version of the indige nous Indian Light Combat Aircraft from around 2003. The sale of the Gorshkov, the fourth (and heavily modified) member of the Kiev carrier class, is part of a wide-ranging long- term programme of military co operation between Russia and India, which extends to 2003. Stanislav Filin, deputy director of Rosvooruzhenie (the Russian arms- export agency), indicates that the sale of the Gorshkov is India's Sea Harriers may be deployed on the Gorshkov included in this programme, but he refuses to give details of the timescale or the cost. The ship is deployed with the Russian Northern Fleet, where it is operated as a helicopter carrier following the retirement of the Russian naval aviation's fleet of Yakovlev Yak-3 8 Forgers. It remains uncertain whether the ship would be supplied with the SS-N-12 Sandbox cruise missile, which forms the Gorsbkov's main offensive armament. Filin revealed the deal when announcing the completion of the sale of additional Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters to India, where the air force already operates 47 of the type. The aircraft will be deliv ered by the end of the middle of this year, with payments being cov ered by state credits opened by Russia in 1992. India was consider ing buying up to 30 MiG-29s, but it may have ordered as few as ten. According to Indian sources, the technology transfer offered by- Russia was not acceptable. India had been looking at funding com pletion of the MiG-29M project, although the latest batch of ten are thought to be MiG-29SEs. Filin also states that the first two prototypes of upgraded Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbed fight ers for the Indian air force will be flown this year. • Spain decides in favour of US Navy F-18s SPAIN PLANS TO buv 24 McDonnell Douglas F-18As from the US Navy, to fill a gap in its fighter force until the Eurofighter EF2000 enters ser vice. The country' has rejected a US Air Force offer of secondhand Lockheed F-16s. The Spanish air force has sent a letter of request to the USA to purchase 24 early-model F-18A single-seaters, with an option for six more. The aircraft will be drawn from the US Navy's operational fleet and will receive new General Electric F404 engines and other modifications. A letter of agreement cover ing the deal is being negotiated with the US Department of Defense. The aircraft will be drawn from the production batches which preceded Lot 10 and will be of a similar standard to the 72 F-18A/Bs which were delivered to Spain between 1986 and 1990. The USAF had hoped that Spain would launch its pro gramme to resell surplus F-16s to raise funds for new aircraft. The US Navy does not have any surplus F-18s, but agreed to make aircraft available because of Spain's status as a NATO ally and F-18 operator. 3 SABCA chosen to carry out Indonesian F-5 upgrade TNDONESIA HAS CHOSEN -LSABCA of Belgium as a systems integrator to upgrade 12 Northrop F-5E/F fighters. A con tract is to be finalised shortly. SABCA, together with Smiths Industries, was shortlisted in December after a year-long evalu ation (Flight International, 21 December, 1994 - 3 January, 1995, PI6). Other companies ten dering for the work included Singapore Aerospace and Alenia. The deal, worth around $40 million, covers the upgrade of eight F-5Es and four two-seat F-5Fs. Work is expected to take three years to complete and will include 20 months of integration engineering and flight testing in Belgium of one prototype F-5E and one F-5F. Indonesia's air force will upgrade the remaining ten aircraft at the Iswahyudi air base, near Mediun. SABCA will provide upgrade kits and technical assistance. SABCA will be responsible for the integration and installation of new avionics pre-selected by the air force to offer commonality with its Lockheed F-16A/B fight ers and British Aerospace Hawk 100/200 advanced-trainer and light-strike aircraft. The aircraft will be equipped with a GEC-Marconi head-up dis play/weapons-aiming computer and Litton LN-93 inertial-naviga- tion system, both of which are fit ted to Indonesia's 11 F-16A/Bs. GEC-Marconi will also supply its Sky Guardian radar-warning receiver (RWR), which has already been ordered for the air force's 24 Hawk l00/200s. It is understood that Indonesia will be given the capability of building a RWR threat library. Odier systems to be fitted to the F-5 include a new air-data comput er, stores-management system, mission camera and a reconfigured cockpit for hands-on-throtde-and- stick control. The new avionics suite will be integrated with a 1553B digital databus. The upgrade contract will also include structural repair work to at least one aircraft and an F-5 spares package to support the Indonesian aircraft over four years. Indonesia has been forced to drop plans to re-equip its F-5s with a new pulse-Doppler radar because of the limited amount of funding available. A programme to upgrade the fighter's ESCO APG-59(V)3 radar to the (V)5 standard is instead near to com pletion, with three aircraft still to be finished. J FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 18 - 24 January 1995
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