Indeed, since Russian President Vladimir Putin founded UAC in 2006, via a decree that combined Soviet brands Ilyushin, Irkut, Mikoyan, Sukhoi, Tupolev and Yakovlev into a new joint-stock company, consolidation in the Russian aerospace industry has been painfully slow.
Yet, despite plans to co-locate design bureaus within a “Unified Engineering and Design Center” in Moscow, Sukhoi and MiG will remain independent schools.
“We are forming in Moscow a unified management organisation and a unified centre of design competencies for all UAC companies,” said Sergei Chemezov, general director of Rostec, in the March announcement.
The Algerian air force has 12 examples of the MiG-29M on order, while the Russian air force has two MiG-29UBs and two MiG-35UBs on order, according to Cirium fleets data.
According to Cirium, there are 1,624 MiG fighters in service today – offering plenty of work for aftermarket sales.
There are some 2,338 Sukhoi fighters of various types in service and 191 examples on order, according to Cirium.
“For the past couple of decades, it’s been a pretty good series of export wins for Sukhoi, with the whole Su-30 series,” says Richard Aboulafia, vice-president of analysis at Teal Group.
“The point is that the work of our design bureaus can be more optimal, that is, they can use the same administrative infrastructure – lawyers, financiers, human resources,” says Slyusar.
“It could be they want some redundancy in the industrial base,” he says.
“Their sales prospects have been helped along by the fact that the Russian air force has procured these jets in large quantities, and also put them to use in combat operations in Syria,” says Bisaccio.
And, countries with highly skilled air forces that understand all of its advantages are the first in line to be potential customers for its export version,” he says.
“We are ready to consider joint manufacturing of the Su-57 with some customers in the future,” says Slyusar.
Because Russia plans to fill orders for its own air force first, exports of the Su-57E are unlikely to begin until the latter half of the 2020s at the earliest, says Bisaccio.
At the MAKS air show in 2019, Victor Kladov, director of international co-operation and regional policy for Rostec, complained that Indonesia was wary of buying Russian aircraft due to the threat of US sanctions.
Consequently, it was ejected by the USA from the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme and was sanctioned in late 2020.
Although China is one of Russia’s largest export customers, Beijing is pushing hard to develop a domestic military aviation industry, which will compete globally.
“The Chinese seem to be stuck in a kind of an export rut.
The Chengdu/Pakistan Aeronautical Complex JF-17 relies on a single Klimov RD-93 engine – the same powerplant as the MiG-29.
This dependence on Russian engines gives Moscow a degree of leverage over Beijing’s fighter sales.
Until then, China’s most promising export fighter, the J-10, is likely to struggle.
China needs to find a country willing to take a chance on its aircraft.
“The Russians have always been clear that they’re really good when it comes to building a high-end jet,” says Aboulafia.
The flight lasted for 2h 20min and the aircraft reached an altitude of 19,700ft, according to Russian defence holding company Rostec.
FlightGlobal is the global aviation community’s primary source of news, data, insight, knowledge and expertise.