On Thursday, August 5, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu checked how the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant is conducting development work on the production of a new heavy drone S-70 "Hunter".
The Minister was also shown the assembly process of the modernized Su-34 front-line bomber and the refinement of the basic version of this aircraft. In the workshops of the enterprise, the head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), Yuri Slyusar, gave the necessary explanations to the head of the military department.
The conversation about the" Hunter " continued at a meeting of Shoigu with the management of the plant and the corporation. "We hope that by 2022 the work will be completed and we will be able to sign, as is now customary in the Armed Forces, a large long-term contract for drones," the minister said.
He explained that this is necessary so that the industry knows how to build its plans for the next 10 years and can order and complete materials and other types of support.
Shoigu noted that the development of an attack drone being carried out at the Novosibirsk enterprise is one of the largest in this area. "And here it becomes important that we, together with the KLA, have reached the level of life - cycle contracts, which is extremely important for the Armed Forces - something that we have never had-we have reached 82 percent of life-cycle contracts. We need to move further in this direction, " the minister is sure. Referring to the situation with the Su-34,he recalled that " we have confirmed this in Syria. It has been confirmed reliably and thoroughly."
- It is no coincidence that the largest group of engineers and designers from the UAC, the Sukhoi company and, in particular, from the Novosibirsk Aircraft Factory was sent to Syria. Representatives of factories and design bureaus are there to master fine-tuning, testing, to master new systems and their new capabilities, " Shoigu said.
This practice, in particular, is used in the Su-34. "This aircraft has achieved, perhaps, what we have long dreamed of - bringing the flight task to armament has been reduced by almost three times. We entered the flight task before departure, and while we were flying, during this time the situation had time to change. Now the flight task is loaded into the weapon during the flight, " Shoigu said.
Yuri Gavrilov
