Aerobatics Ace Suspected of Badge Sales

Russia’s famed Strizhi (Swifts) aerobatics

The commander of Russia’s famed Strizhi (Swifts) aerobatics team is suspected of illegally selling team emblems, the Lifenews.ru portal reported on Tuesday.

Valery Morozov is believed to have forced a Moscow region businessman to pay him 5,000 rubles (about $160) a month for the right to use the team logo on t-shirts and other items he sold.

Morozov was nabbed in a police sting operation as he received an envelop containing 35,000 rubles to repay the debt the businessman had run up during a vacation.

Morozov is facing fraud and abuse of office charges, a law enforcement source said.

Air Force spokesman Vladimir Drik declined to comment on the issue until a decision was formally announced.

“I know about that but so far have no right to comment,” he told the portal.

sumber : RIA NOVOSTI

Russia to Showcase T-90S Tank at Paris Arms Show

T-90S Tank

© RIA Novosti. Valeriy Yarmolenko

MOSCOW, June 7 (RIA Novosti)

Russia will exhibit for the first time its modernized T-90S main battle tank along with a score of other new weapons at the EUROSATORY 2012 arms exhibition in Paris, Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Thursday.

The EUROSATORY 2012 defense expo will take place at the Parc d’Expositions north of Paris on June 11-15. It will host over 400 defense companies from 47 countries, including 14 Russian companies.

Russia will showcase a record number of models of armored vehicles, including the fully upgraded T-90S main battle tank, BMPT tank support fighting vehicle, Kornet-EM anti-tank missile system mounted on a Tigr armored vehicle and a new Ural armored truck.

“It is the first time that we are exhibiting such a wide range of real life models at this show,” Rosoboronexport deputy general director Igor Sevastyanov said.

The T-90S tank will be the star of the Russian exhibit, he added.

T-90S redesigned turret features a modernized 125-mm gun, new fire control, navigation and communications systems, and a remote controlled mounted 7.62-mm machine gun.

The modified T-90S is fitted withran increased power multi-fuel 1,130-h.p. diesel engine with gas turbine injection, which allows the vehicle to attain a top speed of over 60 km/h on the road^a.d up to 45 km/h on rough terrain.

Driving is simplified with a steering wheel and automatic transmission.

In addition to armored vehicles and air defense systems, Russia will also exhibit a variety of combat and military transport helicopters.

SUMBER : RIA NOVOSTI

Russian AF to Get First T-50 Fighters in 2013

The Russian Air Force will receive the first batch of prototypes of its fifth-generation T-50 fighter for performance testing in 2013, Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said on Thursday.

The T-50, developed under the PAK FA program (Future Aviation System for Tactical Air Force) at the Sukhoi experimental design bureau, is Russia's first new major warplane designed since the fall of the Soviet Union.

“The work on the fifth-generation fighter is going according to schedule,” Zelin, a former Air Force commander, told a news conference in Voronezh (central Russia). “The third prototype has joined the testing program and the fourth is being built.”

The T-50 made its maiden flight in January 2010 and three prototypes have since been undergoing flight tests.

Zelin earlier said that the number of T-50 aircraft involved in testing would be increased to 14 by 2015.

The fighter was first shown to the public in August 2011, in Zhukovsky near Moscow, at the MAKS-2011 air show.

sumber : RIA NOVOSTI

Russia Pulls Out of Indonesian Rocket System Tender

Smerch multiple launch rocket system (photo : RIA NOVOSTI)


Russia’s arms trading company Rosoboronexport has pulled out of an Indonesian tender for the supply of multiple launch rocket systems, the company told Military Industrial Courier magazine.


The company pulled out because it had offered its Smerch rocket launcher system which “did not meet a range of technical conditions in the tender,” Rosoboronexport official Nikolai Dimidyuk said.


The Indonesian tender was released in February.


“No one wants to waste time, or lead partners into delusion,” he said. “That said, we remain of the opinion that this system fully meets the requirements of the Indonesian forces in the most important criteria, fighting effectiveness,” he said.


Rosoboronexport did not say in which criteria Smerch failed to meet Indonesian requirements.
Russia had offered a 22-ton variant of the Smerch system, but a more widely-sold variant weighs 48 tons.


Indonesia is a traditional Russian and Soviet arms customer and at present has contracts with Russia for delivery of Su-27SKM fighter aircraft, Mi-17 and Mi-35 military helicopters, and BMP-3 and BTR-80 infantry fighting vehicles.


(RIA Novosti)