Week of March 31, 1997
Yak-18 Instead of SM-92P for Border GuardsThe Federal Border Guard Service (FPS), an independent military structure reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation, plans to extend its aviation inventory. FPS has five types of aviation - multi-role, reconnaissance, sea, cargo and assault. Airplanes currently in use are the Yak-52 and Yak-18T piston trainers, An-2 utility biplanes, An-72/74 STOL freighters, Il-76 heavy  lifter and An-72P maritime patrol aircraft. Helicopters are represented by the
Mi-2 for liaison and Mi-8MTV for multi-role missions, the Mi-24 for fire support
and Ka-27 for maritime patrol duties.
Lieutenant General Yuri Shatokhin, the commander of the FPS Aviation, says that the Service puts a premium on the SM-92P Finist, "The aircraft meets our requirements - it has good flight performance, with a landing run of merely 70-80 m with take-off run being 150 m. When fulfilling patrol missions, it can stay in the air for about 10 hours. The aircraft is economical and reliable."
The private-owned Technoavia design bureau exhibited the SM-92P development aircraft for the first time at the MAKS'95 air show in Zhukovsky near Moscow. It is an armed version of the basic civil model - an all-metal tail- dragger accomodating 7 people. The single radial M-14P piston engine of 360 hp allows the 2,350-kg high-wing monoplane to develop a maximum speed of 260 km/h. At the end of 1995 the FPS made the decision to purchase a batch of SM-92Ps for operational trials in line units. In early 1996 the service transferred money for 16 SM-92Ps to the production factory in Smolensk. However, the bad financial situation at the factory caused its leadership to spend the money on paying off electricity and heating bills. In those circumstances Smolensk decided to increase the price for one SM-92P from US$150,000 up to US$330,000.
Major General Andrei Nikolaev, the commander of the FPS, refused to accept the
new price. Meanwhile, the bad financial situation at the factory continued to
deteriorate, leading to an inability to continue assembly of SM-92s. This, in turn,
However, the SM-94 is not considered as an alternative to the SM-92P which suits FPS' needs ideally. To bridge the gap before the SM-92P becomes available, the FPS decided to acquire some more An-2 biplanes from civil operators and Yak-52 trainers from ROSTO (for Russian Defence Sport and Technical Organisation). At the moment the Yak-52, Yak-18T and An-2 enter service as trainers with the FPS Military Institute of Kurgan. The latter institution was established last year on the base of the former RusAF Kurganskoye High Military Aviation of Pilots. Meanwhile, after the failure to set up mass production of the SM-92 Finist at Smolensk, Technoavia contacted the Sokol aircraft production plant of Nizhny Novgorod. However, the terms that the factory offered to Technoavia were found unacceptable. Instead, the design bureau has recently agreed to set up production of the SM-92 at the Bacau factory in Romania. According to Slava Kondratiev, the owner of Technoavia, Romanian specialists have assured him that the factory will manage to keep the price per one civilian SM-92 airframe below US$100,000. If necessary, a SM-92 can be converted into SM-92P in Russia. | |
Trying to be a more value-for-money service, FPS wants to employ more light-
weight fuel-frugal aircraft. Types under consideration are the Ka-62, Ka-126,
Ka-226, Mi-34 and Mi-40 helicopters, Be-200, Be-103, R-50, Accord-201 and
Tche-25 amphibians. In the near future the FAS helicopter inventory will be
joined by special versions of Ka-27 and Mi-8MTV helicopters with range
increased up to 1,500 km.
The SM-92 is meant to become the primary tactical aircraft, serving the needs of
independent detachments of border guards. A flight of four Finists would be
based at unpaved small strips near the state border. SM-92Ps would patrol
the border, deliver small shipments of freight and soldiers to remote posts and provide
liaison functions. They can also perform fire-support missions, carrying two
10-barrel packs of 57mm rockets, three 7.62-mm machine guns and 100-kg
bombs.
made FPS take a dozen of the Yak-18T, priced at US$150,000, which were
standing unsold at the factory. Now FPS is studying the possibility of modernizing its
civilian Yak-18T into the SM-94, an all metal armed version.
