Su-32FN maritime strike aircraft sets payload records during series of four test flights according to Sukhoi Design Bureau

Published: 8/5/1999

Mikhail Simonov, the Chief Designer of Sukhoi Design Bureau reported at a meeting marking the 60th anniversary of Sukhoi Bureau that the shore based maritime strike aircraft, the Su-32FN, has taken four world records. Piloted by Sukhoi test pilot Igor Votinzev, and Alexander Gaivoronsky, the flight navigator from NAPO which produces the aircraft, three record setting test flights were performed at 14700 metres with payloads of 5000, 2000, 1000 kilograms. A fourth flight carried 5129 kilograms to an altitude of 2000 meters height. The performance of the Su-32FN should came as a surprise to some observing the Russian military aviation scene, as the program was considered to have been suspended in 1997 before the prototype could fly and that the aircraft displayed at Moscow in 1998 was a repainted Su-27IB, possibly one of the first four aircraft T1OV-4 '45'. The Su-27IB is a two-seat side-by-side long-range bomber version of the Su-27. Martirosov believes that SU-32FN has the armament to efficiently engage targets both on land and on water using its specialised maritime radar and avionics. As with the Su-27IB, the cockpit of the aircraft contains a galley and toilet allowing crew to operate in relative comfort on long missions. The Sukhoi spokesman, while reluctant to reveal the exact range of the aircraft did say the aircraft was capable of operating the breadth of Russia more than10, 000 kms, substantially further than previously reported range of 4,000 kms reported for the Su-27IB. As the aircraft was described as being under development since 1990, perhaps the Su-27IB and the Su-32FN have become one and the same aircraft, it is often difficult to tell in the Russian alphabet soup of designation, particularly when NAPO and OKB were originally the only ones to use the Su-32FN designation. According to Sukhoi and NAPO the aircraft can be serially produced by the Novosibirsk plant and potentially sold by the end of 2000, with initial interest coming from Asia. Simonov has proved himself able in the past to persuade the Indians particularly to buy and underwrite the development of advanced aircraft so perhaps they will provide the finance required.

Article ID: 736