Russia Plans Light Trainer And Combat Aircraft, Yak-152

Russia plans to launch the Yak 152 a light aircraft with trainer and combat roles to compete with the Embraer Super Tucano, Pilatus and Beechcraft planes.

Taking advantage of the growing market for light trainer aircraft which have been adapted to reconnaissance and combat roles such as the Super Tucano ,  the Pilatus PC-7 and PC-9, Russia’s Irkutsk Aviation Plant has announced plans to launch two samples of the light Yak-152 trainer in 2015.

Developed by the Yakovlev Design Bureau, a subsidiary of the Irkut Corporation, the new trainer is destined for primary pilot preparation. The "flying desk" will be tested in 2016, after which it will go into serial production, according to local media reports.

According to Ria Novosti, for initial training, the Yak-152 plans to use flight professionals from the air force academies.

"In the first years of training, students will learn to fly with instructors, they will learn how to execute a simple flight known as the 'pancake' and then land," a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman told RIR. "The training will show if the student is capable of continuing flying."

According to the spokesman, the Yak-152 will help future pilots carry out highly skilled maneuvers and obtain experience with nocturnal flights and flights in difficult meteorological conditions. That is why the new trainer will be supplied with state of the art navigation equipment, as well as the CKC-94M emergency escape system.

The Russian Defense Ministry says that not only future fighter and fighter-bomber pilots will train with the Yak-152, but also commanders, as well as co-pilots flying bombers, military transportation planes and even helicopters.

"After acquiring the initial skills flying the Yak-152, students will then move on to specialized trainers," explained the defense spokesman. "For example, students wishing to fly the Su-35, the T-50 and even the fighter-bomber Su-34 will first train with the Yak-130. Pilots flying the Tu-22M and Tu-160 bombers will first hone their skills on the specially modified passenger Tu-134UBL plane."

The Yak-152, besides its primary task of training pilots, could also serve as a relatively inexpensive anti-insurgency attack plane, for which there is already a big demand, the report said.

Yakovlev's deputy general director of test flying, test pilot Roman Taskayev, told the ITAR-TASS news agency that "these planes should be built in great numbers and they should not be too expensive." It is the low price that must serve as the Yak-152's competitive edge on the foreign market.