Russian Minister of Defense, General of the Army, Sergey Shoygu visited Irkut Corporation in the network of his visit to Central Military District. The minister inspected the workshops responsible for production of Su-30SM multi-role fighters and Yak-130 operational trainers intended for Russian Ministry of Defense. The unique MS-21 assembly line was also demonstrated to the Minister of Defense, press-service of the ministry reports.

After that Sergey Shoygu held a meeting dedicated to fulfillment of the State Defense Order by the enterprise. Deputy Minister of Defense Yuri Borisov, president of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Yuri Slusar, president of Irkut Corporation Oleg Demchenko, and Director of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant Alexander Veprev took part in the meeting.

Minister of Defense said that the deliveries of aircraft would be carried out only under full life-cycle contracts. He stressed that life-cycle contracts are beneficial not only for the ministry, but also for the aircraft industry, because this type of agreements allows providing planned workload for the enterprises in the area of maintenance, repair, upgrade and aircraft disposal, the press-service explained.

“Our objective is to ensure the serviceability rate of the Russian armed forces’ fleet of at least 80%,” he said.

Sergey Shoygu reminded that the State Arms Program includes deliveries of Su-30SM fighters and Yak-130 operational trainers manufactured in Irkutsk. “There are no problems with deliveries of aircraft in the network of the State Defense Order,” the minister added.

At the same time, he believes that the aircraft industry must ensure the high quality of the aircraft. Shoygu noted that the ministry’s senior officials understand that it is very important to provide the enterprises with sufficient workload under current economic conditions.

“That is why we will redistribute some of the UAC’s orders in the network of the State Defense Order. This refers to Irkutsk Aviation Plant and Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Plant,” he said.

Top management of UAC assured that the aircraft industry is ready to cooperate with the Ministry of Defense in order to ensure the high quality of delivered aircraft. The parties also noted that there was no unwarranted increase of prices of the aircraft. 

In 2014 Irkut Corporation delivered 41 Su-30SM and Yak-130 jets to the Russian armed forces. In 2015 the corporation must increase its output by 50% (in the network of the State Defense Order and export contracts), the ministry noted.