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Belarus will get four combat and training aircraft Yak-130 in April, BelTA learned from Oleg Demchenko, President of Irkut Corporation.

“We are going to deliver four Yak-130 aircraft to Belarus in April,” said Oleg Demchenko during the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) 2015 in Malaysia.

BelTA reported earlier that Minsk expects the first wing of the combat and training aircraft Yak-130 to be delivered by the end of March. The contract on buying these aircraft was signed in late 2012. Belarus is the first CIS country to buy Yak-130.

Oleg Demchenko also mentioned plans to supply four jet fighters Su-30SM to Astana. “So in April we will export eight aircraft: four for Kazakhstan and four for Belarus,” he specified.

Speaking about plans to sell aircraft to other CIS states, the Irkut Corporation head mentioned they were in negotiations with Armenia and Uzbekistan.

Yak-130 (NATO designation – Mitten) is designed to offer combat training to pilots and can be used to attack aerial and ground targets. The aircraft is meant to train pilots to fly combat aircraft of the four-plus generation and the fifth generation. The first Yak-130s took wing in 1996. In 2012 Yak-130 was chosen to be the main aircraft for training pilots for the Russian Air Force.

A joint tabletop exercise of the united command of the Belarusian-Russian regional military group began on 23 March with a view to practicing using the regional group for the sake of military security of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, according to the representatives of the Belarusian Defense Ministry.

The source explained that the tabletop exercise had been arranged as part of the army's training plan for the academic year of 2014-2015. The staff exercise will last through 27 March. It is supervised by Major-General Oleg Belokonev, Chief of the General Staff of the Belarusian army, First Deputy Defense Minister of the Republic of Belarus.

As part of the exercise representatives of the Belarusian and Russian defense ministries will continue practicing the joint planning of the application of the troops considering the experience of armed conflicts of recent years with a view to ensuring the military security of the Union State. The exercise is a logical continuation of the series of joint exercises and is meant to improve the operational compatibility of military control agencies of the two countries that will take part in the Belarusian-Russian army exercise Union Shield 2015.

The staff training includes units of the Defense Ministry, the General Staff and the Armed Forces, operational groups of the Air Force and Air Defense Command, the Special Operations Command, staffs of territorial defense zones, central government agencies of Belarus. Taking part in the exercise are officers of the Russian army as part of the united command of the regional army group and the operational group of the Western Military District of the Russian army.

The source specified that the exercise is taking place at stationary command posts of the army, the Air Force and Air Defense units, the Special Operations Command, and headquarters of territorial defense zones.

On 10-11 March, 2015 training exercise on missile attacks control and artillery fire control is taking place at firing range “Osipovichsky” under the direction of Major-General O. Zemskov -Chief Missile Forces, Rockets and Artillery of the Armed Forces General Staff .

Over 500 militaries and around 150 units of military and special equipment of the 231^st artillery brigade, 427^th artillery regiment, artillery of 120^th  and 19^th  independent guards mechanized brigades, independent missile division of the 336^th artillery brigade take part in the activity.

Multiple Rocket Launcher Systems “Smerch”, “Uragan”, self-propelled howitzers 2S3 “Akatsia”, 2S1 “Gvozdika”, howitzers 2A65 “Msta-B” are involved in training exercise.

Exercises’ main objectives – mastering of commanders’ and staff skills  in continuous control of  military units and subunits in conditions of rapidly developing tactical situations, as well as operational coordination and field training of missile and artillery subunits at tasks accomplishment. 

Fire for effect planning and control of the actions of military units and subunits of missile troops and artillery, as well as application of missile and artillery commands in reconnaissance-fire situations, applying unmanned aircraft complexes are practiced to perfection during training exercises.

Training exercises will be resulted in evaluation of military command personnel qualification as well as military troops and artillery subunits teamwork.

Russia intends to put more aircraft and helicopters on duty in Belarus, learned from Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus Alexander Surikov during the press conference in Minsk on 17 December.

The diplomat reminded that Russian jet fighters have been on duty in Belarus since December 2013. “Plans have been made to increase the amount of hardware on duty up to 12 combat aircraft and two trainer aircraft. The first wing of four military helicopters Mi-8 will be deployed to bolster the on-duty forces in the Belarusian airspace. The Belarusian army will also get four air defense missile systems S-300,” said Alexander Surikov.

According to the Ambassador, Belarus and Russia cooperate in the military sphere and the military technology sphere rather successfully. “As many as 99 Belarusian enterprises and 940 Russian enterprises use manufacturing cooperation schemes to make end products. The share of Belarusian products in the Russian defense order is already at 15%. And the Russian defense order is a colossal amount of money,” noted Alexander Surikov.

Several new radar stations will be delivered to air defense units of the Belarusian army in 2015,learned from Major-General Oleg Dvigalev, Commander of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Armed Forces of Belarus, on 2 December.

“We continue buying new low-altitude radar stations Rosa. The stations are designed to detect targets up to 3-4km above the earth surface. They can work in an automatic mode without operators. We plan to ship another 3-4 radar stations like that to the radar units next year,” said the officer.

The army continues buying Belarus-made radar stations Vostok-D. Apart from that, air defense units continue modernization. “The amount of money required to buy one new weapon can be spent on quality repairs of up to five old weapons,” explained Oleg Dvigalev. “A number of contracts on modernization, primarily the modernization of radar equipment, have been signed with Belarusian companies”.

Oleg Dvigalev remarked that they would like to modernize air force units (for instance, for the sake of improving ergonomics in an aircraft cockpit) but there are certain difficulties involved in getting Russian manufacturers to agree to it. “It costs time and money. We have already learned how to save money because apart from the army Belarus has to take care of common citizens, teachers, medics, and other public sector employees,” he added.

Oleg Dvigalev also reminded that in Q1 2015 the Belarusian army will receive four Yak-130 aircraft. In his words, Belarusian pilots and the technicians that will take care of maintaining these aircraft will go to Russia in January 2015 for training.

Belarusian Defense Ministry and OAO Irkut Corporation signed the contract for the delivery of four combat training aircraft Yak-130 in Minsk on 18 December 2012 as part of the implementation of the Belarus-Russia agreement on the development of military and technical cooperation. Belarus was the first CIS state to buy these aircraft.

The two-seat aircraft Yak-130 is designed to offer basic and advanced training for frontline pilots. The aircraft boasts outstanding maneuverability and modern onboard radio equipment and electronics, which state-of-the-art combat aircraft use. The aircraft also has increased reliability and a long service life. Yak-130 is the world's only training aircraft that can boast the aerodynamic configuration and subsonic flight performance matching those of modern fighter jets. The aircraft can carry up to 3,000kg of combat payload (guided and unguided missiles and bombs, cannons and so on) using nine external suspensions.