Mil Mi-8s Get Round-the-Clock
Reconnaissance Capability from UOMZ

New equipment from the Urals Optical and Mechanical Plant (UOMZ) will give Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopters round-the-clock reconnaissance and special missions capability, Eduard Yalamov, UOMZ's Director General told Show News.

Following a Russian Ministry of Defense order placed in 1999, the first eight Mi-8MTO helicopters have already been equipped with the GOES-321 day/night gyrostabilized observing and piloting system. UOMZ is also developing the GOES-342 day/night battlefield observing and sighting system for Mil Mi-24/Mi-35 "Hind" attack helicopters. The first system will soon begin testing.
To ensure night attack capability, GOES incorporates thermal imagers from France's Sagem and Sweden's Agema. Indigenous Russian thermal imagers are in the final phase of research and development, and will be incorporated in an upgrade when available.

GOES, which can be installed on aircraft, ships or land vehicles, will be offered in an export version, primarily in India, the Middle East and South East Asia. UOMZ foresees a potential market for upgrading several thousand previously exported Mi-8/-17 and Mi-35 helicopters.
For fixed-wing attack aircraft, UOMZ is developing the Sapsan underslung optronic pod with an interchangeable head which slews through an angle of up to 150 for laser bomb guidance. A prototype will be completed by year's end. Sukhoi Design Bureau has taken interest in Sapsan development. Yalamov said that if a prototype is supplied to Sukhoi in the first quarter of 2001, a Sapsan-equipped Su-27 will be ready for flight at the end of that year.

At present the laser pod incorporates only a daylight channel. By the end of the year UOMZ plans to develop a second-generation thermal imager which will give Sapsan a night channel.

UOMZ has also developed an upgrade package for the MiG-29's electro-optical systems, and has offered it to the German Air Force, which operates a single squadron of the Russian-built fighters.
UOMZ is the only Russian producer of electro-optical systems for combat aircraft and helicopters. This year it plans to increase the value of its military production to $50 million, compared to $45 million in 1999. Military production accounts for 95 per cent of its exports, which it carries out through Rosvoorouzhenie. Along with the orders for new systems, UOMZ currently holds orders worth $95 million for spares. In the civilian sector, UOMZ is the sole developer and manufacturer of geodetic equipment, which it has supplied to 35 countries.

By Nikolai Novichkov