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Yak-130 combat trainer has good prospects on world market – expert

The Russian Air Force decision to make the Yak-130 its main combat trainer strengthened the export positions of the aircraft
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

BERLIN, September 14 (Itar-Tass) —— The Yak-130 combat trainer has good prospects on the world market, Yakovlev Design Bureau Deputy General Director Arkady Gurtovoi told Itar-Tass at the ILA 2012 international aerospace show on Friday.

The Yak-130 program is being developed towards the construction of a light combat jet, which will strengthen positions of the Irkut Corporation, whose member the Yakovlev Design Bureau is, on the global market. Asked about rivalry between Yak-130 and Italian Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master, which was originally built on the Russian jet’s platform, he said, the division of markets by those two jets was rather conventional. Besides, the Italian jet has a U.S. engine, which requires U.S. permission to export it to certain countries.

The Russian Air Force decision to make the Yak-130 its main combat trainer and the jet’s putting into service strengthened the export positions of the aircraft, and the first successful delivery of Yak-130 to Algeria in 2011 caught attention of a number of countries of the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.