Russian Ministry of Defence Wants Entire Fleet of Il-38 MPA Upgraded to Il-38N Standard

: Posted On Wednesday, 01 July 2015 09:51

Naval Force News - Russia

Russian Ministry of Defence Wants Entire Fleet of Il-38 MPA Upgraded to Il-38N Standard

Russian Government official news agency TASS is reporting that the Russian Defence Ministry plans to order the upgrade of the entire fleet of Ilyushin Il-38 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA). The declaration came from Russian naval aviation commander Igor Kozhin on Tuesday.

Russian Navy Il-38N Maritime Patrol Aircraft. Picture: Alex Beltyukov

"The contract is in the discussion phase. It is impossible to name any specific figures at this point (number of planes and dates), but the entire fleet is to undergo upgrade," he said.

The Il-38 MPA and anti-submarine warfare aircraft is to be upgraded to Ilyushin-38N with a new generation search and target track system Novella-P-38.

Kozhin said all upgraded planes will be painted dark grey in line with the Defence Ministry’s standards. A unified platform for Russia’s naval aviation to replace the current Ilyushin-20 and Ilhyushin-38 will be selected in 2015-2016, Kozhin said. The universal platform that will replace all of anti-submarine planes will boast far better parameters surpassing foreign counterparts. "The platform will perform its maiden flight by 2020," Kozhin said.

The fifth and last modernised Il-38N Maritime Patrol Aircraft of the first batch is ready to be delivered to the Russian Navy. Picture: Nikolai Savinykh

The first batch (upgrade of 5 Il-38 to Il-38N) is almost complete as Ilyushin reports that the fifth Il-38N (tail number 78) is conducting its final flight tests in Zhukovsky. The plane is about to be delivered to the Russian Navy.