Shipbucket

A valuable gift from the Oriental East, and my contribution:

J-10CU


more from me coming soon...

After more than a month of fight, here is my first contribution to the war effort.......

Antonov An-28 Kozak

The program behind the Antonov An-28 kozak emerged in Ukraine in the first half of the 2000s. It is the result of the conjunction of several factors.

The Ukrainians had already proceeded at the end of the last century to an extensive modernization of the Algerian aircrafts, making them the most advanced versions of the Foxbat with in particular a "look down - shoot down" capability due to the installation of a Saphir 25 radar "High Lake 4". Following this contract, assuming that the Maghreb state and the other air forces who still have it in their arsenal around the world may wish to maintain this prestigious model in service because of its still exceptional performance, a group of he engineer had begun studying a deeper modernization and measures to extend the longevity of the cells.
More generally, Ukrainian aircraft manufacturers wanted to have a spectacular demonstrator to display their know-how in terms of upgrading Soviet combat aircraft.
Finally, the Ukrainian state wanted its aeronautical industry, until then rather specialized in transport devices, to acquire more exhaustive experience in the field of fighter planes with a view to one day being able to develop an indigenous model.

The program therefore did not aim to produce a directly marketable product but a pure demonstrator pushing the possibilities of existing machines to the extreme, without worrying about the financial relevance of the project. Visually, it had to remain clearly identifiable with the original device while presenting a decidedly more modern look . The first track was naturally to take a large part of the improvements incorporated in the MIG-31 itself derived from the same base. Despite the Orange Revolution Russian suppliers still remained an option:
- A GSh-6-23 rotary cannon (incorporated here on the back of the device and not in the ventral position as on the Russian model),
- Reinforced wings with apex,
- An in-flight refueling pole,
- The same Soloviev D-30F-6 engines replacing the original Tumansky R-15B-300,
- a reinforced undercarriage to operate on more summarily laid-out land.
In addition, a brand new cockpit and fly-by-wire controls were adapted, incorporated into a dorsal reinforcement incorporating an additional tank to increase autonomy. it turned out later that it was a cockpit of a mig 29 recovered from a demobilized aircraft. This nevertheless had the double advantage of modernizing the general look and allowing a rapid acclimatization of the pilot. In addition, its higher position clearly improved its visibility both on the ground and in flight.
The avionics were completely new and generally borrowed from the Su-35:
- At the front a massive Irbis-E electronic scanning radar,
- At the rear an N-012 self-defense radar,
- At the end of the wing a Khibiny L-175V electronic countermeasures system,
- In front of the cockpit, an OLS-35 infrared surveillance system.
This allows kyiv communicators to present it as a 4.5 generation fighter, while making it a truly multi-role aircraft capable of carrying out bombing, ground attack and even anti-shipping operations.
As expected, the cost of this achievement was a priori totally prohibitive, but despite the skepticism of the experts about the value of this heterogeneous assembly, the result was an indisputable technical success.

Presented at the Moscow International Aerospace Exhibition in 2005, the mig-25.5 impressed in particular by the remarkable improvement in its maneuverability. The demonstration was confirmed at the Paris-Le Bourget International Aeronautics and Space Show two years later. The program had perfectly fulfilled its role as a technological showcase, and moreover, against all expectations, potential customers were quick to show their interest in all or part of the program.


India plans for a time to maintain its reconnaissance aircraft alongside its satellite and observation drone program, but ended up complying with its initial plans.
Algeria states that it is following the project with interest in extending the life expectancy of its fleet. The main potential client turns out to be Muammar Gaddafi's Libya. With nearly a hundred machines in stock, the potential is enormous. The North African dictator seeks to modernize his aviation, impressive on paper but the majority of the aircraft are grounded for lack of maintenance or obsolete. France had already been approached for the supply of 14 Rafale. The price of the Ukrainian program, although very high for modernization of an existing aircraft, nevertheless made it possible to put 30 aircraft back into service for the same budget. To this was added a preferential rate for any additional order. The negotiations stretch in length but go well, especially since with the support of Russia Syria joins the Libyans in a joint offer for the modernization of 40 copies allowing to lower the unit cost. This trade agreement, although discussed before the election of Viktor Yanukovych, is presented as a great success of the pro-Russian government. The signing ceremony of the contracts by the representatives of the two air forces is planned with great fanfare in kyiv for the summer of 2011 when the Arab Spring breaks out. The fall of the leader of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the outbreak of civil war in Syria deal a seemingly mortal blow to a program in which the kyiv government placed great hopes.
Subcontractors in the aeronautical sector had bet on this market and financed substantial investments, both human and material. This drove many of them into bankruptcy, greatly increasing dissatisfaction with the pro-Russian government. The fall of the latter in 2014 seems to put a definitive end to the project with the irremediable cut in Russian supplies of military equipment.

With the Russian threat growing, the Ukrainian armed forces need significant reinforcement. However, on the one hand the traditional supplier has become the potential antagonist, and on the other Westerners cannot risk supplying heavy weapons for fear of being held responsible for an escalation. The country must therefore rearm itself by its own means, at least in appearance. If the national military-industrial complex has the technical potential to do so in the land domain, in the air domain the only local recourse is the defunct MIG-25.5.
The main difficulty is to replace the elements initially provided by the cumbersome slavic neighbor. The barrel housing must be modified to accommodate the longer length of the GAU-12 Equalizer supplied by General Dynamics. The opposition of Germany, anxious not to offend its main supplier of fossil fuels, prevents the complete takeover of the avionics of the Eurofighter Typhoon, as initially envisaged. A combination of systems from various sources is finally retained with, among others:
- Second-generation PIRATE European infrared imaging equipment,
- A powerful AESA EL/W-2085 main radar from the Israeli Elta Systems,
- A rear radar designed locally as part of a partnership with the French Thales Group.
The overall architecture is fully coordinated by an adapted DASS Praetorian defensive system under the supervision of the General Advanced Research and Development Agency (GARDA).
For the motorization, the kyiv engineers hoped for a time to obtain the Pratt & Whitney F135 turbojet engine which powers the last multirole fighter of the US Air Force, which would have allowed a spectacular increase in performance, but the Department of Defense refuses to export a such sensitive material to a non-NATO member state. We therefore fall back on the General Electric F110-GE-132 which gives nearly 10 Kn of unit thrust to the initial Soloviev D-30F6.
Placed from now on under the aegis of the Antonov company, the main Ukrainian manufacturer, and presented as a purely national product (although it cannot decently deny its parentage) the name of the fighter has been changed to An-28.


National priority, the program is adapted in record time and the "Ukrayins'ki Sokoly" patrol, specially reformed for the occasion, is able to demonstrate on three pre-production machines from the 2017 Paris Air Show.

End of 2018 the new 24th tactical aviation demi-brigade is the first operational unit. In 2020 a Ukrainian unit is invited to participate in the NATO exercise. At the end of 2021, the 1st Naval Aviation Brigade was declared operational, bringing the total number of reconditioned cells to 90. This exceeding a priori the number of devices recovered at the time of the breakup of the USSR, it is likely that machines were acquired outside the country. Some experts refer to the planes unearthed by the Americans following Operation Iraqi Freedom. These same experts estimate that on the eve of the Russian invasion, the kozak program made it possible to almost double the number of combat aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force.