Yak-130M: training or combat?
Today we are reviewing the modernized Yakovlev Yak-130M. The aircraft is interesting, since the first model, the Yak-130, will soon turn 15 years old. And the Yak-130 made its first flight back in 1996. In general, it’s time for modernization.
But first, you need to understand a little about how a training aircraft differs from a combat trainer. This will help evaluate the class and capabilities of the new modification.
So, training aircraft. This is a class of machines in which pilots undergo training and aerobatic training under the guidance of an instructor. Two-seater vehicles, easy to drive, not burdened with frills such as radar and combat systems. They are simply not needed there.
Here is one of the representatives of this class, the German Grob G 120TP. Pilots from more than two dozen countries, including the United States, train on it. An absolutely peaceful airplane with a turboprop engine and excellent equipment inside.
Combat training is the next step. There are like two classes here. The first is machines like the Embraer EMB 312 Tucano, essentially training aircraft, but with the ability to carry weapons.
The Toucan is used by many countries as an anti-terrorist and anti-guerrilla aircraft. It carries small arms and unguided missiles and bombs, but this is quite sufficient for tasks such as training combat pilots and working on militants. Can be combined.
Of course, there is no protection, but given that such aircraft are planned to be used against armed small arms weapons formations, sufficient speed and maneuverability.
The second stage is jet combat training aircraft. There are a lot of them here too, this category includes the Yak-130.
These are mainly aircraft equipped with turbojet engines, with the ability to carry weapons. Mostly uncontrollable, since the presence of a radar for combat training aircraft is not a mandatory feature.
But in the second group there is, as it were, an exception. This is a group of aircraft whose characteristics are somewhat different from the general mass.
Towards superiority
The ancestor can safely be called such a strange machine as the brainchild of Breguet Aviation, Dassault Aviation and Dornier Flugzeugwerke, called Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet. This aircraft was ordered by some countries as a combat training aircraft, but the Luftwaffe did not waste time on trifles and wanted a light and agile attack aircraft. And they received an aircraft that was superior to the A-10 Warthog in many respects.
The Alpha Jet was armed with a 27mm Mauser cannon with 150 rounds of ammunition and guided weapons: 2 missiles AIM-9 Sidewinder, 2 Matra Magic IIs, 2 AGM-65 Mavericks. Naturally, the aircraft was equipped with a radar. That is, in essence, the Alpha Jet was a light combat aircraft that could be used as a trainer.
Here is the hero of our story from these. The Yak-130 can safely be classified as second class. This is a real training aircraft with wide capabilities, on which you can, if necessary, hang a set of weapons. Not very big, not very controllable, since there is no radar in the basic configuration, but it is possible. The result is a light attack aircraft of a bad time.
The Yak-130M is exactly in the same category as the German-French miracle from the last century. This machine is more like a light combat aircraft that can be used as a training aircraft. And this promises many more benefits.
From the information taken from the pages of the Yakovlev PJSC website, we can conclude that the work was carried out very seriously, and the Yak-130M is far from the same as the Yak-130. You know, Tu-22 and Tu-22M immediately come to mind, the name is very similar, and the functionality...
What did the Yakovlev engineers do to transfer the Yak-130M to a different category of complexity?
1. We are talking about changing all on-board electronics. This is done so that the Yak-130M can use the entire range of weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces. In itself, a very useful step: it will be possible to train pilots to use various types of missiles and bombs that are in service with the Aerospace Forces, without wasting the resource of modern combat aircraft.
2. Equipping the Yak-130M with a compact, lightweight and inexpensive radar. The second important step, because equipping the aircraft with a radar and changing the avionics are links in one chain, at the end of which the Yak-130M crew will be able to use guided missiles and bombs.
Usually, radars are not installed on aircraft of this class, and here the Yak-130M immediately becomes one of the exceptions. But it's worth it. The photo immediately shows the much longer nose of the aircraft, where the radar was installed.
Data on the radar-130r is not provided, but: the Tikhomirov Research Institute five years ago proposed a radar for the Yak-130 called BARS-130. It was demonstrated at MAKS 2019 at the Irkut exposition.
Even then, experts concluded that the BARS-130 is an adapted Osa radar with a Skat-M passive phased array antenna, developed at one time for the MiG-29UBT.
Even in those distant times, when the Yak-130 was just beginning to fly, the Tikhomirovites said that they could easily and naturally adapt their small-sized radar to this aircraft.
This is how the BARS-130 first appeared, and then, on its basis, the BRLS-130r was made. The chain can be traced quite normally, the only thing is how far the new radar is different from its predecessors remains a question.
For now, we can provide data on the Osa radar, which was announced at the Farnborough Air Show in 1998:
Range, km:
— detection (target ESR — 5 m²) — 85
— target acquisition for automatic tracking — 65
Simultaneous tracking - up to 10 targets
Simultaneous attack - 4 targets
Weight, kg - 120
Power consumption, W - 100
Weight of the Skat-M antenna, kg - 22
Here, of course, you can give free rein to your imagination, but “Granny Osa” a quarter of a century ago demonstrated quite normal performance, which today the Yak-130M would be more than enough for work.
But here we can safely say that the two modernizations that were carried out within the walls of the Research Institute of Instrument Engineering named after V.V. Tikhomirov did not pass without a trace, and today the BRLS-130r, in any case and in any case, will differ from the Osa only for the better .
In general, with such an antenna, let’s say, “boosted” to 100 km in range and even provided that the target’s ESR decreases slightly in reception, we can say that the Yak-130M can easily successfully attack targets such as helicopters and even outdated aircraft designs. Something like MiG-29, Mirage-2000. But engaging in a full-fledged air battle with a modern combat aircraft would be, to put it mildly, imprudent.
3. OLS - optical location station. Here is a photo of everything tasty for an airplane, on the left there is a hefty box, more than a radar - that’s it. On the right is the radar. Feel the difference, as they say.
Nowadays, it is more than a useful thing, because radars are not always good at dealing with targets such as UAVs or BECs made of wood, cardboard and plastic. Or with cruise missiles, the EPR of which is getting lower and lower.
Here, by the way, the best illustration is the Iranian-Israeli showdown. Israeli aviation coped well with Iranian missiles, tracking them precisely by their heat signatures.
If the Krasnogorsk OMZ named after Zverev can really equip aircraft with good OLS, then the Yak-130M will make a very useful interceptor drones and cruise missiles, which is more than relevant in our time.
4. BKO. Onboard defense complex. This is what fundamentally distinguishes a training aircraft from a combat aircraft, because with the BKO the aircraft can not only attack targets using any guidance means, but also defend itself, which makes its participation in combat operations COMPLETE.
A training aircraft on which a cannon with ammunition, a couple of containers with NURS and a couple of bombs were hung in a container is not very serious. Yes, such a vehicle is able to fly up to the front line of the enemy’s defense, taking advantage of its small size and ability to fly very low and spit its ammunition somewhere in the direction of the enemy according to the principle “at whomever God sends.” There was never any talk about precision bombing and throwing NURS in such cases; here the work is purely area-based.
And yes, any MANPADS, even the most ancient ones, became a mortal threat to such an “attack aircraft.”
Apparently, this will be an adapted version of the President-S system, which has proven itself more than worthy in tests. Considering that we tested the Igloy protection system, which is still the best MANPADS in the world today, the President will be very good against the Stingers.
BKO "President-S" includes the following stations, which can be combined and placed optionally depending on the type and purpose of the aircraft:
— control device (CU);
— radar exposure warning station (RWA);
— laser irradiation warning station (SPLO);
— missile attack warning station (RAS);
— aviation consumables ejection device:
— anti-radar cartridges, infrared radiation cartridges, cartridges with disposable jammers (SPOI);
— active radio jamming station (ARI);
— incoherent optical-electronic suppression station (SOEP);
— laser station for optical-electronic suppression (LSOSEP).
OBE modules can be installed inside the aircraft fuselage, but if the size of the aircraft does not allow this, then individual blocks can easily be suspended under the wings. Not the best option for solving problems with accommodation, however, it is much better than the option of an aircraft without a BCO.
So, there is a radar (even if not with a radius of 400 km), there is a BKO (and quite modern) and there is an OLS. Plus, if not stealth, which is applicable to fifth-generation aircraft, but the stealth of a small aircraft capable of operating at ultra-low altitudes.
And here the question is: with what?
It is clear that the Yak-130 is not an air fighter, at least for the majority of fighters it is food. Helicopter, UAV - Yes, although there are helicopters in the world that even a fighter can spread its wings.
But it seems to me that the ideal targets for the Yak-130M are ground targets. This is a Su-25 at minimum wage, more advanced in terms of electronics, not a front-line aircraft, which, being protected by armor, can iron the enemy’s positions, but a minor nuisance that will approach point-blank unnoticed, dump everything it has and just as calmly leave back home.
Well, yes, all the same FAB-250, of which the 130th can take 4 pieces, and with UMPC modules...
In general, the Yak-130M as a front-line aircraft looks even preferable to the Su-25.
Yes, it has armor, a good BKO "Vitebsk", a range, but... "Rook" is completely outdated with its set of unguided or almost guided weapons such as the old Soviet Kh-29 or Kh-25 missiles, for the use of which you need to see the target visually. And the defense complex as it is is not bad, but not good either, and air-to-air missiles clearly do not save you from modern missiles. But there is no radar, which already puts the old attack aircraft one step below the small dirty trick, capable of operating any weapon from the vast arsenal of the Aerospace Forces.
In addition, laser or television seekers of old Su-25 missiles require the direct participation of the pilot in the guidance process, and in the Yak-130M there will not be an instructor, but an operator who can, without distracting the pilot, strike the enemy with all the ammunition.
And if you let the Yak-130M operate with missiles like the Kh-59MK2 or Kh-69, then you will get a Su-57 in a minimal configuration. Moreover, it is still unknown who will be cooler in terms of stealth: the Su-57 with stealth technology or the Yak-130M, whose size is the key to a small EPR. And detecting it at a distance of more than 300 km is as difficult as the most sophisticated stealth fighter.
And the last question: do you see a training aircraft here? With a radar, optical-location system, thermal imager, defense complex? I wish all our training aircraft were like this!
In fact, the Yak-130M is more suitable for the role of a light combat aircraft like the Alpha Jet and similar more modern aircraft like the Korean KAI T-50 Golden Eagle, the Czech L-159 and so on.
But in general, our aircraft can be much superior to its classmates precisely in terms of equipment.
Probably, the question will arise about upgrading all the Yak-130s available in the VKS to the 130M level, but this is a matter of the distant future due to many factors at once. Yes, the temptation to get 120 attack aircraft over the course of several years is great. This is exactly how many Yak-130s are in use today.
However, we should not forget that flying training should not be abandoned either. Aviation schools work on the Yak-52 and PZL Swidnik, the next step is the Aero L-39 and Yak-130 in higher schools. Moreover, the Czech plane is already being withdrawn to history for length of service.
Is it worth converting all existing Yak-130s into combat ones? Of course not. A machine like the Yak-130M is not needed for a first-year cadet. Anyway, the initial part of the training program is flight training, and there the use of such a machine is simply illogical.
Another question is that in every school or training center it would be nice to have a certain (small) number of Yak-130M aircraft precisely in order to polish the training of young pilots in terms of working with radar and OLS, and the use of guided missile weapons, at least in theory.
Both cars have promise. The Yak-130 has proven itself well over the past ten years since the start of its operation as an “aircraft”. The Yak-130M will be able to significantly raise the level of combat training of young Aerospace Forces pilots and become a very good fighter on the front line. It takes very little time to check this.
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