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NEW RUSSIAN STEALTH-LIKE MILITARY AIRCRAFT WILL CARRY NEW POWERFUL WEAPONS

Army General Vladimir Mikhailov, Chief Commander of the Russian Air Force, believes that developing a advanced frontline aircraft should be one of the top priorities of the Air Force refitting program. ?The plane will be able to take care of the problems pertinent to the multirole planes Su-30MKI and Su-30MKK. The new plane will use stealth technologies and carry new powerful long-range weapons,? said Mikhailov at a meeting with foreign Air Force attaches.

The Chief Commander advised the attaches that a full-scale testing of the new combat helicopters Mi-28N and Ka-52 is drawing to its close. ?Mi-28N is going to be the main combat helicopter while Ka-52 will be used for carrying out special operations,? said Mikhailov. He said that a decision was taken to ?test the above helicopters up to a preliminary assessment stage in 2004 and launch their batch production.?

Speaking of development perspectives for the military transport aircraft, the Chief Commander informed the audience that the Ill-112 project went under way and the transport plane Ill-76MD is being modernized. The batch production of Ill-76MF is about to be launched by a plant based in Voronezh, according to Mikhailov. The general said that a new antiaircraft rocket system S-400 ?Triumf? and a modernized S-300 will be the principal antiaircraft rocket systems. On completion of its modernization, S-300 will fire different types of rockets to intercept targets at low, medium and high altitudes within a 400 km range. ?These air defense systems will be capable of intercepting any targets including the ballistic missiles,? the Chief Commander was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS News Agency.