Russia asks Belarus to upgrade military aircraft

According to this source, the Minsk Civil Aviation Plant in Belarus is participating in the overhaul program of the Russian Air Force's Tu-134UBL fighter jets. Along with the surprising information, Defence-Blog also confirmed its information by posting a photo of the Tu-134UBL undergoing an upgrade in Belarus.

Although Russia has not responded to this information, it is not uncommon for Russia to cooperate with Belarus in many weapons production and upgrade programs. As early as 2016, Russia and Belarus will cooperate to develop a new low-altitude air defense missile system.

"We are carrying out a joint project to develop a completely new low-altitude air defense missile system between Russia and Belarus. Detailed information about the project will be provided in the near future," said Vladimir Slobodchikov, Director of the AENudelman Precision Engineering Complex (Russia).

Currently, Belarus is famous for providing air defense weapon upgrade packages, including low-altitude air defense missiles, produced during the Soviet era, which are present in the armies of many countries around the world.

Some of the famous upgrade packages of Belarus are known as the T38 Stilet (upgrade of the Osa short-range air defense missile system), Alebartu (upgrade of the Pechora-2BM system) and Buk-MB. Meanwhile, the Nudelman Mechanical Complex is the place that mainly develops Russian short-range air defense missile lines such as: Strela-1, Strela-10, Sosna and the Palma modular gun-missile system.

Not only that, Belarus' state-owned company Belspetsvneshtechnika has just introduced upgraded versions of two short-range air-to-air missiles R-60 and R-73. These are the missiles commonly equipped on Russian fighter aircraft today for air combat missions within visual range.

According to the published information, the new upgraded variant of the R-73 missile, codenamed R-73BM, was developed by the Vympel Complex. The new upgraded version of the R-73 missile has a rudder structure with an angle of inclination extended from 45 to 60 degrees and an improved anti-jamming system.

The R-73BM is equipped with a new infrared imaging seeker system and laser rangefinder fuse to optimize the distance and explosion angle to increase the probability of destroying the target. The upgraded R-73 missile has a range of about 12km and a firing altitude of 20km.

Meanwhile, the upgraded R-60BM missile has been redesigned to be used both on aircraft and in low-altitude air defense systems. This is achieved thanks to a new engine and active seeker system.

The laser rangefinder fuse structure that optimizes the fragmentation beam to destroy the target is also a new feature in the upgraded R-60 missile version. The firing range of the R-60BM is 10km when launched from an aircraft, while the specifications of the version equipped on ground-based air defense systems have not been announced.

Military experts say the two upgraded missiles have great export potential because they can be easily equipped on Russian fighter jets. Low cost and compatibility are the strengths of the R-73BM and R-60BM upgraded by Belarus.