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The new management of Russian Aircraft Corporation (RAC) MiG, led by Nikolai Nikitin, who came from the Sukhoi design bureau three years ago, has every reason to be satisfied. The company's situation has evolved from critical (in 1998-- 99) to stable with good prospects for the future.
The past year was the company's best in the post-Soviet era -- contracts were signed for the sale of 36 MiG-29 fighters to five different countries. The highlight was the delivery of 14 aircraft to Yemen worth over $300 million. MiG-29s were also purchased by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nigeria and Sudan. Including other contracts (such as repairs and servicing of Hungarian Air Force aircraft) and spares business (notably a $60 million deal with Syria), total sales in 2001 amounted to $977.3 million, compared with a little more than $100 million in 2000 and about $200 million in 1999. In addition to this, several MiG-29UB two-seaters were contracted by the Sokol factory in Nizhnyi Novgorod, not belonging to RAC MiG.
A few years ago MiG had several dozen half-finished MiG-29s in its factories in Moscow and Lukhovitsy. The new management made a reasonable decision to deal with this situation: these aircraft had to be sold, if necessary with price concessions, and the proceeds invested into new versions. There are no rich countries among last year's buyers of MiG-29s. Once the stock of half-finished aircraft has been sold, all new MiG-29s will be started from scratch. According to Nikitin, contracts currently in negotiation will bring in about $4 billion over the next 5-6 years. Expectations for 2002 are around $1 billion.
The company's strategic plan assumes attaining a stable annual level of orders in the $1.2-1.5 billion range by 2020. Presently about 90% of income comes from military production.
The MiG-29K light shipborne fighter is expected to restore the former renown and the market of rich clients for MiG company. In the late 1980s and early 1990s MiG built six MiG-29M and two MiG-29K prototypes. These aircraft virtually completed testing, accumulating about 2,000 flights, but development had to be frozen in the absence of orders from the Russian air force. The programme was revived as the result of negotiations between Russia and India on the delivery to India of the...