Speaking yesterday, Sergei Chemezov, the head of Russia’s Rostec state defense conglomerate, said that production of the A-50 would be restarted, according to a report from the state-run TASS news agency.

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

That aside, restarting production of a large and complex aeroplane is going to take years.

It's built on an Il-76 base, which is still in production. So my guess is that the base plane isn't probably that bad.

Plus, there are gonna be existing Il-76 planes that I assume that they could convert.

The A-50 hasn't been produced in over 30 years, though. So this isn't gonna be just rehiring some people who have been doing something else for a few years. This is restarting Soviet-era production.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Saying it hasn't been built in 30 years is a bit misleading. Although the base Il-76 airframes may be that old, the latest substantial avionics upgrade (designated A-50U) is less than 15 years old or so (first delivery in 2011), which isn't too bad for military and aircraft systems. A lot of the E-3 equipment is older. That is not to say it is more capable than the E-3, it probably isn't, but I'd say a fully functioning A-50U should not be underestimated. It's even got toilets! Then again, it is also not clear to me that any "U" models are currently airworthy.

[–] brianorca@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

But the point is they can't use the 2011 blueprints if it needs a lot of modern electronics.

[–] Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 months ago

I'd bet they really end up cobbling together a couple more from the scrap heaps they parked years ago. At one point they had a couple dozen. But it seems only a few were operational.