Russian Government's Non-military Air Fleet: Structure and Procurement Policy
Aleksey Nikolsky
The government air fleet in Russia includes "aircraft used to provide national security, guard and protect strategic facilities, maintain law and order, augment the customs service, support space exploration, strengthen civil defense, and protect the population and territories from natural and man-made disasters, including measures to provide safety on the water and fire safety." This lengthy and awkward definition, which is contained in Article 22 of the Russian Air Code, also determines the list of government agencies that have the right to maintain their own fleet of aircraft. These include the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Federal Protection Service (FSO), the Interior Ministry, the Federal Customs Service, the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos), and the Emergencies Ministry. The definition is also vague enough to allow the aircraft operated by regional fire and water rescue services to be counted as part of the government air fleet. The largest fleets, on which this article will focus, are operated by the Interior Ministry, the FSB, and the Emergencies Ministry. Notably, the scope of this article also omits the Rossiya Special Flight Unit, whose remit includes "guarding and protecting strategic facilities" (the FSO service has yet to acquire its own fleet of aircraft ), but whose main reason for being is ferrying top government officials around the country.
FSB air fleet
The first air squadrons of the Main Political Directorate (GPU), the forebear of the modern FSB, were set up back in 1923. For most of their history, the Soviet security agencies' air forces were subordinated to the Soviet KGB Border Troops. At the peak of its numerical strength in 1984, the Border Troops fleet operated 343 planes and helicopters.1 In Soviet times, that fleet consisted of used hardware transferred from the Soviet Air Force. The same was – and still is – true of the fleet operated by the Interior Ministry's Interior Troops. It was only in the late 1980s that the KGB Border Troops were allowed to place orders for new planes and helicopters directly with the suppliers, and to draw up their own lists of requirements and specifications. The first such order was for the An-72P, a specialized patrol modification of the An-72 transport plane.
After the split-up of the KGB in 1991, the air fleet operated by the agency's Border Troops (and consisting of regiments and squadrons, just like the Air Force) was transferred to the new Federal Border Service. After the fall of the Soviet Union, other Soviet republics inherited about 40 per cent of the KGB Border Troops air units, including 130 planes and helicopters, plus 3,000 personnel. As of late 1992, the 18 remaining Border Troops air units (which were subordinated to the Russian Ministry of Security at the time) were supposed to operate 317 planes and helicopters, though in practice they had only 288 aircraft. As of July 9, 1996, 26 independent air units of the Russian Federal Border Service (which was set up in 1994) operated 292 planes and helicopters (six Il-76, 19 An-72; 17 An-24; 18 An-26; two Yak-18, 187 Mi-8; 11 Mi-26; and 32 Mi-24).
In the 1990s the Border Service's air fleet was facing the same problems as the Russian Air Force. Training standards and the numbers of flight hours clocked in by the pilots fell sharply owing to lack of financing and the fleet's poor state of repair. By the mid-1990s only 40-45 per cent of the Border Service's planes and helicopters were operational. Along with the Air Force's military-transport division, the air fleet of the Border Service was allowed by the government to perform commercial flights to prop up its finances in 1990, although the decision was revoked in 1995.
It soon became clear that the FSB (from which the Federal Border Service remained independent in 1994-2003) also required its own air fleet, primarily for moving anti-terrorist units and other personnel around the country. In 1999 the government authorized the FSB to acquire such a fleet. The agency's central directorate set up an air fleet department and an air squadron based in Vnukovo (one of several Moscow airports), consisting of two planes (Tu-134 and Tu-154) and four Mi-8 helicopters – all of them used MoD stock. Col. Nikolay Gavrilov, former chief test pilot of the Border Service's NIITTs testing center, was appointed to lead the new outfit. (Gavrilov has since been promoted to Lieutenant General; he is now the head of the FSB Aviation Directorate).
In 2003 President Putin decided that the Border Service and some of the units of the Federal Agency for Government Communications should once again become part of the main internal security agency, the FSB. The Border Service's air fleet was therefore merged with the much smaller FSB fleet. As part of that reorganization, the government abolished the military structure of the combined FSB fleet, and the Border Service itself became a civilian agency. Most of the FSB air fleet is still being used by the Border Service, so the reorganization of that fleet was modeled to some extent on the coast guard services of Western countries. In particular, that fleet now has a centralized command structure, and its individual units are no longer subordinated to the regional border or security directorates. The old regiments and squadrons have been abolished. In place of regiments, the FSB air fleet now has independent air units (otdelnyy aviatsionny otryad, OAO); the old independent squadrons have been replaced by independently-based aviation groups (OGAB).
At present, two Aviation Centers, based in Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk, are subordinated to the head of the FSB Aviation Directorate.
The Novosibirsk Aviation Center includes:
3rd OAO (Novosibirsk)
4th OAO (Chelyabinsk)
9th OAO (Chita, including the OGAB in Kyzyl)
The Khabarovsk Aviation Center includes:
5th OAO (Kamchatka, including the OGAB in Providenie)
6th OAO (Sakhalin)
7th OAO (Artem)
8th OAO (Khabarovsk)
The FSB aviation units based in the European part of Russia (five federal districts) are subordinated directly to the FSB Aviation Directorate, bypassing any intermediary links in the form of Aviation Centers. All the commanders of the air units take their orders directly from the Aviation Directorate or from the chiefs of the Aviation Centers; they are not subordinated to the regional FSB or Border Service directorates.
The following units of the FSB Aviation Directorate are based in the European part of Russia:
1st OAO (Petrozavodsk, including the AGOB in Murmansk)
2nd OAO (Stavropol, including the AGOB in Makhachkala and Kochubeevskoye)
The Special Purpose Aviation Unit (AOSN) in Moscow (the descendant of the former FSB air squadron) based in the Moscow airports of Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo
the FSB Air Base in Yoshkar-Ola (Mariy El Republic), which is essentially a training and testing unit of the FSB Aviation Directorate
The FSB air fleet's tasks include ferrying security officials and important cargos; patrolling and guarding Russia's land and sea borders; patrolling the Russian exclusive economic zone and fighting illegal fishing; and providing support to anti-terrorist units. These tasks dictate the composition of the fleet, which includes transport and passenger planes, patrol planes and helicopters, transport helicopters with attack capability, and special helicopters. The FSB fleet currently operates three Il-76 medium military transports, more than 30 An-26 and An-72 light military transports, and five An-72P specialized naval patrol planes.In addition, the fleet includes 17 Ka-27PS naval search and rescue helicopters; four Mi-26 heavy transport helicopters; and more than 70 Mi-8 helicopters. Most of the Mi-8s are transport versions, but there are also 20 aircraft with attack capability (including the Mi-8MNP-1 and Mi-8MNP-2 modifications).
The Kurgan Aviation Institute, which was subordinated to the Federal Border Service in 1995, was shut down in 2003. At present, pilots for the FSB fleet are trained at MoD facilities.
The FSB Aviation Directorate has the right to place its own orders for new aircraft. Compared with Russia's other buyers of military hardware, its procurement policy is fairly distinctive. Back in the mid-1990s the then Border Service aviation chief, Yuri Shatokhin, showed great interest in several new light aircraft models offered by Russian industry, including the Ansat helicopter and the SM-92 and Be-103 planes. But all three models were still struggling with technical problems. They were obviously not ready for prime time, and the Border Service itself did not have the financial muscle to finance the completion of R&D.
In the mid-2000s the FSB Aviation Directorate once again showed interest in the Ansat and Ka-226 light helicopters. In 2006-2010 it bought two Ansats and four Ka-226s. The plan was to develop a specialized radio-electronic reconnaissance helicopter on the Ka-226 platform, and to buy more than 20 such helicopters. But those plans fell through because both the Ansat and the Ka-226 are still struggling with teething problems. It would not be very sensible for security agencies to operate untried and unreliable hardware; the price of failure due to possible technical problems could be especially high for anti-terrorist units.
The FSB Aviation Directorate currently buys three to five Mi-8 helicopters (transports and special modifications) every year; that number is expected to stay about the same in the coming years. In 2012, for example, the FSB bought four Mi-8MNP-2 helicopters. These are essentially prototypes, based on the Mi-8AMTSh model made by the Ulan-Ude Helicopter Plant. The helicopters had some additional work done on them at the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant; two of them were designated as Izdelie 824, and another two as Izdelie 825. Judging from the available photos, the Mi-8MNP-1 and Mi-8MNP-2 modifications are equipped with an optical-electronic station, radio-electronic reconnaissance systems, and the Shturm-VK (AT-6) anti-tank missile system. This makes them quite similar in terms of their capability to Western combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopters and American special operations helicopters.
The Border Service and the FSB anti-terrorist units are also planning to buy transport and passenger planes to ferry their personnel and various cargoes around the country. The planes will be bought as part of the government's consolidated procurement program for Russian-made aircraft to 2020. It has been reported that the FSB plans to buy two Tu-204-300, two Tu-214, four An-148 and one Il-76MD-90A planes. These will replace the old and obsolete Tu-134, Tu-154, Il-76 and An-72 aircraft currently in service. The FSB will probably continue to operate the two new Tu-154M planes bought in the 2000s.
By 2020 the FSB is also expected to buy about 10 An-140 transports to replace the old An-24 and An-26. There are no current plans for replacing the An-72P naval patrol aircraft, even though the model's capability is fairly limited. Development of patrol versions of the new An-148 and An-140 planes is still at the very early stages. There are, however, plans for a limited upgrade of the An-72P currently in service. The FSB is also expected shortly to place orders for the repair and upgrade of its Ka-27PS naval SAR helicopters. In addition, the agency will probably place small orders for the Ka-226 light helicopter, though not before the supplier has improved the new model's reliability. These helicopters will be used for special operations; some of them will be based on the new Project 22460 patrol ships.
The FSB Aviation Directorate is known to have placed small orders for tactical unmanned aerial vehicles with several Russian companies (including ZALA and Irkut). It has also shown interest in UAVs offered by Israel's Aeronautics Defense Systems, but no large orders have been placed so far. In 2012 the FSB bought at least one Camcopter Schiebel S-100 helicopter-type ship-based UAV (designed in Austria and assembled by the Gorizont plant in Rostov-on-Don) for the Border Service's Coast Guard. Back in the early 1980s the KGB Border Troops showed interest in such exotic technology as ground effect vehicles (ekranoplanes); that interest persists to this day, but any significant orders for such vehicles are unlikely.
As of July 2013, the FSB Aviation Directorate placed 1.091 billion roubles (35m dollars) worth of orders for aircraft repairs in 2012-2013, based on data from the government procurement website.
As for the procurement of new aircraft, in 2008-2010 the FSB Aviation Directorate took delivery of 12 new Mi-8 helicopters (including 11 Mi-8AMTSh helicopters with extra equipment installed at the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, plus one passenger modification of the Mi-8AMT-1) worth a total of at least 3 billion roubles. In 2011-2013 it placed orders for an additional eight Mi-8AMTSh helicopters (with extra equipment installed, including the latest Mi-8MNP-2 modification) worth about 2bn roubles. In March 2013 the FSB invited bids for a contract to supply an An-148-100EA passenger plane, worth 1.43bn roubles, to be delivered in 2014. This will probably be the first of the expected four planes of that type to be bought by the FSB to replace the existing Tu-134 aircraft. Based on this information, the FSB's annual spending on new aircraft and aircraft repairs stands at 2bn roubles at the very most. To illustrate, this kind of money can buy only two new Su-34 tactical bombers used by the Russian Air Force.
Interior Ministry fleet
Unlike the fleets maintained by the FSB or the Emergencies Ministry, the Russian Interior Ministry's fleet of aircraft does not have a central command. It includes two separate divisions: the Interior Troops fleet, and the special-purpose air units (SPAU) of the Interior Ministry's regional directorates. Such units are maintained only by some of the most important (or some of the richest) Russian provinces. The Interior Troops fleet has always consisted of used hardware that previously served with the Russian Air Force (although the ministry has bought a small number of new helicopters in recent years). There is no centralized procurement policy for the SPAU fleet.
Interior Troops fleet
The Interior Troops of the Soviet Union's Interior Ministry acquired their own air units in 1978, when the government perceived the need to protect transport infrastructure in the Far East amid growing tensions with China. At first, those units were equipped with used Mi-8T helicopters reassigned from the Armed Forces. In the 1980s they began to buy new Mi-8 helicopters. The Interior Troops fleet was also augmented by Il-76, An-12 and An-26 transports, Mi-8 transport helicopters, and Mi-24 attack helicopters during the outbreaks of internal conflicts that required the Interior Troops' intervention. This happened in the late 1980s, as well as during the first (1994-1996) and second (1999-2004) campaigns in Chechnya.
There is even less information about the Interior Troops fleet in the open sources than about the FSB fleet. It is known, however, that Interior Ministry air units have retained their militarized structure and names; they are subordinated to the Aviation Directorate of the Interior Ministry's Interior Troops, which is part of the Interior Troops Main Command. The head of the directorate is deputy Interior Troops commander Aleksandr Afinogenov, who previously served with the Russian Air Force. The Interior Troops fleet does not have its own training centers; its pilots are trained at MoD facilities, and then receive additional training at the Krasnodar branch of the Air Force's Military Training and Research Center. Some of the Interior Troops fleet command bodies also exist as part of the Interior Troops regional commands. In addition to airlifting Interior Troops personnel and providing support to Interior Troops ground units during operations in the North Caucasus, the fleet is sometimes used to airlift OMON (riot police) units and even to transport persons taken into police custody in remote regions.
The Interior Troops fleet currently includes four air regiments:
The 1st Independent Air Squadron in Khabarovsk
The 2nd in Chita (part of the squadron is based in Irkutsk)
The 6th in Krasnodar
The 7th in Pushkin, Leningrad Region
The 8th in Engels
The 9th in Yekaterinburg
The 10th in Novosibirsk
The 11th in Voronezh
There is also an Interior Troops combined air squadron in Chkalovskiy near Moscow, and an independently based sub-squadron in Balashikha (Novaya Derevnya), Moscow Region.
The Interior Troops fleet currently operates more than 100 aircraft. Most of them are Mi-8 helicopters (more than 60). There are also up to 10 Il-76 heavy transports; about 20 An-12, An-26 and An-72 transports; several Tu-134 and -Tu-154- planes; and about 10 Mi-24 attack helicopters.
No new aircraft were delivered to the Interior Troops in 1995-2005. Since 2005, at least six new Mi-8MTV-2 and at least one Mi-8AMTSh helicopter were bought for the Interior Troops. In other words, the fleet's procurement program is very small. Nevertheless, the Interior Troops command has shown interest in special modifications of the Mi-8 helicopters (similar to the ones used by the FSB). At some point in the future it also hopes to buy heavy long-range attack UAVs.
Interior Ministry's special-purpose air units
Even though Soviet police began using helicopters back in the 1960s (for monitoring major roads and mass gatherings, searching for fugitives and missing persons, airlifting operatives, etc), for a long time it did not have specialized air units. It leased helicopters (the light Ka-26 and Mi-2 were the most suitable models for such purposes) from the civilian Soviet fleet on a long-term basis, along with the pilots. The regional Interior Ministry directorates of the richest Russian provinces, as well as the turbulent North Caucasus, began to acquire their own air units in the 1990s; the process continued throughout the 2000s. At present, 20 out of Russia's 78 regional Interior Ministry directorates have such units.
In particular, special-purpose air units exist in the Altay, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Stavropol and Perm territories; Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Kamchatka, Kemerovo, Omsk, Samara, Sakhalin, Rostov, Volgograd and Voronezh regions; the republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Yakutia, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkaria; and the cities of St Petersburg and Moscow. There is also a separate unit which serves the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. As a rule, these units' territorial remit includes neighboring provinces; for example, the unit based in Tatarstan also covers the territory of the Chuvash Republic and the Kirov Region.
Up until 2011, the Interior Ministry's Aviation Center made centralized decisions about the development of the police air fleet in Russia. In 2008 the interior minister issued a resolution which approved the concept of the development of the ministry's air fleet to 2015. One of the targets outlined in that concept was that 70 per cent of Russian territory should be covered by the ministry's fleet by 2015. According to former interior minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, in 2003-2009 the ministry's special-purpose air units generated 4bn roubles worth of economic benefits, which is twice as much as the ministry had spent over that period on buying, repairing and operating the fleet's aircraft. In 2009 these units operated 32 light and medium helicopters (two Eurocopter AS 355, 12 Mi-8T, two Mi-8MTV, three Mi-8AMT, one Mi-2, five Ka-226, and two Robinson R-44), plus one Yak-40 plane. In 2007-2012 the Interior Ministry's air units in Moscow, St Petersburg, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Krasnodar Territory, Volgograd Region and Voronezh Region bought a total of 13 Ka-226 helicopters. The ministry has not placed any orders for the Ansat helicopters.
In 2011 the Interior Ministry's Aviation Center was subsumed by the newly-established Rapid Air Response and Special Task Force Center. The center also includes the OMON Zubr units, which specialize in maintaining public order during mass upheavals and in areas of anti-terrorist operations; the SOBR Rys units, which are called in to deal with armed and dangerous criminals; and the Yastreb special-purpose air unit. The center is subordinated to the Interior Ministry's department for special operations and air units, led by Maj. Gen. Ivan Birnik. The Yastreb air unit is a police air fleet operating in Moscow Region and six neighboring regions in central Russia. The unit is equipped with at least two Eurocopter AS 355 helicopters, an Let L-410 plane, and several Mi-8 helicopters.
Several of the regional special-purpose air units have become much better equipped over the past several years. In particular, the unit in Tatarstan has acquired an L-410 plane and two Robinson R-44 light helicopters. The Baikonur unit has also bought two helicopters of the same type. Many regional units have set up special squads operating Russian-made light UAVs. In 2013 the Interior Ministry plans to buy two Mi-8AMTSh transport and attack helicopters for the special-purpose air unit in Dagestan (worth 357m roubles apiece), and an Mi-8AMT helicopter worth 366m roubles for the Sakhalin unit. This will probably be the Interior Ministry's biggest aircraft contract in recent years. It must be said, however, that there is an obvious lack of transparency as far as spending on hardware for special-purpose air units is concerned. It is quite likely that the Interior Ministry has been buying foreign-made helicopters on the secondary market. For example, in response to a query by the present author, a Eurocopter East representative has said that Eurocopter has not officially supplied a single helicopter to the Interior Ministry - even though the Yastreb special-purpose air unit is known to have been operating two Eurocopter AS 355s since 2007, if not longer. But even taking this into account, the Interior Ministry's annual spending on hardware for its police air fleet, including repairs, is unlikely to exceed 1bn roubles.
Emergencies Ministry air fleet
The Soviet Union's Civil Defense Troops used to operate independent helicopter squadrons, equipped with the Mi-8. Three of those squadrons were transferred to the Russian Emergencies Ministry in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, at present the ministry operates a wholly new type of fleet, which was essentially set up from scratch back in the 1990s and given official status in 1995. Thanks to the political clout of Sergey Shoigu, the current defense minister who played a leading role in the creation of the Emergencies Ministry, that ministry's fleet was equipped almost entirely with new aircraft even during the economic crisis of the 1990s. In fact, the ministry was the launch customer for the very expensive Be-200 amphibious aircraft program. It was also the first Russian government agency to start using foreign-made aircraft, after buying three Bo 105 and two BK 117 helicopters (made by Germany's DASA) in the 1990s.
In 2008 the Emergencies Ministry air fleet was reorganized into the Federal State-Owned Unitary Aviation Company, which is subordinated to the ministry. The company's main base is in Zhukovsky, Moscow Region. It is equipped with Il-76, Il-62, Yak-42 and An-148 transport and passenger aircraft. It also has four regional air rescue centers (which include air units and separately-based sub-units). Two of these centers are in the European part of Russia: one is also in Zhukovsky (equipped with Mi-8 and Ka-32 helicopters), another is in the settlement of Sokol (Nizhny Novgorod Region). There is also the Siberian center in Krasnoyarsk, and the Far Eastern center in Khabarovsk.
The Emergencies Ministry air fleet operates a total of about 70 aircraft, including 19 planes and almost 60 helicopters. In particular, the fleet includes one Il-62M airliner equipped with a special government communications station; two Yak-42; two An-148; six Il-76; six Be-200ChS; two An-3; seven Mi-26; five Ka-32; one Ka-226T; three Bo 105; one BK 117; and about 40 Mi-8 aircraft. The Mi-26 and Ka-32 helicopters, as well as the Be-200ChS planes, are part of the so-called Euro Squadron, a virtual air unit which is often hired by European governments to fight forest fires. In addition, the Emergencies Ministry has long operated a small fleet of light helicopter- and plane-type UAVs.
There was a pause in the procurement of new aircraft in 2005-2009. The ministry then began to buy new planes and helicopters once again after several high-profile incidents, including the terrorist attack that targeted the Nevsky Express train (the Moscow to St Petersburg service) in 2009. The attack highlighted the lack of air cover along what is arguably Russia's most important route. There was also a series of catastrophic forest fires in 2010. The Emergencies Ministry is currently upgrading its hardware in accordance with a 2010 program that covers the period until 2015 and costs an estimated 43bn roubles. New aircraft are the most expensive item on the ministry's shopping list. Under an 11.6bn-rouble contract signed in 2011, the ministry will take delivery of eight Be-200ChS multirole amphibious planes (two have already been delivered) in addition to the four bought in previous years. In 2010 the ministry also signed a 2.5bn-rouble contract for two An-148-100E convertible planes, which were delivered in 2012-2013. In 2009 it placed an order for five Ka-32A-11BC helicopters worth 1.5bn roubles; final deliveries were made in 2012. In 2011-2013 it ordered eight Mi-8MTV-1 helicopters worth 2.1bn roubles; six have been delivered so far. In 2012 the ministry became the launch customer for the Ka-226T light helicopter modification equipped with Turbomeca Arrius engines. It placed an order for one such helicopter, worth 236.2m roubles - but the supplier, Vertolety Rossii (Russian Helicopters) proved unable to deliver by the agreed deadline.
In 2009 the Emergencies Ministry and Vertolety Rossii signed a program entitled "Provision of the Emergencies Ministry airborne rescue units with helicopters". Under the terms of that program, the ministry will take delivery of 185 helicopters by 2020. The aircraft will be used as air ambulances; the priority task is to provide medical assistance to victims of traffic accidents. During the first stage of the program, the ministry will deploy 24 light helicopters (Ansat and Ka-226T). During the second, its fleet will be augmented by 80 medium helicopters (Mi-8 and Ka-32). During the third, it will take delivery of another 43 medium and 38 light helicopters of the same models.
The 14 helicopters delivered to the ministry in 2009 will probably count towards these numbers. There are questions, however, as to whether the whole program is realistic, given its cost of at least 47bn roubles in current prices. That figure, incidentally, includes only the cost of the aircraft; it does not cover the huge expense of deploying the requisite ground infrastructure and of the training programs. In addition, the ministry also plans to buy four Il-76MD-90A transports as part of the government's consolidated aircraft procurement program, plus a Tu-204-300 airliner (probably meant to replace the Il-62M that currently ferries top ministry officials around the country). These five aircraft are expected to cost the ministry an additional 15bn roubles.
This brings the total cost of the aircraft the Emergencies Ministry has ordered since 2009 to 18bn roubles. Its total expenditure on new aircraft in the 2009-2020 period is expected to reach 70bn. If these ambitious plans come to fruition, the ministry will become Russia's second-largest buyer of aircraft after the Air Force (or perhaps the third-largest, after the Rossiya Special Flight Unit operated by the president's office).
Conclusion
When Nikolay Efimov, a senior Soviet spy, wrote to his boss Yosif Unshlikht in 1923 about the need to equip the Soviet secret service with its own air fleet, his proposals were as follows:
"Equipping the GPU troops with aircraft should be done by:
Transferring to the GPU from the Red Army those aircraft that can no longer be used on the front line - or at the very least, those aircraft that are still in service with the armed forces, but cannot take on modern Western aircraft.
Buying new foreign-made aircraft for service in those parts of the country (i.e. in the north) where conditions are too harsh for our own technology."
It is nothing short of astounding that more or less the same approaches were still in use at the end of the 20th century with regard to the air fleets of the Russian security services, the Interior Ministry, and to some extent even the Emergencies Ministry (which was the first government agency to start buying foreign-made light helicopters). After the Russian economy improved in the 2000s, the Federal Security Service (FSB) commissioned the development of several fairly advanced special-purpose helicopters. Meanwhile, the Emergencies Ministry has financed a very expensive program to develop the Be-200 amphibious aircraft, which is used in niche applications. The ministry also has a list of very stringent and innovative requirements for the special versions of mass-produced Russian aircraft, as well as for Russian-made UAVs. The Interior Ministry, on the other hand, hardly generates any business at all for the Russian aerospace industry; most of the aircraft the ministry operates are used hardware that previously served with the Russian armed forces.
Now that Russia has begun a large Air Force rearmament program, the significance of the security agencies and the Interior Ministry as aerospace industry customers is marginal at best. The only possible exception is the Emergencies Ministry, with its ambitious plans of ramping up the fleet of air ambulances.
The FSB and the Interior Ministry currently use various (including specialized) modifications of attack and attack-transport helicopters to support their anti-terrorism operations. In the future, this hardware will probably be replaced by attack UAVs and long-range reconnaissance drones, which Russia is still developing. The companies that are now developing such UAVs for the MoD must also take into account the special requirements of the Interior Ministry and the FSB. These agencies don't have enough money to finance such expensive R&D programs as modern attack drones or new naval patrol aircraft on their own. Even if they demonstrate any such inclination in the future, the government should stop them so as to avoid duplication and waste. But it is very important to make sure that these government agencies are involved in the formulation of innovative requirements for new aerospace hardware, and that their valuable experience of operating various types of aircraft is put to a good use.
Table 1. Repairs of FSB aircraft in 2013-2014
Aircraft Number Cost, million roubles Completion
Tu-134A 1 51.4 2014
An-72P 3 182.1 2014
An-26 2 88 2014
Mi-26 1 119 2014
Ka-27PS 4 149.2 2014
An-26 2 86 2013
Il-76MD 1 153 2013
An-72 1 90.7 2013
Ka-27PS 2 70 2013
Mi-26 1 102 2013
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