Rostec upgrades Russian A-50 early warning aircraft

The Vega Radio Engineering Corporation of the Ruselectronics holding company (part of Rostec) and the Beriev Aircraft Company have upgraded Russian A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft to the A-50U version.

Rostec is a Russian State Corporation established in 2007 to promote the development, production and export of industrial products designed for civil and military applications.

Among other improvements enhancing the characteristics of the aircraft, the companies have modernised the radio stack. They say that thanks to the use of a modern electronic component base and high-performance computing tools, the aircraft is now capable of tracking more targets, says the firm.

“As compared to the previous model, the A-50U plane features an increased range of detection of various airborne vehicles, including completely new aircraft. High performance of the radar has been achieved by implementing the end-to-end channel of digital radar data processing and upgrading the receiver and the transmitter.”

“A-50U is heavily modified A-50 aircraft. In addition to enhanced performance of the radio equipment, we have also significantly increased the comfort level for the crew,” said Director of Rostec’s Aviation Cluster Anatoly Serdyukov.

“Upgrading the current aircraft fleet is a top priority for Rostec. Today’s competences of the Corporation’s specialists enable us to create unique products and modernize the already existing aircraft models.”

According to a release from the Russian firm, software features have been improved thanks to installation of a new onboard computing system that is based on higher-speed and better-performing modern digital computing products.

“Reliability and performance of the satellite communication equipment, including information exchange speed, volume and quality, have been considerably enhanced. The aircraft navigation system has also been improved; the flight range and the mission duration have increased.”

The A-50U aircraft is intended to detect, track and identify air targets, large ground and sea targets, guide fighters to targets and front-line aircraft – to ground and sea targets.