Domestic demand

Throughout the first 15 years following the USSR’s collapse, the Russian aircraft industry was working almost exclusively for export customers. This resulted in a predominantly export-oriented development paradigm, with production programs and even R&D efforts driven mainly by foreign demand. It was largely thanks to their export potential that Russia developed such bestselling warplanes as the Sukhoi Su-30MKI and Su-30MK2, as well as the Mikoyan MiG-29K and MiG-29M.

Since 2008 however, this paradigm has evidently been shifting towards a more traditional model in which the majority of the orders for military aircraft is generated by the national defence ministry. The first obvious signal of this shift came in the form of a major order for 32 Sukhoi Su-34 tactical bombers. The deal was struck in December 2008, just four months after the five-day war against Georgia, which had seen Su-34s used for suppression of the Georgian air defense. The 2008 contract is estimated to have been worth 35-39 bln rubles ($1-1.2 bln at the current exchange rate). At around the same time, the Russian Air Force helped RSK MiG out of financial difficulties by agreeing to purchase the 34 MiG-29SMT/UBT fighters, which had been rejected in 2007 by their original intended customer, Algeria. Unofficial sources value that transaction at 20 bln rubles. Finally, in August 2009, the Russian Air Force ordered a total of 64 tactical fighters, including 48 examples of the newest Su-35S warplane which was still in testing at the time. Thus, even prior to the enactment of the armament procurement program for the years 2011-2020, the Air Force ordered a total of 130 fighters and tactical bombers within a period of under two years.