Maksim covers aerospace developments in Central Asia for Aviation Week. He has worked for Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine and was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications after working for the Moscow-based CAST defense think tank.
Maksim has a degree in international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow.
Irkut Corp.'s MS-21 narrowbody airliner orderbook has climbed by 35 as Aviation Capital Services (ACS) converted options. ACS, a leasing company that is a subsidiary of state-owned Russian Technology Corp., will receive 18 MS-21-200s with 150 seats and 17 MS-21-300s designed to carry 180 passengers. Irkut, part of United Aircraft Corp., is expected to deliver the aircraft in 2022-25.
It can be assumed that China is developing a combat drone, maybe several. The technology is so obviously part of the future that the rising power cannot ignore it. But making even tentative conclusions about China's progress in the field is not easy. The country's rapid advances in fighter technology suggest it may be little more than a decade behind the West; yet even the U.S. is still years from deploying an unmanned strike aircraft with the penetration capabilities of a modern fighter.
