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.
Russia continues to develop its nuclear deterrent as part of a general rearmament of the armed forces (see p. 53). Planned expenditures on nuclear weapons in 2011 will grow by 44% compared with 2010 and amount to $870 million. According to Viktor Zavarzin, head of the parliament’s defense committee, expenditures for weapons procurement, modernization of the country’s nuclear triad and maintaining the triad’s combat readiness will increase by 50% during the next three years.
Russian engine maker Aviadvigatel is targeting April to freeze the design of the first member of a new commercial turbofan family. The Perm-based company has just launched the first series of trials of the PD-14’s gas generator. The engine is being designed for Russia’s MS-21 narrowbody transport and also provides the foundation for an entire family of powerplants.
