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.
Construction of Russia’s new multirole Yasen-class nuclear submarine, Kazan, began at Sevmash’s facilities in Severodvinsk July 24. It is the second sub of this class — the first ship, Severodvinsk, was laid down in 1993 and is expected to be commissioned in 2011. The Russian Navy reportedly plans to have six Yasen class submarines. “We need these submarines for all our fleets,” said Navy Deputy Commander Nikolay Borisov at the lay-down ceremony.
MOSCOW — The fate of MiG’s Skat unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) project is uncertain, with company officials declining to discuss the status of the program. MiG showed a mock-up of the Skat to a handful of Russian journalists in 2007. Now, Mikhail Pogosyan, the former Sukhoi CEO who was appointed to lead MiG in 2008, suggests that Skat was just a demonstrator and that further developments depend on the Russian military defining what kind of aircraft it would like.
Russian fighter manufacturer Sukhoi plans a decade-long production overlap of its latest Flanker model with its fifth-generation fighter program for the Russian air force, apparently further undermining MiG’s ambitions for a next-generation fighter. Sukhoi management now says production of the Su-35 (Su-27 SM2) will run in parallel with that of the fifth-generation project, known as PAK FA, for around 10 years. This may well see the Su-35 remain in production until the middle of the 2020s, with the type becoming the long-term complement to the PAK FA.
