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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, friends,

Let me start by congratulating you on this important event – the start of our new MiG-35 light fighter plane’s flight tests. My congratulations go, of course, to the designers, engineers, workers, and pilots, to everyone who worked and continues to work on this big and important project to put a new aircraft in the skies.

I note that the new multipurpose MiG-35 fighter has enhanced flight and technical characteristics and is equipped with the very latest weapons systems. You know this better than I. It can follow from 10 to 30 targets at once, and can operate over land or sea. This is a genuinely unique and promising aircraft, 4++, you could say, very close to being fifth generation.

I hope very much that this fighter will contribute substantially to bolstering our Air Force and Aerospace Forces. The plane also has good export potential, given that more than 30 countries actively operate another model, the MiG-29, and these countries have a good infrastructure for using these fighters and have the trained personnel. At the same time, of course, industry and everything related to these planes’ operation must be ready so that we can offer potential partners the best possible maintenance and servicing available in the world today.

Another point to which I want to draw attention is that one of the MiG facilities plans to manufacture a civilian aircraft for which there is great demand in the national economy and from the public. This is the medium-haul propeller plane for use on domestic routes.

I hope that this work will progress according to schedule, all the more so as we have decided on financing sources, and we will gain a modernised aircraft that will be widely used on domestic routes.

Please, begin your report.

Yury Slyusar: Mr President, colleagues,

Director of United Aircraft Corporation [OAK] Yury Slyusar reporting. Here at my side is Chief Designer of the OAK Sergei Korotkov and Chief Pilot of MiG Corporation Mikhail Belyayev.

Mr President, today, we started flight tests of the new light multipurpose MiG-35 fighter. The fighter was designed specifically for combat in high-intensity conflict and dense air defence conditions.

The plane’s excellent results were achieved through using a new on-board defence system and new infrared search and track. The plane’s radar visibility has been reduced by a several-fold factor. We have increased from six to eight the number of suspension points, which will make it possible to use current and future airborne weapons systems, including laser weapons.

The plane’s range has been more than doubled. This was achieved through bigger capacity of internal tanks and mid-air refuelling functions, which can be done in tanker regime with aircraft of the same family too.

All systems used in the MiG-35 are Russian designed and made, including the newest systems – the inertial system and helmet-mounted targeting system.

The plane was planned as part of the state arms programme with mass production starting in 2019. Tomorrow, here in Lukhovitsy, we will present this aircraft to prospective customers from other countries. We have great hopes that the plane will sell well on markets abroad and we already see a lot of interest in it. Of course, we hope too that the orders the Defence Ministry places and the orders coming in through military-technical cooperation, will keep the plant busy.

But, as you noted, here in Lukhovitsy, we are using the MiG production facilities to develop in parallel production of a regional propeller plane, the Il-114. We have started work on the decisions taken at the meeting you chaired six months ago. The resources have been allocated and we have received them.

At the same time, the design bureau is preparing documentation that will be sent to the plant, and here on the same production floor where the MiG-35 aircraft will be made, we will be building at least 12 Il-114 airplanes a year. This will make it possible, among other things, in keeping with the tasks that have been set, to balance the corporation’s portfolio, increase the share of civilian products and meet our strategic targets to increase the number of civilian aircraft to 45 percent of the corporation’s portfolio by 2025.

Mr President, we would like to show you video footage of today’s flight, if you will.

Vladimir Putin: Please.

(Video footage.)

Yury Slyusar: I would like to give the floor to the pilot who took this machine on its maiden flight: Mikhail Belyayev.

Mikhail Belyayev: Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief, comrade members of the Military-Industrial Commission,

As part of the MiG-35UB (two-seat version) trial programme, a crew of Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG – test pilots Mikhail Belyayev and Stanislav Gorbunov – have performed a flight to demonstrate its stability, controllability and manoeuvrability characteristics.

The objectives and results of the flight have been fully accomplished. All on-board systems worked properly. The engine and the integrated aircraft control system worked properly. The crew’s evaluation is positive. The quantitative evaluation will be made following the processing and analysis of the materials received from flight recording equipment. That concludes my report.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Belyayev.

Mr Korotkov, how do you evaluate the work?

United Aircraft Corporation General Designer and Vice President for Innovations Sergei Korotkov: Mr President, members of the Military-Industrial Commission,

We have created a multi-spectrum system that was integrated into the armament system and additionally installed aboard the MiG-35, and along with other systems, we have developed the Generation 4++ complex. We hope that after the trials, the Defence Ministry will buy this machine and that foreign customers will also come to sign contracts with us. I hope this project will have success.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Please convey my warmest and sincerest congratulations to the entire staff that has worked on this product, on this machine.

All the best. Good luck.