Ukraine R-27 variants for Su-27 and MiG-29

[PLAAF]

Nearly 20 years ago, back when R-27 was still a thing amongst air forces, we used to get many news articles about how the Ukrainian Artyom Corp couldn't get many contracts to keep their business going because Russia took all their R-27 contracts for those who were using R-27s.  So one of their higher-ups, through the Ukrainian embassy in China, contacted the Chinese Air Force and offered them the Ukrainian-made R-27. The negotiation was successful, and the Chinese also asked for some upgrades. Afterwards, Ukraine produced many upgraded R-27s that are better than the Russian domestic ones. Some sources even stated that R-27EA was included, while others believed that Ukraine used their R-77's seeker head to make R-27EA.

Today, I accidentally found some YouTube videos that talked about those upgrades. Although those videos didn't address the R-27EA by name, they did mention that they gradually introduced upgrades through different patches handed to the Chinese Air Force. For example, the criteria given by China were "be able to match the US AIM-7M in all aspects and to at least to some extent be able to keep jets armed with AIM-120A in check". In return, Ukraine introduced many upgrades, such as upgrading the R-27's guidance system to a composite guiding system, allowing their missile to avoid different kinds of ECMS and improving their missiles' accuracy, "increasing the range to over 100km, which is twice as long as the Russian Vympel counterparts", "be able to attack more than one target simultaneously"(if this is not the R-27EA, I don't know what is.) Because of this, most of the R-27 used by China are from Ukraine. And the money made by Artyom through those contracts allows them to tough it out through Ukraine's economic hardship back in those years. Of course, later, when Russia found out, they tried to sue everybody.

Some sources stated that Artyom modularised their production and designs. Their R-27s can be separated into five modules, and you can change them easily depending on what kind of sorties you are about to carry out. And the R-27ET they sold to China had a better seeker head than the Russian domestic variants.

So, I was wondering: since we don't have many modern jets for the Red force in DCS, why not reduce the imbalance by introducing Ukraine R-27s for Red jets? Given Ukraine and Russia's current state of affairs, I doubt they would mind. I don't care if those upgraded missiles are really R-27EA or not; they are at least upgraded R-27ERs and R-27ETs. They can be great additions to DCS.

Here are some of those articles I read.  It's a shame many of those articles have been lost in time, as it has been over 15 years. 
I know they are in Chinese, but that shouldn't be any problem with AI translators nowadays.

https://news.ifeng.com/mil/4/200811/1124_342_892485_2.shtml

https://www.youtube.com/@sky11331/videos

 

Edited Thursday at 02:42 PM by PLAAF

[F-2]

https://www.depo.ua/rus/war/u-zsu-z-yavitsya-raketa-krutisha-za-stinger-20170213518822

 

it seems this should be available to the J-11

 

Quote

And just the other day, the State-owned Special Instrumentation Enterprise (KSP) Arsenal, together with the Artem State Chemical Company, announced its readiness to begin production of modernized missiles of the R-27 and R-73 types. It is worth noting here that Arsenal produces homing heads (GOS) for these missiles, which are the main weapon of the MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters (and their modifications).

After the collapse of the USSR, the production of GOS remained in Ukraine, and throughout the entire period of independence, all Russian export contracts for the supply of these missiles, complete with batches of aircraft around the world, were provided precisely by our enterprises. Exports flourished in the 2000s - according to incomplete data only for 2002–2006. sold 1,343 R-27 units to foreign customers. Moreover, the main customer was the Chinese military.

At the same time, the PRC paid attention to the production of GOS at Arsenal. With Chinese money, a special design bureau was created, which began developing new seekers. And at once in several directions. Our specialists went to the Celestial Empire to teach for a year or two, and a large amount of documentation was exported.

Only the customer knows the specific results of this work and the invested funds, but the directions of work are known from open sources - the modernization of the R-27 and R-73 missiles, the modernization of the Strela and Igla MANPADS, as well as the development of the seeker for a new air-to surface missile. What else happened is unknown.

In addition to the purchase of the missiles themselves, 590 units were supplied from Ukraine in 2006 alone. R-27 – modernization was also carried out by replacing the seeker. This is how homing heads were born, now known to us as I33-12 for the R-73 and A3-10 for the R-27T (the Chinese designation is unknown).Thus, the characteristics of the I33-12, among other things, make it possible to increase the acquisition range of an air target by one and a half times. The characteristics of the A3-10 are also impressive - in particular, the range of the missile against a typical target increases from 18 to 30 km (according to Soviet traditions, this is the F-15 fighter).

Under what conditions the work was carried out is again unknown, but if Arsenal has now announced the start of modernizing missiles for its own Air Force, then it is likely that the Chinese do not own full ownership of our developments. This is indirectly confirmed by the fact that the plan for the development of air defense of Ukraine also includes such a program for the modernization of the Igla MANPADS and the Strela-2M MANPADS under the factory index "336-24".

And here the new infrared homing head, which “suddenly” appeared at the Arsenal Central Design Bureau, was taken as the basis for the modernization of the complex. It is expected that the new complex will be superior to such a complex as the Stinger in a number of parameters.

Moreover, it is already known that a new solid fuel developed by the same Pavlograd Chemical Plant has been developed for the missiles of these MANPADS. Military tests of launch complexes are already underway, which are combined into blocks of 4-6-8 pieces and can be installed on wheeled armored vehicles. Considering that in this case the weight limit for a separate launcher will no longer be as critical as for a portable complex, the missile range can be increased by installing a more powerful engine.

Thus, subject to the establishment of serial assembly, Ukraine will be able to fill the vacuum that has formed in the Ukrainian army in the short-range military air defense segment, as well as significantly strengthen the capabilities of the fighter component of the Air Force.

And there, you see, we may soon see corrected air bombs or guided air-to-surface missiles. Who knows what Ukrainian scientists have come up with for Chinese money over the past fifteen years...

 

MK-2000 (Middle)

[J-20]

Some English websites also mention it.

https://armyrecognition.com/news/aerospace-news/2021/ukrainian-company-artem-to-produce-r-27-missile-for-asian-customer?highlight=WyJydXNzaWEiXQ%3D%3D

[zippoa]

What about adding AGM-88 HARM, JDAM, French HAMMER missiles to Su-27/Mig-29 ? They are widely used by real ukrainian air forces:

 

 

https://militarnyi.com/uk/news/ukrayinski-su-27-zastosovuyut-vysokotochni-jdam-er/

Edited Friday at 01:54 PM by zippoa

[pepin1234]

R-27P should be another option to add in DCS