You are holding in your hands another issue of the Take-off magazine, a supplement to Russian aerospace monthly VZLET. This issue is timed to the LIMA 2011 international aerospace and maritime exhibition. The show on the Malaysian island of Langkawi dates back 20 years and is the 11th one this time around. Over the two decades since LIMA’s inception, the show has grown much in terms of scale and participation, having turned into a major regional aerospace and naval business forum in Southeast Asia.

Russia has been a regular major participant in LIMA shows owing, to a large degree, to the increasing scale of aerospace cooperation between the two nations. In the mid-1990s, the Royal Malaysian Air Force commissioned into service the MiG-29N fighter developed in line with its order. A bit later, Malaysian fire-fighting service Bomba received Russian-made Mi-17-1V and then Mi-171 helicopters. Today, the most advanced and perfect multirole combat aircraft in service with RMAF is the Russian-built Su-30MKM fighters delivered by the Irkut Corporation in an 18-ship batch during 2007–09. Last year, Malaysia became the launch customer for the advanced new-generation MC-21 short/medium-haul airliner under development by Irkut in Russia.

In November this year, the Irkutsk Aviation Plant (a subsidiary of Irkut Corp.) was visited by Malaysian Defence Minister Dato Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who familiarised himself with the production of Su-30MK and Yak-130 aircraft and the productionising of the MC-21 and was pleased very much with what he had seen. “What I have seen here is impressive and mind-boggling”, said Dato Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. “We are discussing the feasibility of further programmes, and Malaysian companies are always willing to cooperate with Irkut in this sphere”.

“Malaysia is not only a customer to us; rather, it is a key partner. We would like to consolidate our good partnership with the Malaysian aerospace industry”, Irkut President Alexey Fyodorov said in turn. In addition to the Su-30MKM programme, the parties have discussed the cooperation under the MC-21 advanced airliner family programme, with the delivery to Malaysia slated for 2017. In addition, the Malaysian defence minister displayed interest in the Yak-130 programme and indicated the feasibility of cooperation in this field as well.

The Malaysian defence minister’s visit has become an important milestone towards the stepping up Russian-Malaysian cooperation in the aerospace sphere, with the LIMA 2011 show to become an excellent venue to pursue the cooperation further.

Sincerely,

Andrey Fomin,
Editor-in-Chief,
Take-off magazine