Unique Yak-44E AEW aircraft: it was better than American competitors, but turned out to be unnecessary

Among the buried aviation projects in the USSR was the unique Yak-44E airborne early warning aircraft. We still haven't created anything like it in Russia.

In 1988, the first Soviet nuclear aircraft carrier of Project 1143.7, "Ulyanovsk," was laid down, which was to include the Yak-44E carrier-based aircraft. The aircraft was equipped with an E-700 circular scan radar with a detection range of up to 300 km for surface targets and up to 250 km for airborne targets. Moreover, the radar allowed simultaneous tracking of up to 150 targets.

The Yak-44 was planned to be produced at the Tashkent Aviation Plant, but not a single flying prototype was built. By 1990, only a mock-up had been developed, which was brought for testing on the aircraft-carrying cruiser "Tbilisi," later renamed "Admiral Kuznetsov."

The Yak-44E received the latest D-27 propfan engines equipped with coaxial composite propellers with a capacity of 14,000 hp, developed by the Zaporozhye Design Bureau "Progress." These were advanced engines that never found further use.

The Yak-44E significantly surpassed its American opponent, the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, the concept of which the Soviet aircraft repeated. At the same time, the Yak-44 was not a copy of the American, was heavier and longer, had a larger wingspan and was faster - the maximum speed of the Yak-44E was 740 km/h, compared to 600 km/h for the "Hawkeye." The estimated patrol time was to be about five hours, so the aircraft was equipped with a toilet and a buffet.

Also, the Yak-44E could take off from the ski-jump bow of Project 1143.5 aircraft carriers and climb into the sky to 13 km, while the American "twin" - only to 9.3 km. The crew of each aircraft consisted of two people, but the Yak had four radar operators, while the "Hawkeye" had three.

By the mid-90s, the Yak-44E project was closed.

Earlier, www1.ru reported that the RBU-6000 naval rocket launcher changed its profile and began to help infantry.