Foreign guests at the World Defense Show 2026 international exhibition in Riyadh were surprised by the new UTS-800 training aircraft. They did not expect that Russia would be able to develop such a project. This was announced by Ekaterina Zgirovskaya, an official representative of the Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA).
According to her, guests from Asia and Europe showed interest in the products presented by UZGA — UTS-800 and the export version of the Forpost-RE reconnaissance and strike UAV.
The reaction of the professional community to the development of the UTS-800 project and the domestic VK-800 turboprop engine, designed, among other things, for this aircraft, was especially valuable.
Zgirovskaya added that specialized experts highly appreciated the level of import substitution of the UTS-800. They were especially surprised that the VK-800 engine for the aircraft is also of domestic production.
The fact that the aircraft is completely Russian-made caused a serious reaction of surprise. The aircraft and its design features also aroused genuine interest among young Saudi engineers and cadets.
The UZGA representative stated that many exhibitors in Riyadh were interested in the possibilities of production cooperation, localization of production and technology transfer.
Earlier it became known that the VK-800SP turboprop engine is fully ready for testing on the UTS-800.