Procurement: April 26, 2002

Archives

Russia has been holding a competition for years to pick a new jet trainer, with the choices being the MiG-AT and the Yak-130. Tensions were high as everyone knew that the company which lost the bidding would take a serious if not mortal blow. Moscow has now announced that it will buy both aircraft (about a hundred of each). Doing so will keep both companies in business and give them a fair shot at finding export sales, but it will of course cause the price of each design to increase as the production run is shorter.--Stephen V Cole