MiG and Sukhoi divisions are being merged together

Russian combat aircraft makers to form one unit
By Vladimir Karnozov

Russia's United Aircraft (OAK) is to create a single combat aircraft division by merging its RSK MiG and Sukhoi units under the leadership of Sukhoi boss Mikhail Pogosyan.

To date, OAK's combat aircraft strategy has tasked MiG with development of light fighters including the MiG-35 and unmanned aircraft, along with modernisaton of in-service MiGs, while Sukhoi has been developing the Su-35 and PAK FA fighters.
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This is huge 2 great rivals.
Migs havent done well sine the collapse anyway.

Don't think it bodes too well for competitive evolution of the Russian aerospace evolution.
Hopefully they maintain 100% workforce after the merger, and keep design boards independent to spur competitive design at an internal level at least.

This was first mooted several years ago and once or twice I thought it had already happened. Obviously not so.

I don't think that competition within Russia matters all that much in this area, If the Russians are competing with anyone its Boeing/Eurofighter/Dassault et al and so there is a still a strong competitive element out there, ie Pak-fa v F-35.

This makes sense.

The Russian investment and R&D budget for the military is not that big in comparison to the US and other major nations, so merging resources is a way to be more efficient. The consolidation of the defence industry in the US and Europe has happened and a driver for this has been the cost of R&D.

I do not pretend to know too much about the Russian defence industry, although it is well reported (if you look) that investment in defence has been low since the collapse of the Soviet Union. There may be more money about at the minute due to the abundance of gas and oil, but Russia still has a GDP half the size of Germany.

Regards

2 great aircraft makers in 1.
i would love to see whats on the drawing
board with both influences.

Originally posted by paraphi
The Russian investment and R&D budget for the military is not that big in comparison to the US and other major nations, so merging resources is a way to be more efficient.

Well, sort of.


In the past, the Soviets had centralised research institutions, and then MiG, Sukhoi, Tupolev etc would build designs based on the research data being produced. This was a good system, provided that the research encompassed a wide enough area of the field to find new (viable) solutions.


Hence why the Flanker has a mini-me in the Fulcrum.



So bringing the whole lot together may not make as big a change to efficiency as you think - although admittedly, I'm not sure how they are working things in the capitalist era.

Originally posted by paraphi
This makes sense.

The Russian investment and R&D budget for the military is not that big in comparison to the US and other major nations, so merging resources is a way to be more efficient. The consolidation of the defence industry in the US and Europe has happened and a driver for this has been the cost of R&D.

I do not pretend to know too much about the Russian defence industry, although it is well reported (if you look) that investment in defence has been low since the collapse of the Soviet Union. There may be more money about at the minute due to the abundance of gas and oil, but Russia still has a GDP half the size of Germany.

Regards

Actually Rus's R&D spending was/is good enough to bring deafece.