Ilyushin Il-38

Ilyushin Il-38
Type:	Anti-submarine aircraft
Design country:	Soviet Union
Manufacturer:	Plant No. 30 Moscow – Chodinka
First flight:	September 28, 1961
Commissioning:	1969
Production time:	1967-1972
Number of pieces:	65

The Ilyushin Il-38 ( Russian Ильюшин Ил-38 , NATO code name : May ) is the military anti-submarine variant of the propeller passenger aircraft Ilyushin Il-18 .

history

Project planning work began in OKB Ilyushin following a request from the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers on June 18, 1960. Sergei Ilyushin himself was in charge of the development, with Jakow Kooterow as chief engineer. In contrast to other Il-18 versions, the model has a fuselage that is about four meters longer with the wing moved 1.8 meters forward to compensate for the shifted center of gravity caused by the electronic equipment placed in the front area. Vladimir Kokkinaki completed the first flight on September 28, 1961. Problems, especially with the development of avionics, delayed the introduction of troops to the Soviet naval forces . Although the model had already been approved for series production in December 1965, the Il-38 was not officially put into service until January 17, 1969, and the first aircraft had been delivered to the units from March 1968. Originally 250 Il-38 were to be built, but production ended in 1972 after 58 copies. The Il-38 was flown with the 24th OPAP (Independent Submarine Hunting Air Regiment) in Severomorsk , the 77th OPAP in Nikolajewa near Vladivostok and the 145th OPAE (Independent Submarine Hunting Squadron) in Riga .

From 1974 to 1977 a variant called Il-38M with an air refueling probe was tested; There was also a version Il-38MZ with an extendable refueling hose in the bomb bay. Both types remained prototypes. On April 4, 2001, the prototype of the modernized Il-38N flew, which instead of the old Berkut anti-submarine hunting system has a Morskoi Smei ( Russian Морской змей , sea ​​snake ) and an ELINT system on the back of the fuselage .

In 1977 and 1983 three and two Il-38s went to the Indian Air Force . In September 2001, a $ 200 million order was placed to modernize these aircraft under the designation Il-38SD, the first of which was delivered in 2006. Two of the Indian machines collided during a formation flight over Goa Airport in October 2002 and crashed, killing both crews. They were replaced by two more Il-38SDs. Instead of the older Berkut radar, these are equipped with a Morskoi Smei and missiles to combat surface targets. From 1970 to 1972 some Il-38s with Egyptian national emblems were also used in the Mediterranean area. These aircraft belonged to the 90th ODRAE (Independent Remote Reconnaissance Squadron), had been chartered and flew with Soviet crews. In 1983 a second version with an additional radome under the fuselage became known ( May-B ).

Five of the existing 25 to 30 machines are to be modernized into the Il-38N and remain in service until at least 2020. The Il-38N is equipped with the Nowella P-38 sensor system, which was developed from the Morskoi-Smei system designed for India. The first converted machine was handed over to the Russian Navy on July 15, 2014, and the five machines had been handed over by the end of June 2015. As a result of the modernization, the range of tasks of the Il-38N has been expanded to include electronic reconnaissance , surface ship combat and SAR missions in addition to submarine hunting .

The Il-38 are stationed in Severomorsk – 1 (7050th base), Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky / Jelisowo (7060th base) and Nikolayevka (7062th base).

User states

Current users

•  India - As of January 2018, there are 5 Il-38SD in service.
•  Russia - As of April 1, 2019, at least 20 Il-38 and 7 Il-38N are in service.

Technical specifications

Ilyushin Il-38

cockpit

Ilyushin Il-38 flies over the aircraft carrier USS Midway , 1979

Parameter	Data
crew	normal ten (pilot, copilot, flight engineer + up to 9 operators)
length	40.07 m
span	37.42 m
height	10.10 m
Wing area	140 m²
Wing extension	10.0
Empty mass	36.3 t
Takeoff mass	Max. 66 t
Engine	4 × turboprop Ivchenko AI-20 M with 3,169 kW (4,309 PS) each
Top speed	720 km / h
Patrol speed	350 km / h
Range	9,500 km
Service ceiling	10,000 m
Rate of climb	320 m / min
Takeoff route	1300 m
Armament	8.4 t payload with sonar buoys, mines, torpedoes (AT-2) and bombs in two fuselage shafts Berkut radar with 360 ° detection angle magnetic field sensor (APM-60) in the tail spur

Comparable types

• Lockheed P-3 Orion

See also

• List of aircraft types

Web links

Commons : Ilyushin Il-38  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Аэропорт "Жуковский" приостановил работу после аварийной посадки Ил-38. RIA Novosti , April 28, 2018, accessed April 28, 2018 (Russian). 
2. ↑ Friedrich List, Uli Jeschke: Russian sea combat aircraft in Flieger Revue Extra No. 9, Möller, 2005, p. 70
3. ↑ Fliegerrevue No. 09/2014, p. 8
4. ↑ The fifth Il-38N for Russian navy , ruaviation.com, June 30, 2015
5. ↑ Piotr Butowski: Ilyushin Il-38N. Second Life. In: Flug Revue No. 10/2014, p. 52/53
6. ^ The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS): The Military Balance 2018 . 1st edition. Routledge, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-85743-955-7 , pp. 263 (English, January 2018).
7. ↑ Владимир Тучков: Каким оружием НАТО собирается победить Россию. In: СвободнаяПресса. svpressa.ru, April 1, 2019, accessed on April 5, 2019 (Russian, including at least 20 Il-38s and 7 Il-38Ns are currently in service).