Joint effort with Ukraine proposed for Polish Grot-2 jet trainer programme

[Zarvan]

Polish Grot-2 scale model on display at the ITWL pavilion during the MSPO 2012 expo. Source: Reuben Johnson
Development of the Grot-2 single-engined lightweight jet designed by the Warsaw-based Instytut Techniczny Wojsk Lotniczych (Air Force Institute of Technology: ITWL) is to proceed as a co-operative effort with Ukrainian industry.

New of the collaborative teaming formed part of a presentation given in Warsaw on 13 January by ITWL director Colonel (retd) Ryszard Szczepanik during a day-long conference on military helicopter and aerospace programmes.

The conference, organised by the influential Narodowe Centrum Studiów Strategicznych (National Centre for Strategic Studies: NCSS) think-tank, was timed to coincide with a series of internal analyses and external negotiations on procurement programmes being conducted by the new Polish government.

Szczepnik stated that the Grot-2 - intended to be a multimission military aircraft - will be powered by a Ukrainian Ivchenko/Progress engine built at the Zaparozhye Motor Sich aeroengine production enterprise. The decision by ITWL to adopt a Ukrainian engine as the powerplant for the Grot-2 comes after several years of design validation that involved wind tunnel tests and computational fluid dynamics modelling. The decision on an engine was left open for several years while ITWL considered several possibilities. Modelling of the Grot-2 design was conducted with a Honeywell/ITEC F124-GA-100 propulsion model.

Dr Vyacheslav Boguslayev, the general director of Motor Sich, was also present at the forum and told IHS Jane'sthat the engine intended for the Grot-2 programme "will be the AI-222-28F design" developed at the Ivchenko/Progress design bureau. This engine is an uprated, developed version of the AI-222-25 installed in the Chinese-built Hongdu Aviation L-15 jet trainer.

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Joint effort with Ukraine proposed for Polish Grot-2 jet trainer programme | IHS Jane's 360

 

[Quwa]

Conceptually the program looks sound.

After the An-178, I am confident in the Ukrainian industry's ability to control for costs and technical hurdles, the Grot 2 could very well emerge as a very good (relative to the price) advanced trainer and light combat aircraft.

It isn't as powerful or large as the JF-17 and LCA, though that depends, the Al-222-28F is meant to be an up-rated Al-222-25, but by which margin, that's not clear.

By the time the Grot 2 is ready for the market, the PAF's K-8s may need replacing; buying this off-the-shelf with technology transfer could be a good idea. Personally speaking, I'd rather join as a partner.