Third prototype of Russia’s armed Yak-130 jet takes flight

The third prototype of Russia’s Yak-130M, an upgraded version of the Yak-130 jet trainer reworked to carry radar and guided weapons, has made its first flight, Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation said.

The aircraft, carrying side number 137, took off from the Irkutsk Aviation Plant in Siberia with Yakovlev test pilots Oleg Mutovin and Alexander Guskov at the controls. UAC said all systems worked normally and the crew completed the full flight plan. The company did not give the date of the flight, saying only that it took place in recent days.

UAC said adding a third test aircraft will let the program finish trials on schedule and begin deliveries in 2028. It did not say who the first customer will be or how many aircraft are planned.

The original Yak-130 is a two-seat subsonic jet that Russia uses to train pilots for fourth- and fifth-generation fighters. The Yak-130M keeps the same airframe and engines but adds equipment meant to turn it into a light combat aircraft. According to UAC, the new version carries the BRLS-130R radar, which Russian sources describe as an active electronically scanned array, the KSS-130 communications suite, a SOLT-130K pod combining a camera, thermal imager and laser designator, and the President-S130 self-protection system in a pod. The company says the jet can use a wider range of guided and unguided weapons by day and night and in any weather.

Russian officials have pitched the Yak-130M partly as a drone hunter. When UAC unveiled the first prototype in 2025, Rostec said the aircraft would be able to intercept unmanned aerial vehicles and carry air-to-air missiles as well as satellite- and laser-guided bombs.

Yakovlev first showed the Yak-130M as a mock-up at the Army-2024 forum near Moscow, saying the goal of the upgrade was to make the aircraft more competitive on the export market and that three test aircraft would be built. The first prototype made its maiden flight on June 25, 2026, a sortie of about 50 minutes flown by Guskov and test pilot Andrey Voropaev. A second prototype was rolled out in October 2025.

The only export customer named so far is Vietnam. In July, Irkutsk Aviation Plant head Andrei Soynov said during a visit by Vladimir Putin that a contract was being signed for 18 Yak-130Ms.