V.V. TIKHOMIROV INSTRUMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE

The V.V. Tikhomirov Instrument Research and Development Institute, a public limited company now, was established on March 1, 1955, on the premises of MoscowТs R&D Institute 17 of the USSR Aircraft Industry. In the year 2002, 51 percent of the companyТs shares was transferred to the Almaz-Antheus Group of air defense enterprises.

Today, the Instrument R&D Institute is a leading developer of mobile medium-range surface-to-air missile systems and armament control systems for fighter aircraft.

The world arms market is well familiar with the instituteТs projects such as Cube series medium-range surface-to-air missile systems (exported under the name of Quadrat, or SA-6 in NATO classification), Buk series medium-range surface-to-air missile systems (SA-11), and armament control systems for MIG-31, SU-27, SU-30, SU-33, SU-35, SU-30MKI and SU-30MKK fighter aircraft. A phased array radar allowing armaments to be controlled in several modes was developed at the Institute and mounted, for the first time in world practice, on the MIG-31 fighter.

The Quadrat medium-range surface-to-air missile system developed in 1965 and used successfully in armed conflicts is used in 25 countries of the world. To this day, the institute and arms plants in several foreign countries are jointly implementing a large-scale program to modernize this system, including incorporating some elements of the modern Buk-SA systems in Quadrat.

The InstituteТs latest surface-to-air missile system, Buk-M1-2, was taken into service by the Russian Army in 1998 and has broad export prospects as well.

SU-30MK fighter aircraft equipped with an armament control system developed at the Institute is among the best fighters in the world today, as is evidenced by the growing backlog of orders from foreign governments. The InstituteТs many years of rewarding efforts in armament control systems have helped it to win a contract in a tender for armament control systems for fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

The Institute carries out all projects in close cooperation with the manufacturing plants†Ч the State Instrument Plant in Ryazan and the Mechanical Plant in Ulyanovsk.