Airforces Monthly - February 2017

WZL-2 MRO FACILITY
shop in Poland, built to support the F-16
as part of the offset package Lockheed
Martin provided to Polish industry after
the April 2003 contract for the type.
Fitter life extension
The SPRP Su-22 fleet is half-way through a
comprehensive WZL-2 service life extension
programme to facilitate another decade of
service with 21 Baza Lotnictwa Taktycznego
(BLT; Tactical Air Base) at Świdwin.
Of the current fleet of 26 singleseat
Su-22M4 Fitter-Ks and six two-seat
Su-22UM3K Fitter-Gs, the programme
covers 12 Su-22M4s and all of the twinseaters.
Only the single-seat examples
in the best technical condition have been
selected. The remainder will be grounded
by early 2017, becoming spares donors.
Kowalczewski says the Su-22’s structure is
very strong and there are no corrosion or
fatigue problems. Most issues are found
in the undercarriage assemblies, which
WZL-2 is well equipped to deal with.
Maintaining the Fitters’ dated avionics
presents a challenge, so, faced with
replacing electronic parts no longer
in production, WZL-2 designs or buys
alternatives. Meanwhile, the WZL-4
engine maintenance plant in Warsaw
overhauls the Su-22’s AL-21F-3 turbojets.
The life extension project gives each Fitter
Above: This Su-22M4 — among the last of the type
cycled through the life extension programme —
is being disassembled in WZL-2’s oldest building,
which dates to the 1930s.
Right: WZL-2 is the PGZ’s Polish military unmanned
aircraft servicing specialist, working on types
including the E310 — a low-to-medium-altitude
short-range UAV originally produced by Polish
companies Eurotech and PIT-Radwar.
Below: The cockpit of an upgraded Su-22M4,
equipped with a second comms radio and a new
panel for the original R-862 VHF/UHF radio plus
cockpit flight and navigation instruments calibrated
in Imperial.
an additional 1,200 landings, plus 800 flight
hours or ten years’ service, whichever occurs
first. Total flight time for the airframe
and systems is extended to 3,200 hours,
and total landings to 4,200 for the singleseaters
and 5,200 for the two-seaters. These
clock up considerably with touch-and-go
exercises during pilot conversion training.
The original Su-22M4 life limits set out
by Sukhoi OKB in the 1980s were 20
years or 2,000 flight hours, with options
for extension after examination of the
technical condition of individual airframes.
From 2005, when the 20-year lives of
most of the Su-22 fleet expired, the SPRP
initially worked with WZL-2 and the Instytut
Techniczny Wojsk Lotniczych (ITWL; Polish
Air Force Institute of Technology) to extend
26 Su-22M4s to 30 years/3,000 hours and
3,000 landings, and the six Su-22UM3Ks to
30 years/3,000 hours and 4,000 landings.
These aircraft received a limited avionics
upgrade during the early 2000s, including a
Trimble 2101AP civilian-standard GPS receiver,
Bendix King KLU-709 TACAN, Rockwell Collins
ANV-241MMR VOR/ILS receiver, ATM-QAR/S-54
quick-access flight data recorder, a new control
panel for the single R-862 communications
radio and new anti-collision lights.
New Su-22 upgrade
The latest Fitter upgrade and life extension
was formally launched at WZL-2 in
February 2015, the first reworked jets being
delivered back to the SPRP seven months
later. They received new camouflage,
with two shades of grey on the upper
fuselage and wings, and the lower fuselage
and wing undersides in a lighter grey.
By October 2016, nine Su-22s had
been redelivered. The remainder are
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