In Georgia in Soviet times there were some important enterprises "of national importance", which still have not lost their significance, allowing the country to apply for a small, but very prestigious position in the global industry of complex and high-tech products.
One of these companies is the Tbilisi aircraft plant (formerly known as the Giorgi Dimitrov Tbilisi plant № 31 ), which produced the famous SU-25. Many did not know that the combat aircraft, nicknamed the ‘flying tank’ and considered the best in its class, was built in Georgia. ‘Tbilaviastroy’ still remains one of the leaders among the Georgian industrial enterprises in terms of filling the state budget and the creation of high-paying jobs. As well as the quality of the engineering staff and the ability to put forward creative ideas for the modernization of production. The ‘Thirty-first’ could have switched to kitchenware production in the chaotic 1990s, but managed to resist and to maintain its capacity.
Recently it has become known that the management of the plant (the company is still owned by the state, although there have been attempts at privatization) has decided to modernize the ‘flying tank’ and produce at its base a multipurpose aircraft, the Ge-31 ‘Bora’. The fuselage and wings for the new Ge-31 will be manufactured in Georgia. As for electronics and navigation systems, they will be bought in the West, as well as jet engines and catapults. In particular, we are talking about the procurement of components in France, Italy and the UK. If necessary, all this will be adjusted to match the standards of ’Su’ on site. It is emphasized that the new aircraft will fully comply with NATO standards.
The chief editor of the independent military-analytical magazine Arsenal, Irakli Aladashvili, told Vestnik Kavkaza that completing the transition to Western parts was not caused by the Georgian side, "the plant had simply no other way out after approximately 2008, when Moscow imposed a total ban on exports of any products to Georgia of a military or dual use." According to Aladashvili, the ban on cooperation between Russian enterprises and the Tbilisi plant existed before: "Ever since 1992, when the war started in Abkhazia, Moscow had limited the partnership."
Apparently, the ban imposed by the administration of President Yeltsin was due to the fact that Tbilisi had used the SU-25 during fighting in Abkhazia. But the embargo imposed in 1992 was not complete and comprehensive.
The program of further modernization of the SU began in 1999-2000. The new modification was called SU-25 KM – ‘Scorpion’. It used Israeli electronics of the Elbit-Systems company. It was advanced equipment compared with the Soviet counterparts which were being used before. It has reduced the weight of the aircraft so that the engineers have been forced to lay ballast in the nose of the plane to balance the weight, and ensure that in the technical slang called ‘centering’. Several SU, which are now in the Georgian army, were upgraded by the same principle. They are called ‘Mimino’.
Director General of ‘Tbilaviastroya’ Nodar Beridze said that a new attack aircraft ‘Bora’ will use exclusively parts produced in the West or Israel. A lot of ‘Scorpio’ and ‘Mimino’, but not everything was of Western and Israeli production.
According to Irakli Aladashvili, the SU-25, which took off for the first time in 1975, is still very popular in the global arms market. It is widely used in the Middle East. So Georgian producers have a guarantee of market access. Especially since ‘Bora’ is a completely new aircraft, although on the basis of the SU. But its function remains the same – it is an attack aircraft.
