Iran Aseman and Iran Airtour signed letters of intent Thursday with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) at Turkey’s Eurasia Airshow calling for deliveries of a customized version of the Superjet 100 version dubbed the RRJ95R from 2020 to 2022/2023. Each carrier wants 20 aircraft. The RRJ95R would contain markedly less foreign content while keeping the SSJ100’s Powerjet SaM.146 turbofans supplied by a partnership between France’s Safran and Russia’s NPO Saturn. The manufacturer expects both airlines to convert their LOIs to firm orders by the end of the year. 

“We intend to increase the share of Russian-made items by 10 to 15 percent,” SCAC chief executive Alexander Roubstov told journalists at the show. The RRJ95R would feature a different APU, inertial navigation system, interior, electrics, and hydraulics. Replacing those selected previously for the initial version of the Superjet 100 would not only decrease the aircraft unit cost, currently listed at $52 million at catalog prices, but also eliminate the need to obtain approval for Superjet sales to countries Washington considers pariah states. 

Roubtsov said that most of the new components would come from members of the government-controlled Rostec Corporation, a target of U.S. sanctions in accordance with the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by president Donald Trump last year. Rostec member company Technodinamika has agreed to supply 15 vendor items for the RRJ95R. SCAC has also asked KRET and other local suppliers to provide an avionics package similar to that developed for Irkut MC-21.

The Kremlin has long pushed Tehran to buy jetliners from United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), including the SSJ100 and Irkut MC-21. On the eve of the presidential elections in Iran, incumbent president Hasan Rouhani promised Russian president Vladimir Putin Iranian state-controlled airlines would order Superjets, a commitment reflected in a joint statement released after the two leaders met. For months, however, UAC and SCAC could not get U.S. approval for Superjet sales to Iranian airlines and now it has become apparent that one would not be forthcoming, prompting the Russians to offer a design carrying less than 10 percent U.S. content.