Russian Air Force News & Discussion

colay said:
More what the Russians consider a "hypersonic vehicle" is.. possibly something similar to US efforts to develop hypersonic LRS systems.,A,MaRV? Or just a dumb warhead..
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I don't know. All the info I have says that it was a hypersonic warhead tested on the UR-100NUTTH missile. There is a separate project for a hypersonic cruise missile, probably a successor to the Soviet OKR Holod, under OKR Tsirkon.

EDIT: More confirmation, there will be a Russian airbase in Belarus, featuring the Su-27SM3 currently deployed at Krymsk. In Belarus they will be at Lida, Grodno Region. Interestingly enough official sources state that they will deploy a whole regiment. But there are only 12 Su-27SM3s in existence. So either the regiment will include something else, or we will see more Su-27SM3s (either upgraded out of vintage Su-27s or built from scratch).

u_96:

EDIT2: An new ELINT/EW complex called Moskva-1 was just delivered. Essentially we're talking about a modern equivalent to the Soviet-era Avtobaza. It's designed to pick up the frequencies on which hostile radars are operating, and then generate electronic counter-measures based on those frequencies. It has a datalink that allows it to communicate with SAMs and aircraft.

http://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/44869/

And a NITs PVO near Tver has resumed work on radar-absorption materials. I don't know if this is connected to UAV research, or the PAK-DA program, or just general NIR work. Previously it was used to test the LO features of the PAK-FA. Now they're rebuilding (and presumably upgrading) a Soviet-era testing facility that was originally used to test the Tu-160 and Su-27.

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Feanor said:
No. The Su-30MK went down two development paths. The Su-30MKI which became in Russian service the Su-30SM. It has TVC and canards. It has the advanced PESA radar, the Indian on-board computer, and is the most advanced variant of the Su-30. Then there was the Su-30MK2 which became the Su-30MKK when upgraded further. It has no canards and no TVC. It has an older radar and iirc a Russian mission computer. It's cheaper, and less capable, but still provides a decent 4th gen. heavy multi-role.
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Thank you for your explanation Feanor!
 
Before that contract was signed a handful of Fullbacks had already been built for the VVS. There should be 37 of them in service right now. Possibly older pre-production aircraft could also still be used.
Anyway it's good to see that finally new equipment is being bought to replace all the outdated Soviet-era aircraft.
 
Klaus said:
Before that contract was signed a handful of Fullbacks had already been built for the VVS. There should be 37 of them in service right now. Possibly older pre-production aircraft could also still be used.
Anyway it's good to see that finally new equipment is being bought to replace all the outdated Soviet-era aircraft.
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If I'm correct, there should be 38 in service, including one pre-serial model used for training at Baltimore. The 32 plane contract is complete, and 5 planes predate that contract. All the new ones will now be under the 92 airframe contract.

Meanwhile the first Su-30SM and Su-35S squadrons have begun forming. The Su-30SM are arriving at Domna airbase, where they will be replacing the MiG-29s.
 
What are they going to do with the Fulcrums from Domna? And weren't the Su-30SMs intended as trainers? Or they're actually creating full combat squadrons with them?
 
alexkvaskov said:
What are they going to do with the Fulcrums from Domna? And weren't the Su-30SMs intended as trainers? Or they're actually creating full combat squadrons with them?
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Full combat squadrons. The Fulcrums are probably being retired. They're not in great shape.

Meanwhile some info. The unit at Morozovsks that receiving the new Su-34s is the 559th Bomber Regiment of the 1st Mixed Guards Air Division 4th VVS and PVO Command, formerly 2nd Air Group of the 6972nd Airbase. It looks like this isn't an actual reform, but merely a renaming. The Air Groups are becoming air regiments, the bases - air divisions.

bmpd -

Also new unit formation has reached the VVS and PVO, as well as army aviation. A 20th Air-Space Defense Bde has been formed, in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy (the Kamchatka peninsula). And there is now a 15 Army Aviation Bde. near Pskov.

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Did they just merge existing units into new ones or are these completely new brigades? I've read some articles that Russia's armed forces are lacking personnel and thus trying to hire more soldiers. According to a statement by Shoigu some weeks ago there are just 820.000 soldiers right now.

As far as I know the Su-30M2 is the destined trainer version, while the Su-30SM is a multi-role combat aircraft.
 
Klaus said:
Did they just merge existing units into new ones or are these completely new brigades? I've read some articles that Russia's armed forces are lacking personnel and thus trying to hire more soldiers. According to a statement by Shoigu some weeks ago there are just 820.000 soldiers right now.

As far as I know the Su-30M2 is the destined trainer version, while the Su-30SM is a multi-role combat aircraft.
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They've hired tens of thousands of contract soldiers over the last year. As it stands, there is no actual shortage. These brigades appear to be new. The air regiments and air divisions are renamings of existing units.

Meanwhile the An-124 project looked dead, but isn't. An agreement was just signed between Russia and Ukraine has been signed for resumption of production.

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It was said that units have manning shortages, but that's not actually true I suppose, otherwise how would the unit function? The shortage really means a smaller number of fully staffed units than they want/need.

Ruslan upgrades seem to be going along quite briskly, but do they really need additional units? They sure can get things done quickly when they need to, witness the never ending saga with the An-70 which has become solely a political bargaining chip.
 
alexkvaskov said:
It was said that units have manning shortages, but that's not actually true I suppose, otherwise how would the unit function? The shortage really means a smaller number of fully staffed units than they want/need.

Ruslan upgrades seem to be going along quite briskly, but do they really need additional units? They sure can get things done quickly when they need to, witness the never ending saga with the An-70 which has become solely a political bargaining chip.
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The MoD doesn't need additional units, just like it doesn't need new Il-76s. They want to upgrade and refurbish the existing fleet. However the Il-106 project is dead, and there is no personnel to design truly next-gen transports in the heavy and super-heavy niches. They're struggling with light and medium transport projects. So to provide the industry with support and orders, the government is forcing the MoD to buy these planes.

As for the An-70, it looks deader then ever. Work to prepare production facilities in Kazan has halted, and the factory has basically refused to pay for the work already performed. There is a court case right now.

Meanwhile, there is a Pantsyr upgrade to improve performance against very small targets (UAVs), and highly maneuverable targets. There must also be some issues with performance at extremely low temperatures, since work is being done to improve that also.

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http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20131218/984849963.html

EDIT: Some updates. As of right now, this year, the VVS has received 12 Su-35S, for a total of 22 planes. They're going to the Dzemga airbase in the Far East MD, near the Chinese border.

http://lenta.ru/news/2013/12/25/su35/

The second An-140-100 for the AVMF has been handed over. A total of 6 have been produced for the MoD, 3 this year.

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/699501.html

Also delivered this year were 17 Ka-52s and 53 Mi-8AMTSh.

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/700413.html
http://lenta.ru/news/2013/12/25/mi8amtsh/
http://bmpd.livejournal.com/700550.html

Finally Domna has received 10 Su-30SMs, and are currently in the process of re-arming.

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/700141.html

Overall this year it looks like there will be 68 tactical airplanes delivered to the VVS.
 
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Two S-400 regiments handed over.

http://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/45403/

Unclear as to where they will be deployed. Two regiments is 16 TELs? Hopefully they're keeping up with Pantsir production for the high level assets. I'm curious about the entire S-400/Pantsir coupling. Was this something the Soviets practiced, indivdual SHORADS for more important strategic assets or is this a recent innovation? Also how many Pantsir's are they deploying per S-400 battalion?
 
10 Pantsyrs are being deployed per S-400 regiment, so theoretically this would make for 5 per btln. However Pantsyrs operate in pairs, so I'm not sure what the practical deployment looks like. The concept of companion SHORADs did exist in the USSR, but I'm not sure how widely it was practiced. Actually the current deployment of Pantsyrs is a Soviet innovation. I'm not sure they're parallel to S-400 deployments. At least in one instance a S-300 unit had Pantsyrs attached to it.

EDIT: I recall questions about the 15th Army Aviation Brigade. All the helicopters in it are new. It will have 3 squadrons, one on Mi-8MTV-5, one on Mi-35M and Mi-28N, and one on Ka-52s. Photos, and some info here: http://bmpd.livejournal.com/701431.html
 
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I'm not sure whether there's a standard size for helicopter squadrons. Most have 12 machines, but there are also some with 16.
 
Navor86 said:
About how many helicopters are in each Army Aviation brigade and how many per Squadron?
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Well so far the 15th Bde is the only one, so it's hard to say how many the other will have. 3 might be a good ballpark estimate, making those brigades slightly larger then helo regiments were. Helicopter squadron size seems to vary but most are 12.
 
alexkvaskov said:
What's the pod on the centre line pilon on this Fulcrum?

http://russianplanes.net/images/to128000/127304.jpg
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That sir, is a Buddy-buddy refueler, it has a hose in the rear.

Can't remember the exact designation, but you should find it easily by Google.

If you look at the overall configuration, its over 200% fuel With all those wet bags.
So this a a typical configuration for a "tanker" mission.
 
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In the new AIR International Piotr Butowski sums up the conclusions of a press conference held by A. Zelin in 2013. He now works as an advisor for the MoD and outlined planned aircraft acquisitions. Most of that had been anounced before, but some statements were quite interesting:
1) No final design for the PAK DA (which has been given the code name Poslannik)
has been aproved yet. Still the VVS wants to have the bomber in service by 2025.
2) Another bomber called M.A.R.K. is being developed, its concept has been
aproved by the ministry. No detail on the aircraft was given, but in Soviet times,
there was a project with the same designation for a ICBM carrier based on a
transport aircraft.
3) Production of neither the An-70 nor the MTA has been authorised yet.
4) No decision on a future attack aircraft has been made. The MoD is considering
an upgraded version of the Su-25 as well as a lightweight MRCA featuring
stealth technology.
5) Both the Il-22 and the Il-80 will be upgraded to remain in service for a long time
to come. The Su-34, Mi-28N and Ka-52 will also receive upgrades within the
next decade.
 
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