VKS Russian Aerospace Forces: News #2

Women to train as Russian air force pilots

http://www.enca.com/world/women-to-train-as-russian-air-force-pilots

franco wrote:

SeigSoloyvov wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:sputniknews.com/russia/201707231055799517-russia-aerospace-forces-new-aircraft/?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fzen.yandex.com

So the airforce is going to receive over 100 aircraft next year.  And the understanding for 2018-2025 is that the airforce is going to take precedence.  Meaning more emphasis on modernizing and expanding the airforce.

aircraft can mean drones etc. Anything that flys so don't assume Russia will suddenly get one hundred new figthers.

Always take statement like this with a grain of salt.

Sounds like over a hundred new aircraft including helicopters. Which is what we have seen for the past 6 years. To me just indicates present pace is maintained or even slowed a bit.

Depends of translator, but "aircraft" is any flying artifact capable to sail in the atmosphera , even a Zeppelin (airship)

"over 100 aircraft" can be 50 airplanes and 55 helicopters , and that also includes Il-76 Yak-130 and others not combat airplanes
Anyway , next years the new programs (Mig-35,Su-57) will raise the total number of combat airplanes received to 50 and later to 60, certainly not as many as in 2015.
However , until now new airplanes only replace other , later also will expand the size of airforces
The question is to maintain a reasonable and planned effort. It does not make sense to buy all airplanes in 6 or 7 years, and 20 or 25 years later to have to change all at once

Militarov wrote:

I belive this includes overhauled and modernised units too.

No, "aircraft" includes airplenes and helicoptres , and that is more of 100 every year
"Modernise" refers to get modern aircraft, no to refit old aircraft , that are already property of the airforce

New heli-pilot suit Vulkan:

franco wrote:No, "aircraft" includes airplenes and helicoptres , and that is more of 100 every year
"Modernise" refers to get modern aircraft, no to refit old aircraft , that are already property of the airforce

Actually it does mean to upgrade,rebuild or modernize old equipment. As in the Ministry of Defense reporting that they had received 300 new and 600 modernized weapon system and military equipment for the first 6 months of this year. The T-72B3 tank is a modernized weapon, not a new weapon. A BTR-82A is a new weapon system while the BTR-82AM is a modernized weapon system.

At least 115 Brand New "aircraft" to be hand over in 2017 :
http://charly015.blogspot.com.es/2017/08/las-entregas-previstas-para-2017.html

Airplanes: 65
10 Su-35S
16 Su-34
17 Su-30SM
3 T-50 prototypes (at least)
10 Yak-130
3 Yak-152
3 Antonov 148
3 Il-76MD-90A

Helicopters: 50
14 Ka-52
18 Mi-AMTSh (at least)
8 Mi-28UB
10 Ansat U

Including modernizations of Mig-31BM (18-20) , Su-25SM3 (16) , Su-27SM3 (4) , and several Il-38N , Il-76MDM , Il-78M , A-50U , etc... only the airplanes will be +100 handed over in 2017



http://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/4477415
VKS RF will receive more than 400 new and modernized airplanes and helicopters in 2017
(this number included Brand new , modernized and repaired airplanes and helicopters)

MOSCOW, August 11. / TASS /. Russia's aerospace forces have received more than 400 new and modernized airplanes and helicopters this year, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Federation Air Force, told in an interview to the website of Zvezda .
"The air and space forces are getting new and modernized equipment at the same pace as we reached in 2016. This year we received more than 100 airplanes and about 300 helicopters, and according to the new SPO [state arms program] the pace of deliveries of aircraft to the troops will continue, VCS will update its aviation fleet, "Bondarev said.
"We are pleased with the pace of renewal of the aviation fleet, which now exist," he added.
The Commander-in-Chief also assured that Russian pilots will have a rise in the raid and level of training.

In December 2016, Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu told the final board of the military department that last year the VKS received 139 modern aircraft

George1 wrote:New field airfield on the Kuril Islands

As the press service of the Eastern Military District reported on September 12, 2017, in one of the Kurile Islands the specialists of the airdrome units of the Air Force and Air Defense Unit of the Eastern Military District completed the equipment of a new field airfield.



https://bmpd.livejournal.com/2843133.html

The original source used by BMPD is the website of the Ministry of Defense.  http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12125552@egNews
As usual, the Russian Ministry of Defense does not make things much clearer and also, the photos that appear in the news of this web are of archive
The image shown is not from the Kuril Islands aerodrome, but rather from the works of Astrahkan last year


This other source more specific. This is a small aerodrome/helipad on the uninhabited island of Matua
https://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/78981
Here the satellite image:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.083333,153.216667&spn=0.1,0.1&t=k&q=48.083333,153.216667

On the Kuril Islands, Matua, the former Japanese airfield of the Second World War :
On the island of Matua, the former Japanese airfield of the Second World War is being restored.
The territory is cleared with the help of construction equipment, which the expedition of the Ministry of Defense brought specially for reconstruction from the mainland. There will be three helipads on the former parking lot of Japanese aircraft. The air harbor has already taken the first side.
One of the goals of the expedition of the Ministry of Defense is to restore the infrastructure of a remote and long uninhabited island.
Runways length of 1200 and 800 meters, the Japanese began to build in the 30 years of the last century. Then the planes landed on the compacts of soil from a mixture of crushed stone and bitumen, in the 40s they were poured with concrete and expanded to accept bombers torpedo bombers and fighters. Over time, the coating collapsed, overgrown with bushes. On the runway, thin concrete covered with cracks. There were four indoor hangar aircraft, special shelters from high earthen ramparts, which have survived to this day.
The airfield could be all-weather, according to one version of the island's researchers, in winter the runway was heated by thermal springs. However, so far it has not received its confirmation. Scientists from the Russian Geographical Society of Geysers on the Volcano Peak Sarycheva not found. Now the territory of the airfield is cleared with the help of construction equipment, which the expedition brought specially for its reconstruction from the mainland.
In the former parking lot of Japanese aircraft, three helipads are being equipped. According to Vitaly Kanevsky, the thickness of concrete is 12 centimeters, it is in a satisfactory condition, which allows to ensure the take-off and landing of helicopters such as Mi-8 and KA-27.



Matua (en.wikipedia):

After World War II the island came under the control of the Soviet Union, and Soviet Border Troops manned the former Japanese military facilities. With the withdrawal of Soviet military forces following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the island became uninhabited. The Russian Federation administers it as part of the Sakhalin Oblast. In 2016 some two hundred Russian officials and technical experts made an expedition to the island, part of a plan to rehabilitate the derelict 1.2 km Soviet airfield and establish a new naval and logistical forward military base[1]
[1]http://our-russia.com/27052016120927/russias-kuril-islands-naval-base-what-it-means-strategically

T-47 wrote:Finally an air force Fulcrum in Syria? @AMCXXL got any info?

Four MiG-29SMT sent to Syria
Probably Su-35 Nº50 to Nº53 will retrun before the year ends to the homebase of Besovets
They have to test all the material in the arsenal

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3409890
MiG-29SMT will be tested by Syria
Newest Russian fighters sent to the combat zone

As it became known to Kommersant, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation transferred four new MiG-29SMT fighters delivered to the agency of the same name by the corporation in December 2015 at the airbase of Khmeimim (Latakia). According to Kommersant, the cars were sent to the region in order to provide practice to the maximum number of pilots, and also to run the aircraft in combat conditions. The expert believes that the use of MiG-29SMT in Syria will allow the corporation MiG to support its export potential

The first information about the forthcoming transfer of MiGs from Russia to Syria appeared more than a year ago. In private conversations, several officers of the staff of the Air and Space Forces of the Russian Federation assumed that in the very near future several MiG fighters would appear in Khmeimim. Thus, the military expected to finish the "run-through" of the flight crew in conditions of actual military operations. However, due to the tense situation in Syria, which developed at that time, did not experiment with the newest machines, relying on the multi-functional Su-30SM and Su-35 fighter aircraft already proven in the campaign.

A year later the situation changed. Yesterday, the first confirmation of the presence of MiG-29SMT in Syria appeared. In the photo report of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, published on the official website within the press tour of Russian and foreign journalists in Syria, a photograph of this type of fighter appeared (board number 23 blue). According to Kommersant sources in the military authorities, this machine was transferred to Khmeimim last week from the 116th Training Center for Combat Training of the 185th Combat Training and Combat Training Center of the Russian Federation Air Force (Privolzhsky, Astrakhan). Together with it three similar MiG-29SMT arrived from there

According to the interlocutors of "Kommersant" close to the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, the transfer of the MiG-29SMT to Syria should solve several problems at once. First, the crews of these fighters should receive combat experience (in May, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared that 86% of the air force had received it in Syria). Secondly, even taking into account the running-in of aircraft during various exercises, the military wanted to see how the machine and its avionics will behave on the battlefield. So far, according to Kommersant's information, the crews of the MiG-29SMT are primarily carrying out reconnaissance missions, although they are sometimes connected to combat missions. It is known that at least one of the MiGs has already discharged high-explosive high-explosive aviation bombs OFAB-500Kr to the position of the Islamic state militants (it is forbidden in the Russian Federation). Subsequently, the test program for the MiG-29SMT will only expand: according to Kommersant's information, the military can also launch cruise missiles with laser homing X-29L

Director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Ruslan Pukhov believes that in addition to practical purposes (testing of the TTX and performance characteristics), the sending of the MiG-29SMT to Syria is pursued and purely commercial. "Successful actions of Russian equipment in Syria are its best advertising on the international market, so the participation of" mihovsky "machines in the operation will support the export potential of the corporation," the expert stresses.