Translated material
Aerobatics
Dmitry Medvedev confirmed the continuity of the flight course
Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday continued the tradition of top officials of the state flying on combat aircraft, started by Vladimir Putin. In October 1999, while still prime minister, Mr. Putin flew for ten minutes on a Su-25UB attack aircraft, and in March 2000 (already acting president) he flew from Krasnodar to Grozny on a Su-27UB fighter, while flying the plane for eight minutes. Finally, in 2005, President Putin flew on a Tu-160 strategic bomber for five hours - here he occupied the command chair.Unlike his predecessor, Dmitry Medvedev chose the latest front-line bomber, the Su-34, and spent a full half hour in the sky on it. Before this, he underwent pre-flight briefing and medical examination. This is the requirement of one of the main aviation documents - the Flight Operations Manual. It all happened at the Kubinka Russian Air Force airbase near Moscow. After the flight, dedicated pilot Dmitry Medvedev said that he had “very strong” impressions: “The sensations are fantastic. They cannot be expressed in words. The machine is excellent, very obedient, powerful.”
The plane was flown by the head of the combat training department of the Flight Retraining Center, Yuri Gritsaenko, under whose command the Supreme Commander-in-Chief found himself. “There are no bosses in the sky” - this is one of the immutable laws of flight. The President played the role, as they say in aviation, of the right pilot. On the Su-34, the seats are actually located side by side, unlike most fighters - tandem-type twins. During the half-hour flight, the “crew” demonstrated imitation of attack elements and simple aerobatic maneuvers. “We did the barrel roll twice. This is a different story, a very pleasant feeling,” said co-pilot Medvedev. And he admitted that the flight turned out to be somewhat easier for him than he had expected.
The head of state began by inspecting samples of weapons and military equipment for air defense. Air Force Commander Alexander Zelin and his deputy for armaments Oleg Barmin showed, in particular, the new Pantsir-S short-range anti-aircraft missile and gun system, the S-300 PMU Favorit and S-400 Triumph multi-channel anti-aircraft missile systems. Then the head of state was shown long-range aviation aircraft - the Il-78M tanker, the Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers, the heavy military transport An-124-100 "Ruslan" and the An-22, which had a tank in its cargo compartment.
The President was also presented with the A-50-U radar patrol and guidance aircraft, the Yak-130 and Mig-29UB combat trainers, the Mig-29SMT and Su-27SM fighters, the Su-25SM attack aircraft, the modernized MiG-31BM fighter-interceptor and the Su front-line bomber -24M. Dmitry Medvedev visited the cargo compartment and cockpit of the Mi-26 transport helicopter, sat at the helm of the ANSAT training helicopter, and examined the Ka-50 Black Shark and Ka-52, Mi-8, Mi-28 and Mi-24 combat helicopters. The whole thing took about three hours.
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief admonished the military pilots: “We need to fly more and on modern machines. We need to reach a new level in this sense.” Today, the average flight time of air force fighters is 60-65 hours. If we look at the data from the Soviet period, we need at least twice as much. For obvious reasons, the flight hours of long-range and military transport aviation pilots are significantly higher than those of fighter aircraft.
The President recalled that Russia “has a glorious history in terms of aviation, and one cannot lose what has already been gained,” and that both money and intellectual resources need to be invested in the development of aviation. Dmitry Medvedev promised, following his visit to the air base, to meet with the Minister of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force - both were next to him at that moment.
As at the recent expanded board of the military department, Dmitry Medvedev again strongly recommended moving from repairing old aircraft to purchasing new ones. “Despite the difficult 90s, the main thing is that we still have a foundation and people who want to serve their country,” he said. “We still have a lot to do. Of course, it is important to change the aircraft fleet. Using the saved resources, we “This year we will be able to purchase an additional 24 vehicles.”
The airbase pilots thanked the president for his attention to their problems and invited them to a new flight on the Mi-28 “Night Hunter” helicopter, promising even more vivid impressions. The President, in turn, expressed hope that the provisions of the so-called “four hundredth” order of the Minister of Defense, which increases the pay of military personnel who win a professional competition several times, will apply to all officers.
What did the president fly on?
The Su-34 is a universal aircraft, has high maneuverability and speed, and can carry a large combat load. Created on the basis of the Su-27, it has a two-seater cabin, the crew's workplaces are located nearby. The flight range is 4,500 kilometers, the flight altitude is up to 17 thousand meters. It is armed with a 30-mm built-in cannon, and 12 external hardpoints can accommodate up to 8 tons of various weapons. The complex of high-precision strike weapons ensures the destruction of ground and surface targets at a range of up to 250 km, it also includes Kh-59M tactical cruise missiles with television command guidance, air-to-surface and air-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, aircraft bombs.