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Air to air refuelling: PAF gets third aircraft from Ukraine WASIM IQBAL ISLAMABAD (January 30, 2011) : Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has received third air to air refuelling aircraft from Ukraine, which is likely to reach here in the first week of February 2011, sources disclosed. PAF purchased a total of four IL-78P Midas tanker aircraft from Ukraine. The third aircraft is likely to arrive in the first week of February. These aircraft are equipped with Soviet-designed UPAZs pods and refuelling kits on Mirage-III Rose-I of South African origin. In the first phase, PAF announced that 30 Mirage-III Rose-I will...

One morning last July, a Russian-made military plane landed at an airport near this Lake Superior town. Nine men with foreign accents disembarked. Some went off to eat and shop. When they returned, a flock of federal agents and local police were waiting. Five men were taken to jail. The plane, an Ilyushin IL-78, had come from Texas, bound for Pakistan. "All of us were trying to figure out what they were picking up or smuggling," says Cheryl Hill, assistant prosecutor of Marquette County. Capt. David Lemire of the Marquette County Sheriff's Office says, "People to this day still ask,...

Russia has carried out a series of efficiency drills for Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers, an Air Force spokesman has said. Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said the flights were conducted in poor weather conditions over the Arctic from air bases in Engels in the Volga region and Ryazan located in central Russia. "During three-day exercises, Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers and Il-78 aerial tankers practiced various types of flight drills, including in-flight refueling," Ria Novosti quoted him as saying. Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans in August 2007, following an order from then-President Vladimir Putin,...

The number of strategic bombers performing routine patrols could be doubled if the Russian General Staff makes such a decision, the commander of Russia's strategic aviation said Tuesday. Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans, the Black Sea and along the borders of the Commonwealth of Independent States in August 2007, following an order from then-president Vladimir Putin. "As a rule, up to four strategic bombers perform patrol flights simultaneously. However, under specific circumstances and on orders from the General Staff, their number could be increased to up to eight aircraft," Maj. Gen. Anatoly...