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A Defense Ministry spokesman said Saturday that two Tu-95 MS long-range strategic bombers successfully test-fired cruise missiles during a 12-hour flight. During the tactical exercise on Friday, the missiles "accurately hit all the targets at the Pemboi testing site in the (Russian) republic of Komi," said Vladimir Drik as quoted by the Interfax news agency. A MiG-31 interceptor jet and a Beriev A-50 Shmel airborne early warning aircraft also participated in the exercise, he said. The two bombers landed at the Ukrainka airfield in Russia's fareastern Amur region. The Tu-95 strategic bomber, which made its debut in 1952, is a...

The Russian Defense Ministry will buy the first 10 fifth-generation fighters between 2013 and 2015 and then another 60 after 2016, a senior military official said on Monday. Deputy Defense Minister for Arms Procurements Vladimir Popovkin said the first fighters will be purchased in 2013, while in 2015 the Air Force will start test flying them. He did not explain what will happen between 2013 and 2015. "We will start purchasing this fighter in series in 2016 and a total of 60 fighters will be bought under the state [arms procurement] program," Popovkin said. Air Force chief Col. Gen. Alexander...

The Russian air defense system is designed so that it responds to all aircraft approaching the state's airspace, a high ranking Defense Ministry source has said. "That is perhaps its basic difference from the American system," the source said commenting on recent remarks by a senior U.S. military official. Adm. James A. Winnefeld, Jr., head of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said in an interview Russia continued "to fly strategic nuclear bombers near U.S. and Canadian airspace because the Russian military is seeking to maintain the illusion of power." He said jet interceptors are not ordered to...

The Russian Air Force will receive more than 60 fifth-generation fighters from 2015-16, the force commander said on Tuesday. "The Air Force will start taking delivery [of fifth-generation fighters] in 2015-16. The preliminary number is over 60," Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said. He also said the first batch of new fighters would be provided with older, "non-fifth" generation engines. In mid-June Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin observed the 16th test flight of a prototype fighter. Deputy Defense Minister for Arms Procurement Vladimir Popovkin said the Defense Ministry would purchase the first 6 to 10 aircraft after 2012, based on the...

The inter-theater redeployment of aircraft during Vostok-2010 was one of the key events of the strategic war games, which end today. The Su-24 Fencer and Su-34 Fullback tactical bombers used midair refueling to fly to the Russian Far East. In-flight refueling, routinely used by the world's leading powers, including the United States and NATO countries, allows for the quick build-up of air power in a given zone of conflict. To efficiently implement that maneuver, a country should have a sufficient number of flying tankers, combat aircraft equipped for midair refueling, transport planes to carry auxiliary personnel and cargo, and crews...

The Rs-24 Yars missile system has been put on combat duty, a high-ranking official in the space and rocket industry told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. The chief designer of the Moscow Heat Engineering Institute, which created the system, said earlier that one of the RS-24 systems had already been delivered to the Strategic Rocket Forces and put on combat duty. Institute Director Yuri Solomonov said, “All journalists are writing about Bulava, but are saying little about the new mobile missile system RS-24 Yars with multiple warheads that we created at the same time.” The Strategic Rocket Forces intended to deploy the...

a high-profile visit to view what is Russia’s first “low-observable” aircraft, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin watched the prototype Sukhoi T-50 being put through its paces at the Zhukovsky flight test research center near Moscow and got a tour of the new aircraft’s cockpit June 17. The T-50 is being developed to meet the Russian air force’s PAK FA requirement for a multirole fighter to replace the Su-27 Flanker. It has logged about 16 flights, say U.S. officials, first flying Jan. 29. (AW&ST Feb. 8, p. 30). The initial stage of state testing of the aircraft is presently due for completion...

Two Russian Tu-160 heavy bombers recently completed a record 23 hour long, 18,000 kilometer flight around the periphery of Russia. This required two in-flight refuelings from Il-78 tankers. This feat was nothing new. Last year, a Tu-160 completed a 21 hour flight. Although designed as a heavy bomber, the Tu-160 has largely been used, in the last few years, as a long range reconnaissance aircraft. But even in that role, the Tu-160 can carry cruise missiles and other air-to-ground weapons. Two years ago, Russia received its first new Tu-160 heavy bomber since the early 1990s. Production had been revived four...

The Russian Defense Ministry will auction part of the Moscow Region Kubinka military aerodrome in July for 212 million rubles ($8.6 million), a statement published on the ministry's website said. A runway divides the aerodrome into two parts. One side contains an aircraft display center and the other side is being cleared ahead of the auction, a source from the defense ministry told Kommersant business daily. The source said the decision was made around a year ago and that the runway will still be used by both private investors and servInvestment group Nafta Moskva, which owns Russia's luxurious Rublyovka real...

may start receiving its first An-70 military transport planes as early as in 2012, the defense minister said on Thursday. "We hope to start receiving the tested aircraft by 2012. We need this plane and the Russian Defense Ministry plans to buy it," Anatoly Serdyukov said during his visit to the Black Sea Fleet's base in Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. The An-70 is a medium-range turboprop military transport plane developed by Ukraine's Antonov design bureau. The Antonov company first tested a flying prototype of the An-70 in 1994, but a lack of Ukrainian state funds, and political disputes between...

A wing of latest Russian Sukhoi-34 fighter bombers has successfully accomplished a non-stop 6-thousand-kilometre test flight from the region of Lipetsk south of Moscow to the region of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East. The Sukhoi-34’s predecessor in the niche, the Sukhoi-24, cannot fly further than 3 thousand kilometres. The Sukhoi-34 is a two-seater with a length of 22 metres and a wingspan of 14.7 metres. The maximum speed is 19 hundred kilometres an hour.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin climbed into the cockpit of Russia's newest fighter jet on Thursday and said it would trump a U.S.-built rival, the F-22 Raptor. Putin watched a test flight of a "fifth-generation" stealth fighter, dubbed the T-50 and billed as Russia's first all-new warplane since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. "This machine will be superior to our main competitor, the F-22, in terms of maneuverability, weaponry and range," Putin told the pilot after the flight, according to an account on the government website. Putin said the plane would cost up to three times less than...

Operating, maintaining and flying Sukhoi fighter aircraft is a Malaysia-India-Russia 'love story', says a senior Malaysian air force official.Though a three-year trilateral arrangement nears its end, Russian and Indian officials are committed to reinforcing Malaysia's air defence and combat capability as far as the Sukhoi Su 30 MKM Flanker squadron is concerned. The assurance came from Russia's warranty team leader Vladimir Konnov, from aircraft manufacturer Irkut Corporation, and Indian Air Force's (IAF) chief flight instructor Group Captain K.V.R. Raju. Konnov stressed the need for the arrangement to continue in some form. Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) 11th Squadron commanding officer...

Three years after the first foreign customer (Syria) received the Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft systems, the Russian Air Force is getting some. The Russian Air Force recently received the S1E version, with an improved radar (36 kilometer range) and missile (more reliable). Curiously, the air force is using their first ten Pantsir-S1s to guard S-300 anti-aircraft missile bases located around Moscow. There was no explanation from the Russians as to why they felt a mobile, low level anti-aircraft system was needed to guard a larger, high altitude one. Perhaps additional protection against cruise missiles. The Russians aren't saying. These ten vehicles were...

The Russian air force took delivery of the first Pantsyr-S short-range air-defense systems in March. The Pantsyrs will gradually replace the old Tunguska antiaircraft weapons. The first 10 systems were released from KBP Instrument Design Bureau’s assembly site in Tula and transported to Alabino, near Moscow, and will be part of the Victory Day parade in Red Square on May 9. What’s unusual is that the first Pantsyr systems are being deployed to protect high-end surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) against aircraft, missiles and bombs. The Pantsyr battery will be deployed to the 606th air-defense regiment in Elektrostal, near Moscow, says Lt....

The S-400 started its way in 1999 as the S-300PMU3, developed by Almaz Science and Production Association. Russian defense officials claimed in 2006 the missile has been inducted in late 2006 and was due to become operational later in 2007. Suffering from teething problems, this milestone has been delayed three years, allowing designers to work on the 'baseline system', awaiting the completion of the full capability version, by early 2010. Russia plans to buy up to 200 launchers (each with four missiles) by 2015, and phase out the older S-300 and S-200 systems. This would mean deploying at least 18...

Officials here said the Russian Defense Ministry has been overseeing development of a new fighter-jet for the Air Force. They said the platform marked a fifth-generation combat aircraft titled T-50 and designed for long-range attack missions. "Flight tests of the fifth-generation fighter are continuing successfully," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. In a statement on April 20, Putin expressed satisfaction with flight-tests of the T-50. The fighter-jet completed its maiden flight, which lasted 47 minutes, in January 2010. The T-50 has been developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in a project launched in 2002. In mid-2009, officials said, the Defense...

The plane, developed by Sukhoi, is intended to match the American F-22 Raptor, and the manufacturers say it boasts a number of unique capabilities. It is equipped with a largely new set of avionics that integrates an "electronic pilot" function, reducing the pressure on the pilot and allows him to concentrate on tactical tasks, the company said in a press release. The plane's on-board equipment enables it to conduct data exchange in real time both with ground control and the airborne colleagues. The use of compound materials and innovative technologies, the aerodynamic composition of the plane and measures to lower...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today said he was satisfied with the tests of Russian fifth-generation fighter jets. ''Flight tests of the fifth-generation fighter are continuing successfully," Putin said in his annual address to the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament. Under the Russian Constitution, the government is obliged to deliver annual reports to the State Duma. ''Once again I want to thank everyone who worked on this machine, as well as those who are now putting it in the air,'' Putin said. The first Russian fifth-generation fighter jet was delivered to Zhukovsky in the Moscow region for...

-- Russia is increasingly flexing its military muscles by penetrating Western airspace. European defense officials have been worried about an increasing number of Russian bombers entering Western airspace. A pair of Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack bombers -- the largest jet-powered combat aircraft ever built, capable of carrying nuclear missiles -- last month entered British airspace over Northern Scotland, Deutsche Welle reports. Two Tornado fighter jets from the British air force intercepted the supersonic bombers, accompanying them for four hours until they left British airspace. Similar incidents have occurred in recent years; London has said Russian planes have penetrated British airspace more...