Russian Carrier Flight Ops

[82Whitey51]

https://www.rt.com/news/367124-russia-syria-aircraft-carrier/

 

Edited November 17, 2016 by 82Whitey51

[Crazy Snap Captain]

Awesome footage. Thanks for posting.

[beingthehero]

Got me pumped to get around to building Zvezda's Su-33. I'm still thinking about doing a "dry run" with their old rebox of the Italeri kit, though.

[phantom]

Great link!

[EagleAviation]

great material! 

[habu2]

Around the 2:50 mark you can see a tug pushing a jet into a parking spot. What is interesting (to me anyway) is that the tow bar is attached to the stbd main gear, not the nose gear. I've never seen that before.

[Meatwad]

I'm an ex carrier sailor (USN) and naval intel analyst who specialized in USSR/Warsaw Pact forces. From an academic standpoint, I'm fascinated by the Russian Navy's resurgence and it's ability to project airpower ashore. I'm wondering about the distinct lack of a medium or heavy strike aircraft but that may just be me showing my age and I need to remember that our carrier air wings are all F-18's now. Be cool to see some Su-25's or 34's aboard. Obviously, and despite RT's very pro-Russian spin, they've got a long way to go, but this is more capability than anything we saw from them in the late 80's / early 90's. The bombs on the centerline of the Sukhoi—said they were high-precision. Looked like dumb bombs to me though?

[Berkut]

Yes, they are good old dumb bombs, nothing smart about them. RT is BS'ing as usual. Those Su-33's did get updated mission computers (Gefest, Su-24M's in Syria use them too) which have much greater dumb bomb precision than the older ones though. But still, dumb bombs.

[Stealthman]

Does anyone know exactly how many Migs are embarked? Is it just the 4 now 3? I was under the impression that the point of this deployment was for Kuznetsov to demonstrate a new ability to launch strikes against ground targets with the Migs? 

[Flankerman]

It seems that the Su-33's are now ashore at Humaymim Airbase - pending the repair of Kuznetsov;s arrester gear,

 

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?136371-Russia-moving-tac-air-troops-to-Syria/page166

 

Scroll down to post #4972.

 

Ken

[Berkut]

13 hours ago, Stealthman said:

Does anyone know exactly how many Migs are embarked? Is it just the 4 now 3? I was under the impression that the point of this deployment was for Kuznetsov to demonstrate a new ability to launch strikes against ground targets with the Migs? 

Yes. 2 KR's 2 KUBR's. Well, now 1 KR.

[Stealthman]

4 hours ago, Berkut said:

Yes. 2 KR's 2 KUBR's. Well, now 1 KR.

Thanks, that is really surprising, this cruise sounds more like an experiment than an operational deployment! They certainly arn't going to be dropping much with only 3 planes unless they've  managed to configure the SUs with ground attack weaponry . 

 

[Berkut]

Su-33's are able to do ground attack - just with a much more limited weapon selection than MiG-29KR/KUBR's. But that doesnt matter much really as Russians prefer to use dumb bombs over Syria over for most part, which both planes are able to deploy.

[Meatwad]

So they do have Migs aboard? I was under the impression that they had abandoned the idea of a mixed airwing and would be going strictly with Sukhois now.

 

I agree that this deployment is more of a "proof of concept" - that the Russians can actually operate in a real world combat environment" than it is a meaningful application of force. In their defence, you have to start somewhere.