The crews of eight Sukhoi Su-34 multirole fighter-bombers from Russia’s Central Military District practiced a flight training program in difficult weather conditions day and night, employing air-launched weapons in the Kurgan Region in the Urals. The flight crew of the mixed aviation regiment stationed in the Chelyabinsk region performed single flights in difficult weather conditions as part of the combat training course. The crews practiced piloting in the clouds using instruments in conditions of significant cloud cover, which reached 9 points, the sky was almost completely covered with dense clouds.
In addition, the pilots performed night flights. In the absence of visual marks the pilots drove, focusing on the indications of the artificial horizon to determine the angle of inclination of an aircraft variometer, reflecting the rate of altitude change. In total, 8 Su-34 fighter-bombers, 15 units of ground equipment and about 100 military personnel from the flight crew, flight management group, ground and technical support were involved in training flights.
In October, the composite aviation regiment of Russia’s Central Military District stationed in the Chelyabinsk Region completed its rearmament with Su-34 generation 4++ fighter-bombers. The last three planes were redeployed to the Chelyabinsk Region, thus setting up the second squadron of Su-34s. The flight and ground personnel who will operate and service Su-34 planes have been retrained for the new aircraft at the Lipetsk state aviation personnel training center and received all the necessary certificates.
The Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name: Fullback) is a Soviet-origin Russian twin-engine, twin-seat, all-weather supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber/strike aircraft. The Su-34 is designed primarily for tactical deployment against ground and naval targets on solo and group missions in daytime and at night, under favourable and adverse weather conditions and in a hostile environment with counter-fire and electronic Warfare (EW) counter-measures deployed, as well as for aerial reconnaissance.The Su-34 has an operating range of 4,000 km, can develop a maximum speed of 1,900 km/h and is capable of carrying a weapon payload of up to 8 tonnes. The Su-34 is half as noisy as earlier models.
