The crews of Su-24M front-line bombers of the Russian Southern Military District aviation regiment stationed in the Volgograd region destroyed surface targets in the Caspian Sea during tactical flight exercises. The pilots also improved take-off and landing on the illuminated strip at night, learned to act in case of failure of aircraft equipment and perform maneuvers to evade the attack of fighters of a mock enemy in the conditions of electronic suppression.
The coordinates of the targets of ships, submarines and other naval vessels of the mock enemy were scouted and transmitted to the crews of the front-line reconnaissance aircraft of the Su-24MR. The bomber crews carried out combat sorties using 120 kg of high-explosive fragmentation bombs. The bombing was carried out according to the coordinates of the targets, the average deviation of the bombs hit was 5 m with an acceptable 15 m.
The Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name: Fencer) is a supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft developed in the Soviet Union. The aircraft has a variable-sweep wing, twin-engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for its crew of two. It was the first of the USSR’s aircraft to carry an integrated digital navigation/attack system. Sukhoi Su-24M (NATO reporting name: Fencer-D) can be identified by the single nose probe in place of the three-part probe of earlier aircraft. Su-24M was manufactured in 1981–1993.
Su-24MR (NATO reporting name: Fencer-E) is a dedicated tactical reconnaissance variant. Su-24MR retains much of the Su-24M’s navigation suite, including the terrain-following radar, but deletes the Orion-A attack radar, the laser/TV system, and the cannon in favor of two panoramic camera installations, ‘Aist-M’ (Stork) TV camera, RDS-BO Shti’ (Bayonet) side-looking airborne radar (SLAR), and Zima (Winter) infrared reconnaissance system. Other sensors are carried in pod form. Manufactured 1983–1993.
