The transfer of the fighters will be completed by the 2014 with first air superiority patrol expected by next December.
A move in some ways already announced and that comes in response to the growing activities of NATO in the Region.
What will come to the Crimea will probably be one of the latest versions of the Sukhoi fighter, with improved detection and engagement capabilities of multiple targets as well as enhanced maneuverability. We are talking about phenomenal interceptors, but known to Western forces.
Of course, if Putin were to decide one day to resurrect the "Terminator" project, NATO would be painful. The Su-37, an evolution of the already surprising Su-35, would have been a fighter with a unique propulsion system that would have given it unparalleled maneuverability. Just to give an example. The two motors, thanks to the mobile nozzles, would have acted independently along the pitch and yaw axis. it would have been the engines, that is their directionability, that allowed the aircraft to maneuver without using the fighter's moving surfaces.
In some ways, an evolution of the experimental technology used on the X-31 (the latter however only had one engine).
Although officially the project remains discarded with the conversion of two Su-35 brought to the "Terminator" level, Moscow has in its drawer a fighter with excellent performances. Should Putin decide to put his hand back to the project, further improving it with the technology developed with the PAK-FA, the American F-22 would have a rival from every point of view (except under the stealth profile).
In the strategic base of Belbek, 50 aircraft have already been deployed in the past, including MIG-29 from the Ukrainian Air Force.
By the 2014, the Russian air force in the Crimea will consist of forty all-time interceptor fighters.
The fleet in the Crimea, considering the boats and crews that have embraced the Russian "invasion", will be composed of fifty ships. Finally, the presence of two nuclear-powered Russian submarines was discounted.
Analyzing the Black Sea Fleet, we can say without the risk of being denied that the one deployed is a force created to counter US aircraft carriers.
It would be more correct to say that the Black Sea and Mediterranean Fleets are the first carrier killer naval forces.
Franco Iacch
