The future on-board aircraft group of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, officially completed its ground training period at the Novofedrorovka habilitation facility. The pilots have conducted more than 150 takeoffs and landings both on the Su-25UTG training platforms and on the Su-33 multi-role fighters. È as they communicate from the Northern Fleet.
This is the first time the training center has been used since updates related to regulatory and certification operations. The training center in Crimea has for years been the only one of its kind for pilots in the Northern Fleet. A new training center has been set up in Yeysk, in the Krasnodar Territory.
In the coming months, the Yeysk base, on the shore of the Azov Sea, will become the main enabling facility for Russian airborne groups. Meanwhile, there may be delays for the first patrol in the Mediterranean of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, scheduled initially between August and September. The date would have been postponed to late autumn. The current general conditions of the flight deck, which will be the subject of the modernization of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, continue to cause concern. One might even be inclined to postpone it. If so, the first patrol in the Mediterranean would slip to the 2020.
La Kuznetsov requires the rebuilding of the entire flight deck, with replacement of the covering and the take-off and landing system. These interventions, set for the beginning of the 2017, will last three years. The aircraft carrier is still at the 82 shipyard in Roslyakovo, in the Murmansk region. THE'Admiral Kuznetsov has undergone work on the electro-mechanical equipment and some components of the ship's transmission have been replaced.
The heavy missile aircraft carrier cruiser, uses the system Short Take Off But Arrested Recovery o STOBAR for take-off and landing of aircraft. Built at the Mykolaiv Sud Shipyard (now Ukraine) in the mid-'80 years, theAdmiral Kuznetsov it became fully operational only in the 1995, due to the drastic cuts in the Russian defense budget following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The ship, designed to hit large surface targets and protect sea routes from enemy attacks, is capable of carrying a maximum of 52 fixed and rotary wing aircraft. The boarded aircraft group includes Su-25 UTG, Su-33 (Flanker-D), MiG-29K / KUB and Ka-27 and Ka-29 helicopters.
(photo: MoD Russian Federation)
