[Photo] Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 Flanker heavily armed for Combat Air Patrol

First image of Su-27 Flanker fighter jet “armed to the teeth” to perform Combat Air Patrol following the Russian invasion of Crimea.

An interesting image, showing a fully armed Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 has been published on Russianplanes.net.

Taken, on Mar. 1 by Andrey Rakul, at an undisclosed location (possibly, Mirgorod Air Base, the airbase hosting the only Ukrainian Air Force Flanker Squadron), it shows Su-27 “45 Blue” armed with 6 Vympel R-27 missiles (NATO reporting name AA-10 Alamo-C) semi-active-radar homing extended-range air-to-air missiles and 4 Vympel R-73 (AA-11 Archer), a configuration adopted for Combat Air Patrols (CAPs) established by Kiev after the Russian invasion of Crimea.

Image credit: Andrey Rakul

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.