Watch Russian Air Force Su-34s drop bombs on a huge ice-jam during unusual air strike in Russia

April 20, 2016 Military Aviation, Russia, Troubled Areas
David Cenciotti

Attack aircraft used for a very unusual mission.

After taking part in the air war over Syria, Russian Air Force Su-34s have been involved in a domestic and rather unusual attack mission in mainland Russia.

In fact, on Apr. 18, two Fullbacks were deployed to drop bombs on thick ice that created a natural dam along the Sukhona River, in the Vologda region, putting over 4,500 people in danger.

According to RT, two Su-34 jets took off from the Voronezh region in southwestern Russian and dropped precision-guided explosives onto the frozen parts of the river in order to allow natural water flow to resume.

The warplanes were ordered to deploy explosives “every hour,” said the head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Vladimir Puchkov.

H/T Emiliano Guerra for the heads-up. Image credit: RuAF MoD

 

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About David Cenciotti
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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.

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6 Comments

  1. Some residents of Alaska have realistically needed such a thing from the USAF to relieve flooding from ice jams, but I don’t believe it’s ever happened.

  2. Watching these videos, an interesting thought came to me. In the natural world, prey animals tend to have eyes near the side of their head to better watch in many directions for attack, while predators have eyes that look forward to use in pursuit.

    Military aircraft seem to follow a different rule. The equivalent of a predator, a fighter, tends to have all-around vision, while its prey, the bomber, can often only see forward and somewhat to the sides. The distinction may be because a fighter that is a predator of bombers is also the prey of other fighters.

  3. hmmmm,,, so 34s are dropping some 500kg dumb bombs on a huge ice floe expecting to break it up? great PR but not very effective

  4. It is not really unusual thing. They do it every year in different part of Russia (depends on ice situation), this year they just decided to make more PR using su-34.
    Sometimes artillery or shotfirers (when it is possible to go to the ice) also are used.

  5. It is not really unusual thing. They do it every year in different part of Russia (depends on ice situation), this year they just decided to make more PR using su-34.
    Sometimes artillery or some shotfirers (when it is possible to go to the ice) also are used.

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