This Video Shows A Russian Su-30SM Almost Getting “Into” The Cargo Bay Of An Il-76 Airlifter Involved In Air Drop Over Syria

An armed Russian Su-30SM gets much close to a UN Il-76 over Deir Ez Zor, Syria.

The video in this post was reportedly filmed during a mission over Deir Ez Zor, Syria.

It shows an armed Russian Air Force Su-30SM jet, escorting an Il-76 involved in an air-drop from high altitude, getting much close to the cargo bay of the airlifter after the pallets are dropped.

We don’t know when the footage was shot. However, it must have been filmed during one of the +250 UN agency World Food Program’s airdrops of humanitarian aid to Syrians: indeed, starting from Feb. 24, 2016 to September 2017, WFP has conducted air-drops in the Deir Ez Zor area, using an Il-76, to deliver vital food and humanitarian suppliesto trapped families in the besieged city in northeastern Syria.

Flying from Amman, Jordan, a white-colored Il-76 with UN markings (RA-76780) flew to the airdrop area escorted by Russian Air Force aircraft deployed to Hmeymim airbase, including the Su-35S, and the Su-30SM shown in the video.

The UN aircraft could be tracked online using ADS-B on Flightradar24.com during these missions.

UN/WFP IL-76 RA-7680 from Amman for airdrops to Deir Ezzor almost daily, sometimes twice a day since Apr 10 pic.twitter.com/4UKs2ubEOe

— Samir (@obretix) May 27, 2016

The Su-30SM is a multirole derivative of the Su-27 Flanker. It’s a special variant of the thrust-vectoring Su-30MKI and MKM produced by the Irkut Corporation for the Russian Air Force. It’s a 4+ Generation twin-engine, two seat supermaneuverable multi-role aircraft equipped with improved avionics, the Bars-R radar and a wide-angle HUD (Head Up Display).

H/T Vladimir Konovalov and Trevor Siders for the heads-up

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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.