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.
A screenshot from the Russian TV showing the Il-76 escorted by a Russian Su-35 during the first air-drop in 2016.
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
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
Russian Aerobatic Team Shows Precision and Performance in Brand New Su-30s.
The LIMA 17 air show in Malaysia on Mar. 21-25th is the largest air show of its kind in the Asia/Pacific region.
As already reported here, this year’s show included the first performance of the Russian Knights in their new Sukhoi Su-30SM (NATO: “Flanker-C”) aircraft.
The Russian Knights flew four Su-30SMs at LIMA 17, having just received the aircraft after last year’s show season. Before 2017 the team flew the Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-27UB aircraft, a prior generation version of the heavily upgraded new Su-30SM.
The flight demonstration began with some exceptionally well-practiced diamond formation flying by the Russian Knights. During the diamond maneuvers the team displayed excellent symmetry, especially during difficult rolling maneuvers when the outside and inside aircraft in the formation fly different profiles to maintain position. While the Russian Knights fly wider aircraft spacing than the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, their synchronization was impressive in the new Su-30SMs.
Weather conditions including broken, low overcast meant the Russian Knights flew a relatively low altitude demonstration routine mostly below the cloud cover. The high humidity in Malaysia made for spectacular vapor clouds under hard maneuvering by the Sukhois.
The team will eventually fly six of the aircraft, but only four demonstrated in Malaysia. At the end of the formation flying routine two of the Su-30SMs detached from the diamond to perform solo and opposing solo maneuvers. During this part of the show the first two aircraft landed and deployed their drag chutes, adding spectacle to the routine.
Landing with drag chute (credit: Suman Sharma, Chindits Defense)
At the end of the routine one aircraft demonstrated the vectored-thrust, super-maneuverable capability of the Su-30SM. This performance is unique to any flight demonstration team since it showcases the SU-30SM thrust-vectoring and canard wing capabilities. This included ultra-high angle of attack maneuvers and the impressive low-speed, pivoting turns combined with “cobra” style pitch-ups unique to the Sukhoi demo routines.
Russian Knights commander, air force Colonel Andrey Alekseev told media outlets in a press conference prior to the show, “It is the great honor for us to represent [the] Russian Air Force with the ‘best-in-the-world’ Su-30SM fighters here in Malaysia.”
In what seemed like major export marketing push for Sukhoi and UAC (United Aircraft Corporation) the Royal Malaysian Air Force also performed solo demonstration flights of their Su-30MKMs in subdued, tactical color schemes. One of the demo pilots identified as Royal Malaysian Air Force Colonel Gborg, gushed about the Su-30MKM, telling reporters, “This is the best fighter I have flown in my 20-year career!” Sukhoi/UAC supported the flight demonstrations with a marketing booth in the aviation industry exhibition hall throughout the show.
Two Pacific-Asian based aerobatic teams also flew at LIMA 17 making this a major show. The Tentera Nasional Indonesia-Angkatan Udara’s Jupiter team flying the small, elegant KAI KT-1 Woongbi Korean-built single-engine turboprop, basic training aircraft and the South Korean Black Eagles jet team flying KAI-T50B advanced supersonic trainer flew along with the Russian Knights during the show.
Top Image credit: Sputnik News. Video by This Is Flight (@tif_live)
On Nov. 20, for the first time ever, two Blackjacks carried out a 13,000km round trip war mission taking off from a deployment base in Kola Peninsula: they flew off Norway and UK, around western Europe, entered the Mediterranean Sea via Gibraltar and, after meeting the Su-30SMs departed from Latakia, launched some ALCMs (Air Launched Cruise Missiles) against terrorist targets in Syria. Then, they entered the Syrian airspace and returned home via the eastern corridor: Iraq-Iran-Caspian Sea.
Considered the confidentiality of such wartime operations, it is at least unusual that people sitting in front of their desktop or laptop, or using a mobile device, are given the opportunity to watch combat sorties as they launch; however it looks like that Russians want everybody to see their aircraft (some of those with the Red Star and insignia still painted over) as they blast out of the Syrian airbase to conduct bomb missions.
Whether the live-stream will be repeated in the next days is unknown.
In the meanwhile, you can watch the full recorded video here:
A Russian Su-30 conducted a VID intercept on a U.S. aircraft over Syria.
On Oct. 10, a Russian Su-30SM belonging to the contingent deployed to Latakia, in Syria, had a close encounter with a unspecified U.S. combat plane supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.
According to Russia’s Ministry of Defense, the Flanker-derivative 4++ Gen aircraft was providing air escort for a package of attack planes in Syria when it approached the American plane, to perform a VID (Visual Identification).
According to RT, the Su-30SM, operating in Aleppo province, “detected radiation emitted from an unidentified aircraft and approached it to identify the bogie [unidentified aircraft in interceptor’s lingo].”
So, the aircraft was at an estimated distance of 2-3 km, when it detected the American plane and closed on it, to visually identify the unknown traffic. After the VID, the Russian plane rejoined the other aircraft it was escorting and continued its mission.
As already reported, this is not the first time Russian and U.S. aircraft come close to one another in the increasingly crowded airspace over Syria. In a few such incidents, Russian warplanes tailed U.S. Predator drones, at least a couple of times American aircraft reportedly changed their routing to deconflict with Russian aircraft.
