A Su-34 involved in a runway overrun at Khurba airbase, Russia.

On Jul. 31, a Russian Air Force Su-34 veered off the runway at Khurba airbase, near Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the far east part of Russia.

The aircraft had just landed after a night training mission and the incident was caused, according to unofficial sources, because of a drag chute failure. The aircraft was not damaged by the excursion (500 meters into the grass).

Noteworthy, the bort number of the aircraft was blurred out in the photograph, something has never (at least to our knowledge) happened in the past.

Entered in active service with the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2014, the Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback is a two-seat strike fighter with a maximum range of 4,000 km, a payload of up to 12,000 kg on 12 hardpoints, the ability to carry R-77 and and R-73 missiles, a 30 mm GSh-30-1 cannon, and a Khibiny ECM suite.

The aircraft uses a drag (or drogue) chute to reduce the landing roll, a system used by many Soviet-era as well as Russian jets. Here’s how we described it some weeks ago:

The system consists of a single or several parachutes placed in a special pod located in the rear section of the fuselage. The chute is ejected with the use of a smaller parachute, spring-driven or compressed air based system. After the aircraft comes to a halt, the chute is separated to prevent the aircraft from being dragged on the runway. Moreover, the chute often comes with a safety system, with a ring that breaks if the braking system is deployed at a speed which is too high. In the case above probably the speed was low enough to keep the said element intact and the chute stayed in its place. Notably, the drag created by drogue chutes is lower than the one experienced in case of the conventional drop-parachutes in order to prevent damage to the aircraft.

Runway excursions can occur both on landing and take off. You may remember the incident (with video) to a Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 “Backfire” on Sept. 15, 2017 when the heavy bomber, said to be near maximum take-off weight, ran off the end of the runway at Shaikavka Airbase during Zapad 2017 exercise.

Image credit: komcity.ru. H/T Alert 5.

 

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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The first group of Russian aircraft redeploying to Russia after Syria air war has left ‪‎Hmeymim‬ airbase.

On Mar. 15, the Russian Defence Minister General of the Army Sergei ‪‎Shoigu‬ ordered to redeploy a large part of the the Russian Aerspace Forces contingent deployed to Syria to fight terrorists.

The redeploy order saw technical staff at Hmeymim airbase, near Latakia, started preparing aircraft for the long-range flight to airfields located in mainland Russia: the aircraft, first of all Su-34 “multidimensional bombers” (this is definition used by the Russia’s MoD) based on the footage released so far, are returning home with long-range flight (more than 5,000 km), inflight refueling and intermediate flight stops at the Russian Federation airfields.

The redeployment is supported by a Tu-154 or an Il-76, acting as “leader” of the formation made by the transport plane and the Russian warplanes transporting engineering and technical personnel, and logistics items.

The formation follows the assigned route over Iraq, Iran and the Caspian Sea, until it reaches the border of the Russian Federation where all the aircraft split the formation to reach their destinations independently.

According to the Russian MoD the first group of Su-34 bombers earlier today has already arrived at the military airfield of the Western military district in the ‪#Voronezh‬ region; before landing, the aircraft performed a celebratory fly over at low altitudes over the military airfield.

 

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Another episode that further escalates the crisis between Turkey and Russia.

Turkey has barred a Russian Antonov An-30B spyplane, that was supposed to operate out of Eskisehir airfield, Turkey, on Feb. 1 to 5, from performing an Open Skies Treaty flight over its territory.

As told to Tass.ru by Sergey Ryzhkov, chief of the Russian Defense Ministry’s department for control of implementation of treaties, the Turkish military refused to allow the flight to take place after the flight route was discovered to include observation areas adjacent to the Syrian border and airfields where NATO aircraft are concentrated.

Ryzhkov added that, in this way “A dangerous precedent was created of an uncotrolled military activity of an Open Skies Treaty member state. We are not going to leave without proper attention and relevant reaction violations of the Open Skies Treaty on the part of the Turkish republic.”

The Open Skies Treaty was signed in 1992 and has 34 member states.

Its key tasks are to monitor the fulfillment of armament control agreements and expand capabilities to prevent crises in the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other international organizations. Surveillance flights are conducted over Russia, United States, Canada and European countries.

Noteworthy Turkey has halted Russian Open Skies flight few days after a RuAF Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback bomber allegedly violated Ankara’s airspace while performing a mission from Hmeymim airbase, near Latakia, in northwestern Syria.

File photo showing a Russian Open Skies An-30 escorted by two Danish F-16s (credit: OSCE). Top image credit: OSCE.

 

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