KHABAROVSK (Sputnik) – The flight crew of Russia’s Eastern Military District (EMD) air regiment carried out over 4,000 flights aboard the advanced Su-30SM Flanker jets this year, the head of EMD’s press service said Thursday.
"The crews for the first time worked out in-air refueling tasks, advanced maneuvers at very low altitudes and over water, on Lake Baikal, and made long-distance flights with stopovers at unfamiliar airports," Col. Alexander Gordeev told reporters.
Gordeev said the tally included training flights as well as combat missile launches and bomb maneuvers at a specialized range in Buryatia.
The Su-30SM, commissioned in 2013-14, is a two-seat derivative of the earlier Su-27UB Flanker capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions with a wide variety of precision-guided munitions.
