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The Ukrainian air force’s best fighter jets just staged a daring raid on the Russian force occupying Ukraine’s strategic Snake Island. The raid marks a significant escalation of Ukraine’s air campaign targeting the Russian garrison on the island in the western Black Sea, 80 miles south of Ukraine’s strategic port Odessa. For at least a week now, Kyiv’s propeller-driven TB-2 armed drones have been waging a relentless defense-suppression campaign over and around Snake Island. The satellite-controlled drones with their 14-pound missiles have knocked out at least three air-defense systems on the 110-acre island as well as two Russian patrol...

I know the Russians do not bluff or mess around. Yet this was too aggressive move by the Su-27 pilot on a NATO F-15 pilot. If the Russians want to play hardball, then we should oblige them.

Details about the mishap are still limited, but a Su-27UB Flanker combat jet from Ukraine's Air Force has crashed in that country, killing its Ukrainian pilot, as well as reportedly a member of the U.S. Air National Guard. The jet had been flying a training sortie as part of Exercise Clear Sky 2018, which began on Oct. 8, 2018. The accident occurred at around 5:00 PM local time on Oct. 16, 2018, near the village of Ulaniv, which is situated approximately 185 miles southwest of the Ukranian capital Kiev. Ukraine's military immediately launched a search and rescue operation that unfortunately...

A Ukrainian Flanker crashed during a display at Sknyliv airfield, in Ukraine. The accident killed 77 people and injured 543. The deadliest air show accident in history occurred on Jul. 27, 2002, at Sknyliv airfield near Lviv, Ukraine, when a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 Flanker crashed during its display routine. The two pilots, Volodymyr Toponar and Yuriy Yegorov, ejected safely but as a consequence of the crash 77 people died and 545 were injured, 100 of whom were hospitalised. Several videos show the incident from different viewpoints. The Flanker can be seen performing a sort of split-S at low altitude,...

A NATO F-16 fighter jet has tried to approach the Russian defense minister’s plane above the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. The plane was warded off by a Russian Su-27 escorting the minister’s aircraft.   https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=361_1498043536    

Exactly 40 years ago, on May 20, 1977, the prototype of Russia's legendary Su-27 fourth generation fighter aircraft, Т-10-1, made its first flight. Sputnik reviews the history of development and modernization of the aircraft to show that it is still second to none in close air combat and is far from becoming out of date. Russia's Su-27 rightly serves as a symbol of Russia's defense industry of the second part of the 20th century, on a par with the T-72 tank and Kalashnikov assault rifle. In this particular aircraft, the USSR implemented all of the most advanced technologies of the...

South Africa’s reputation as top gun when it comes to air power in the southern African region could be shot down by Angola and its powerful new Russian fighters. The west African country is set to take delivery of the first tranche of Sukhoi Su-30K fighters in the next six months and will have 12 in service by the end of next year. Gauteng Afrikaans daily Beeld approached military analyst Helmoed Heitman, retired SAAF and Indian Air Force pilot colonel Rama Iyer and a former officer commanding 2 Squadron for their views on how the SA Air Force’s (SAAF) Gripens...

A Russian fighter jet came within 15 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea this week in what the Pentagon is calling an "unsafe" incident, U.S. officials say. "On January 25, 2016, a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace over the Black Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner. We are looking into this particular incident," said a statement from Army Lt. Col. Michelle L. Baldanza, a Defense Department spokesperson. Another U.S. military official told CNN that the Russian jet flew along the right side the...

Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, has flown on a Su-27 fighter jet, according to a video released Wednesday on the leader’s official website. The jet had been undergoing modernization in order to ensure that it complied with NATO standards. Wearing a pilot jacket, helmet and air mask, Poroshenko gives a somewhat Gagarin-style wave of the hand as the blue jet slowly turns towards the runway for takeoff, the video shows. The president assumed the position of the second pilot for the test flight. Poroshenko was visiting the Zaporozhie region, where state aviation repair plant, MiGremont, had modernized two Su-27 jets...

A Russia Su-27 jet fighter flew dangerously close and nearly collided with a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft this week in the latest aerial provocation by Moscow, defense officials revealed to the Washington Free Beacon. The Su-27 conducted the close-in intercept of an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, said officials. The incident prompted a diplomatic protest. “On the morning of April 7th, a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen M. Lainez. “The United States is...

One again, Russian Su-27s have been involved in a dangerous close encounter with a plane they have intercepted. The Swedish Air Force operates a pair of Gulfstream IVSP aircraft, known in Swedish service as S102B Korpen, used for ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) purposes. The aircraft, based on the American Gulfstream business jet but equipped with eavesdropping sensors, conduct surveillance missions in the Baltic Sea. According to Swedish Air Force officials, during those sorties, the Korpens fly in international airspace, with their transponders turned on, and regularly transmit their position to the relevant civilian air traffic control agency, both domestic and, if...

Three decades after it was inducted into the Russian Air Force, the Sukhoi-27 remains the ultimate jet fighter with its super-maneuverability, grace, beauty and sheer power. In 1984, after seven years of development and test flights, the Sukhoi-27 (codenamed Flanker by NATO) was inducted into the Soviet Air Force and the Soviet Air Defence Force. It was a defining moment in the history of combat aviation as the Su-27 – and its later iterations – became the jet fighter that would shift air superiority decisively away from western air forces. British fighter pilot John Farlight, who saw Victor Pugachev turn...

Russian officials will not feature their Sukhoi Su-27 twin-engine fighter jets on display this year at the Farnborough International Air Show — a move that marks a strategic departure from prior years for Russia, show officials said. The Russian Su-27 fighter jets were at Farnborough last year, leading observers and analysts to presume that tensions in the Ukraine have led the Russians the scale back their presence this year. This year’s show outside of London will run July 14–20. “With the continuing issues in the Ukraine, I don’t think there will be any Russian aircraft,” a Farnborough official told Military​.com.

In 1989, the Chinese Chengdu Aerospace Corporation unveiled a major upgrade for its locally-made F-7 jet fighter, a licensed copy of the classic Soviet MiG-21. The new F-7 variant moved the engine air intake from the nose tip to the sides of the fuselage, making room in the nose for a more powerful radar. Twenty-one years later, this upgrade—now named JF-17 Thunder—is flying combat missions with the Pakistani air force, so far its sole user. Further enhanced with a new wing, a cutting-edge intake design and a new, more powerful engine, the JF-17 is Pakistan’s most important front-line fighter—and a...

In March 2013, Russian and Chinese media reported that Beijing was acquiring significant quantities of advanced military equipment from Russia. Among the multi-billion dollar systems to be bought by the Chinese military are six Lada-class attack submarines and 35 SU-35 fighter jets. These acquisitions are significant because they are sophisticated systems and it has been more than a decade since China purchased any significant weapon systems from Moscow. After making substantial purchases from Russia from the mid-1990s to the early-2000s, China began to reverse engineer weapons such as the SU-27 multi-role fighter, the NORINCO T-90 tank, and several components of...

Spitfire vs Bf 109 and F-14 vs Su-27: the difference is always the pilot May 31, 2013 Not always the best aircraft is the one that wins in an air-to-air engagement. Most of the times it is the training the pilot has received and his/her skills, experience to make the difference: that’s why a well trained pilot with a less capable aircraft can defeat a more powerful plane piloted by a scarcely trained airman. During World War II two of the most successful fighters of aviation history faced one against the other, in a duel that began over the coasts...

Flying the Flanker A few years ago, Tactical Air Support was, for a brief period, an operator of a pair of privately-owed Soviet-built Sukhoi Su-27 Flankers. The company's senior vice president and chief operating officer Gerry Gallop, who previously served as a US Navy instructor pilot at TOPGUN and who has flown the F-4 Phantom II, F-14A and B, F-15, F-16, the F/A-18 series and the A-4, a recalls some of his initial transition flights in the Flanker. One sortie that stands out in Gallops' mind was a combination functional check flight and navigational training sortie over the Ukraine. "I...

BEIJING (TheBlaze/AP) — Just as it has had many firsts recently with its space program efforts, China has successfully completed another first for its naval aspirations. The country landed its first fighter jet on its first aircraft carrier, which entered service two months ago, the country’s official news agency confirmed Sunday

Russian Air Force Takes Upgraded Su-27s Intended for China AIN Defense Perspective » January 20, 2012 by Vladimir Karnozo Sukhoi has delivered 12 Su-27SM(3)s to the Russian air force. The aircraft were originally intended to be supplied as subassemblies to China under a contract signed in 2009, and the last delivery was made in late December. The airframes were assembled at Sukhoi’s KnAAPO plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur from parts originally manufactured for what was meant to be a second batch of 95 airframes in the Chinese order for 200 Su-27SKs. However, China took only the first 105 Su-27SKs, most of which...

New shipborne navy jet fighter makes waves among analysts Unofficially dubbed the J-15, the new People's Liberation Army navy's "flying shark" features enlarged folding wings, twin nose wheels and an arresting hook for use on China's first aircraft carrier. Photo: Courtesy of netizen Zhang Xinliang By Xu Tianran Photos of a domestic-made shipborne J-15 heavy fighter were released on Sunday afternoon on Internet defense forums, prompting many military observers to coo about China's aircraft carrier capacity. "Heavy shipborne fighters will boost the aircraft carrier fleet's air defense capability and enhance the fleet's strike ability," said Lan Yun, editor of the...