HISTORY

aircraft earmarked to carry out the attacks

with HARM rockets. This airplane sports

different digital camouflage pattern therefore you should refer to the photographs of the real aircraft. Recently a video

was published showing this aircraft equipped with two R-27 and four R-73 rockets.

The camera focus avoids the identification

markings however at one moment number

12 is visible.

Later a video appeared, mainly from Mig29 cockpit showing the launch of HARM

rockets. Again, the bort number is not

visible but the ordnance combination is

clearly visible. You can attach HARM rockets, produced by Eduard in 1/72, 1/48 and

1/32 scales, to the inner wing attachment

points where R-27 rockets are normally mounted. Under the fuselage you can

attach the drop tank intended to increase

the operational range. R-73 rocket will go

on the outer hard points and the middle

attachments remain empty. HTS container

is not visible in the video. Also based on

the video it seems that no other equipment

had been added to the cockpit except of

two satellite navigation systems. Pilot flies

armed with the rockets to the designated

area, launches them towards the Russian

AA radars and then the missiles do the rest

of the job themselves. And to make things

even more complicated, in the beginning

of September a photograph appeared

capturing a Ukrainian Su-27 armed with

two HARM rockets under the wings.

Crimea is no longer a paradise

The third crucial occurrence in the sixth

month of the conflict in Ukraine were the

attacks on Crimea. Russia annexed this

peninsula in 2014. Up until now the war

avoided it except the invasion troops were

attacking the Ukrainian South from there

and also the Black Sea Fleet operates there. Its ships and submarines fire rockets

at the Ukrainian cities. For the Russian civilians however, it was a quiet place at sea

where they could go for summer vacation.

This changed on Tuesday August 9 when

a series of strong explosions took place

at Saki airbase near Novofedorivka summer resort. It was tourists who published

the first images of the explosions and

massive smoke columns rising from the

base. Thanks to these videos it can be determined that two strong explosions occurred practically at the same time several

hundred meters apart. That eliminates

the possibility of an accident. Despite this

the Russian official sources stated exactly that. The explosions were supposedly

caused by a negligence in the ammunition dump protected by barriers therefore

there were no damages to the rest of the

airport facilities and no airplane was destroyed. This lie did not last 24 hours.

In the morning before the disaster Planet

Labs PBC took the satellite images of the

airport where we can see one transport

Il-76 parked near the runway and on the

apron 12 Su-24, 10 Su-27 and Su-30, 6 helicopters and several other aircraft, mostly

smaller transport types. A day after explosions the same company took new images

where the extensive devastation of the

Saki airport can be seen. Large portions

of the airbase burnt out, but the largest

impact was on the apron where between

9 and 12 aircraft were destroyed. At least

five S-24 and four Su-30 of the Black Sea

Aviation could be totally written off.

In some places, between the parked aircraft something like craters can be seen.

That leaves the room for speculations that

the Ukrainians had received ATACMS rocket with 300 km range or that they completed the development of their own ballistic

rocket Hrim-2 on which they had worked

for very long time before the war. The airbase is located 200 km from the closest

frontline sector. Officially the Ukrainians

kept silence about the incident. Oddly, the

Russians, despite all the facts, stated that

Ukrainians had nothing to do with the explosions at Saki airbase. There were several rationales for this – they would have

to admit that the Crimea AA defense failed

and then they did not want to scare civilians. The second did not work at all. The

beaches were immediately abandoned and

the Kerch bridge connecting Crimea with

Russia was jammed by the fleeing tourists

for several days. The traffic jam was 100

km long!

Later, Washington Post and server Politico, referring to several sources from the

Ukrainian government and secret services, published that the Crimea attack was

The only Ukrainian MiG-29 upgraded to MU2 version.

Video shots of the MiG-29MU2 taking off armed with two R-27 and four R-73 rockets.

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INFO Eduard

October 2022