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