YEKATERINBURG. July 21 (Interfax-AVN) - An operative tactical aviation exercise has begun in the Central Military District (CMD) that will see pilots of Sukhoi Su-24M frontline bombers and Mikoyan MiG-31BM interceptor fighters practicing bombing and strike attacks and air-to-air missile launches, CMD spokesman Col. Yaroslav Roshchupkin told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
"Over 20 crews from airbases deployed in the Chelyabinsk region and Krasnoyarsk Territory will perform a non-stop 2,000-4,000-kilometer flight to the emergency airfield in the Krasnodar Territory. While en route, the warplanes will be refueled twice by Ilyushin Il-78 aerial tankers," the officer said.
The pilots will use airborne weapons during the exercise whose tactical parts will take place in the Black Sea and on the Ashuluk training ground in the Astrakhan region, the CMD spokesman said. Help in destroying a mock aerial adversary will come from the crew of an A-50 airborne early warning aircraft.