MOSCOW. Sept 16 (Interfax) - Four Ilyushin Il-38 and Il-38N anti-submarine warfare (ASW) planes have planted mines in the Avacha Gulf as part of the Ocean 2024 strategic command post exercise, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.
"Intelligence has spotted a unit of the mock enemy's landing ships headed to the Kamchatka Peninsula. Four Il-38 and Il-38N planes took off from the Yelizovo airbase and planted mines on possible routes of the enemy's landing ships in the Avacha Gulf," the ministry said.
The planes planted four lines of mines at various distances from the shore in possible deployment areas, the ministry said. More than 50 training mines were airdropped to protect about ten kilometers of the coastline.
"The planes spent over three hours in the air, patrolling the coastal waters and the coastline of Kamchatka," it said.
According to official information, Il-38 is a medium-range ASW plane designed to track down and destroy submarines independently or together with ASW ships, in addition to marine reconnaissance and search-and-rescue operations. It has a takeoff mass of 68 tonnes, a combat radius of 2,200 kilometers, and a ceiling limit of 8,000 meters. Its combat payload is 8,400 kilograms of anti-submarine bombs, torpedoes and sea mines. The plane can conduct patrol mission for up to 14 hours.