MOSCOW, October 4 (AVN) - The overall ageing of the tactical chain pilot personnel is a "dangerous tendency", Lieutenant-General Arkady Barsukov, head of the Air Force combat training, told the Military News Agency.
According to him, "the overall age of pilots of this type is two to three years higher than the critical figures."
The training of the pilot personnel is also in bad condition. The deficit of the aircraft fuel led to serious drawback in air training of the main part of the pilot personnel, in some regiments the training was even lost. At present the time in the air of a pilot per year does not exceed 10 percent of the annual time in the air of a NATO pilot. "However the tendency has been countered so far by using trainers, redistributing material means," Barsukov noted. For instance, the flight in the air of a pilot went down 30 percent this year, but the overall training level went down only not more than five percent, he added.