MOSCOW, April 20 (AVN) - Over 60 percent of aircraft in the Russian Air Force are kept operational by means of extending their service life, a spokesman for the Air Force armament chief said on Friday.
The measure is a must given that purchases of combat planes and helicopters have effectively stopped, but it is still necessary to maintain the required level of combat readiness in Air Force units, the spokesman told the Military News Agency.
Service lives of 2,500 aircraft engines and about 2,000 aircraft have been extended in the past nine months alone, the spokesman stressed. This practice affects the equipment's reliability and serviceability. Thanks to organisational maintenance over 1,000 aircraft and about 8,000 various aircraft components and systems were reactivated. Air Force repair facilities have scaled up production volume almost 20 percent in the past year.