Leukhin Fedor - AviaPressPhoto
MiG-31 photo from the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Anadyr (Chukotka). 10th of March. INTERFAX-AVN - MiG-31BM fighters "intercepted" and "destroyed" an intruder during an exercise in the Arctic near the border of Russia and the United States, the press service of the Pacific Fleet (Pacific Fleet) reported.
"The crews of the MiG-31BM naval aviation of the Pacific Fleet, which are on duty for air defense in Chukotka, conducted an exercise in the Arctic Circle to intercept an aircraft violating the border of the Russian Federation in airspace," the press service said.
They noted that the MiG-31BM fighter also played the role of the intruder, which was supposed to penetrate Russian airspace at supersonic speed at an altitude of about 20 km, and if detected, evade pursuit.
"To intercept the target from the Anadyr airfield, a MiG-31BM on duty was raised, who, in interaction with ground-based radar equipment, detected a simulated enemy. After the target was captured, the pilots made electronic launches of long-range air-to-air missiles at it.
As Interfax reported, in order to strengthen the air grouping in the Arctic zone, since December 2020, the MiG-31BM fighter-interceptors of the Pacific Fleet's naval aviation have been deployed in Anadyr, the easternmost city of Russia, not far from the sea border between Russia and the United States.
In January 2021, it became known that the military had also placed a MiG-31BM on Novaya Zemlya to control the Russian Arctic. Experimental combat duty of fighter-interceptors of the Northern Fleet on Novaya Zemlya in the modern history of Russia is being worked out for the first time.
The supersonic MiG-31 is designed for long-term patrolling and combating high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, strategic bombers and low-flying targets. The aircraft is capable of simultaneously hitting six and tracking up to 10 air targets.
The Russian Armed Forces receive upgraded MiG-31BM aircraft. As Interfax reported, this fighter in the MiG-31K modification became the first aircraft carrier of hypersonic weapons - the Dagger missile system.
In recent years, Russia has significantly strengthened its military grouping in the Arctic zone. In particular, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation informed that over the past few years, almost two dozen airfields have been reconstructed in the Arctic. New short-range air defense systems, Tor-M2DT and Pantsir-S, and the Bal and Bastion coastal anti-ship complexes have been deployed in the Arctic. In 2019, on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, the S-400 long-range air defense systems (developed and manufactured by Concern VKO Almaz-Antey) took up combat duty. Also, the S-400 anti-aircraft missile regiment of the Northern Fleet on Yuzhny Island was re-equipped.
No comments:
Post a Comment