Ministry of Defense: digital equipment has increased the accuracy of long-range aviation weapons
MOSCOW, Dec 23 - RIA Novosti. The long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces is receiving upgraded combat aircraft equipped with digital equipment that made it possible to use weapons more accurately and increased their reliability, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
Long-range Aviation Day is celebrated annually in Russia on December 23.
"In 2023, the long-range Aviation Command continued to receive upgraded combat aircraft. On the aircraft that have undergone modernization, the existing equipment has been replaced with modern digital analogues, which made it possible to increase the accuracy characteristics of the use of aviation weapons, the reliability of aviation equipment, as well as expand the capabilities of the aircraft's operational control system," the message says.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation recalled that long-range aviation is a component of strategic nuclear forces, an integral part of the Aerospace Forces and serves to solve tasks in all strategic directions. The strategic missile carriers Tu-160, Tu-95MS, the MiG-31I aviation missile system, long-range Tu-22M3 bombers, Il-78 tanker aircraft, as well as training and transport aircraft of various modifications are in service.
In 2023, long-range aviation participated in a special operation, training on the management of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and other combat training events. The military stressed that all the activities were carried out with good and excellent quality, which indicates a high level of training and aerial training of the crews involved.
"In addition, this year the tasks of air patrol over the waters of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, the Black, Baltic, Norwegian, Northern, Japanese, Yellow and East China Seas were completed. In particular, two joint patrols were carried out with crews of long-range Hong-6k bombers of the People's Liberation Army Air Force of China," the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation added.
Young pilots and navigators who graduated from the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots and the Chelyabinsk branch of the Air Force Academy also began retraining for new types of equipment. In addition, young flight crews are trained on the basis of the Combat Application Center and aviation units, in total more than 50 have been trained in the 2023 academic year. The total flight time of the association was more than 22 thousand hours.
Long-range aviation originates from the squadron of airships "Ilya Muromets", created on the basis of a decision of the military council of the Russian Army, approved on December 23, 1914. During the years of the First World War, the squadron's crews carried out about 400 combat missions to reconnoitre and bomb enemy targets. They destroyed 12 enemy fighters in air battles. 39 pupils of the squadron became St. George cavaliers.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the crews of long-range bombing units already at noon on June 22, 1941 entered into combat operations to destroy the concentration of Nazi troops in the areas of Suwalki and Prasnysh. On June 23, together with naval pilots, they bombed the facilities of the deep rear of the Nazis and their allies in Danzig, Konigsberg, Warsaw, Krakow, Bucharest.