For the heavy aircraft carrier Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov, the flight personnel of the regiments began to be formed, which will be ready to fly to the ship. During the seven years he spent in repairs, many pilots retired, and those who replaced them have no experience of landing on deck. In fact, now it is necessary to re-form the aircraft carrier's wing, experts say.
For the heavy aircraft carrier Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov, the flight personnel of the regiments began to be formed, which will be ready to fly to the ship. During the seven years he spent in repairs, many pilots retired, and those who replaced them have no experience of landing on deck. In fact, now it is necessary to re-form the aircraft carrier's wing, experts say.
Flight difficulties
Naval aviation pilots have begun preparations for flights to the Admiral Kuznetsov cruiser, which is still under repair. According to Izvestia sources in the military department, the flight backbone of individual naval fighter aviation regiments is currently being formed, which will be ready to fly to the aircraft carrier.
According to sources, training is conducted over the Kola Peninsula and the Barents Sea, day and night, in any weather. During training flights, combat use against air and ground targets is being practiced.
In the seven years that Kuznetsov has been under repair, many pilots have retired, and those who replaced them do not have practical experience flying from an aircraft carrier and they have yet to master it, military expert Dmitry Boltenkov told Izvestia.
— Ship pilots have specific diseases. The sudden braking of the aircraft on the deck of an aircraft carrier has a very strong effect on the eyes, on the back, and therefore they cannot fly for a long time. And now, most likely, there are very few pilots left who still remember how to board an aircraft carrier, seven years is a long time," he explained. — Now a core of pilots is being created, who, in fact, will re-master the art of boarding a ship.
Some of the carrier-based fighters that were stationed on the Kuznetsov were involved in protecting the Arctic borders during its repair. They carried out combat service on rotation on Novaya Zemlya and in other areas of the Arctic. At the same time, the crews of naval aviation continued to train annually on scientific test simulators of naval aviation (NITKA) in the Krasnodar Territory (Yeysk) and Crimea. These simulators fully simulate the deck of an aircraft carrier, with brake cables, a launch ramp and navigation equipment. However, practicing landing on simulators cannot replace real work on the deck of a ship, Dmitry Boltenkov noted.
— An aircraft carrier at sea is very different from a simulator. The THREAD is not subject to pitching. Now, we can say that the situation will be similar to the beginning of the 1990s, when Kuznetsov left the Black Sea to the north and it was necessary to form an air wing for him. It will be necessary to revive the ship after many years of repairs. To revive it not as a ship that is able to walk on the sea, but as a ship that is able to carry deck planes and release them into the sky. In fact, the aircraft carrier will have a second life.
The training of deck pilots is extremely difficult, Honored Test pilot, Hero of Russia Igor Malikov told Izvestia.
— The ocean is an undirected area, in fact you are constantly in difficult weather conditions, — he explained to Izvestia. — The ship is very small, it is necessary to get on it. The fuel, oddly enough, begins to melt when you fly. That's why you have to get on the ship right away. The distances are very small, it is necessary to sit in the place where the braking devices are located. This is quite a difficult preparation. It is very correct that they began to prepare the backbone of pilots in advance for flights to the aircraft carrier.
Hero of Russia pilot Pavel Kretov, who completed 170 landings on the deck of the Kuznetsov and for the first time performed a night landing on a ship followed by takeoff, told Izvestia that the training of ship pilots takes about a year — with intensive training.
— They receive the same training as regular pilots, plus training from the ship. We need extra time," he said.
Today, the armed forces have only two units whose pilots practice takeoff and landing on the deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov — the 279th and 100th separate naval fighter aviation regiments (OKIAP) The Northern Fleet.
The 279th OKIAP is armed with Su-33 carrier—based fighters, a modification of the Su-27 designed to be placed on an aircraft carrier. The 100th OKIAP is armed with MiG-29K and combat training MiG-29KUB aircraft.
Admiral Kuznetsov
Image source: iz.ru
Over the years of renovation
Admiral Kuznetsov has been under repair since 2017. Initially, it was planned to return the ship to service in 2022, but the deadlines were repeatedly postponed. Last year, the United Shipbuilding Corporation promised that the ship would be handed over to the fleet in 2024.
Several accidents happened during the repair. In October 2018, the PD-50 floating dock sank. The aircraft carrier was damaged by the fall of the dock crane, but remained afloat. It was towed to the berth of the 35th shipyard in Severomorsk, where it later underwent repairs.
Izvestia's help
The heavy aircraft carrier of Project 1143.5 Admiral Kuznetsov of the Fleet of the Soviet Union is the flagship of the Russian Navy and the Northern Fleet (SF). The ship was launched in 1985, and joined the SF in 1991. In 1995, he served in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2007-2008, at the head of a detachment of ships, he made a trip to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
In 2016-2017, as part of the task force of ships in the Mediterranean, he performed combat missions off the coast of Syria. The pilots of the air group carried out more than 400 sorties, hitting over 1.2 thousand terrorist targets. After returning from the campaign, the ship was sent for repairs and modernization.
In December 2019, a fire started on board the ship: during welding work, a spark got into the hold, where fuel was spilled. As a result, two people were killed and 14 injured. At the end of 2022, a fire was also reported, there were no casualties. Last year, the dock repairs on the underwater part of the ship were completed, and the aircraft carrier was removed from the dock and put into place for permanent repairs. At the same time, it was reported that a crew had begun to be recruited for Kuznetsov.
In July of this year, the FSB of Russia reported on the prevented terrorist attack on the Admiral Kuznetsov. According to the agency, in March, an employee of the Ukrainian special services contacted a Russian through a messenger who served on an aircraft carrier. He tried to persuade the soldier to commit a terrorist attack and promised evacuation to Finland, but he appealed to the competent authorities.
Roman Kretsul Bogdan Stepovoy Vladimir Matveev
