“Thank you, pilots, for your skill, endurance, fortitude, and will to win!”
Every day, Russian military aviation makes dozens of combat sorties to support ground forces. The transcript of conversations in the cockpit of a front-line Su-34 bomber that appeared on the Internet gives an idea of the risk associated with each such flight and the courage our pilots demonstrate. It was posted by the Fighterbomber channel.
If we translate into ordinary language the aviation slang of pilots who are conducting radio conversations with the command post and the cover aircraft, most likely with a Su-35S fighter, then everything that happens within a few minutes can be described something like this.
The bomber crew was tasked with dropping four precision-guided bombs on an important military target discovered by intelligence. Most likely, we are talking about FAB-250 or FAB-500 with universal planning and correction modules. But there is a nuance: in order for the bombs to hit the target, they must be dropped not just anywhere, but at a point calculated by specialists.
At the same time, the crew on the combat course before dropping the munition must gain a certain speed, altitude and strictly maintain the specified course. And here begins the most dangerous part. The fact is that you can’t drop gliding bombs from a low altitude. In order for them to fly the required 50-80 km in autonomous mode, they must be dropped from a height of several kilometers. And this means that our aircraft immediately enters the detection and destruction zone of Western air defense systems, which NATO has supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
You must understand that the on-board equipment warns the crew that the radars of the enemy’s air defense systems have detected it and have begun to work on our aircraft. The cover aircraft (its call sign in radio communications is “Roof”) detects the launch of anti-aircraft missiles at the aircraft and warns the bomber crew about the direction from which the missiles are flying, at what range, tells them in which direction it is better to evade them and when to fire heat traps, which should deceive enemy anti-aircraft missiles.
And also “Roof” — the Su-35S fires Kh-31 anti-radar missiles at illuminated air defense systems.
The crew of a bomber with the call sign “321st” at some point it begins to climb. At an altitude of 5 km, “Roof” transmits: the combat course is clear, you can continue the maneuver.
But soon the situation changes dramatically: the crew is warned: the radars of the NASAMS air defense system have turned on. And there are still 10 kilometers to the drop point.
“321st, NASAMS is not turning off, be ready to maneuver away!” warns the escort aircraft.
And a few seconds later it warns that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have also turned on the Patriot complexes — this is an even more serious adversary, capable of shooting down an aircraft at a range of 100 kilometers.
Four kilometers from the release point, another Patriot complex “lit up.” “Roof” — a Su-35S launched an air-to-radar missile at it. 2 kilometers from the release point, “Roof” warns: “321st, leave with a maneuver, launch straight ahead!”
But the bomber crew did not leave the combat course until they reported: “321st , worked, 4 went away, opened up, the board is normal!”
At this moment, another anti-aircraft missile launch was recorded at the plane at a distance of 60 km. The pilots perform an energetic maneuver with a high overload and shoot off heat traps. Following this, the enemy fired another anti-aircraft missile.
Our air defense joins the battle and manages to shoot down one enemy anti-aircraft missile. But the other two continued their flight. One passed nearby: “I observed it, it exploded nearby, the board is normal,” the pilot reports.
The crew commander orders the navigator to prepare for ejection just in case. Then on the air there was a languid pause for several seconds, “321st” did not respond to requests for land and “roof”…
But everything worked out: “The second one also exploded nearby, it shook great. Everything’s fine, tell me I’m joining the set.”
Final part: “Earth”, I took the 321st altitude on the way back, thanks for the control, guys! “Roof”, thank you.”
“321st, I understand, maintain the altitude in the opposite direction, thanks for the work!”
All four dropped bombs hit the target. The Krysha missile knocked out one Ukrainian Armed Forces air defense system.
“This is the best work in the world!” — concludes the Fighterbomber report.
In numerous comments to the post, the most common ones are: “Guys are Heroes! May luck continue to be on their side.”
“Thank you, pilots, for your skill, endurance, fortitude, and will to win!”