combat aircraft

With domestic

live fire exercises

in late May-

early June, the

international

phase of the

‘Aviadarts’ exercise

drew additional

participants

this summer to

augment the

Russian hardware.

REPORT AND PHOTOS

Dmitriy Pichugin

Above: A PLAAF JH-7A crew upon arrival

at Dyagilevo.

Below: PLAAF H-6K serial 20118 from the

Anqing-based 10th Bomber Division, 28th

Air Regiment, on the ramp at Dyagilevo.

Resident bombers are in the background.

T

HIS YEAR’S INTERNATIONAL

phase of the Russian ‘Aviadarts’

exercise (ARMI-2018) was

held at Dyagilevo air base

in Ryazan from July 29

until August 11. As per last

year, it attracted visitors from three

nations: Belarus, China and Kazakhstan.

However the nature of the involvement

changed signiicantly, with a signiicant

deployment of Chinese People’s

Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) assets.

On July 21, the Russian Ministry of

Defense announced that the initial PLAAF

contingent had arrived at Dyagilevo

including a pair of H-6K bombers from

the 10th Bomber Division, 28th Air

Regiment at Anqing, Y-9 transport aircraft

http://www.combataircraft.netwww.combataircraft.net //// October 2018October 2018 91