MILITARY RUSSIAN NAVAL AVIATION PARADE 2017
T
his year’s Russian Navy
day, traditionally held on
the last Sunday of July,
was celebrated with a
lavish sea and air parade
in St Petersburg, Russia’s
second-largest city,
known as the birthplace
of the Russian Navy. The
parade’s air component
staged on July 30, under the patronage of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, saw the
participation of almost all aircraft types in
the naval aviation inventory. Aircraft were
gathered from many different units of the
Baltic, Black Sea, Paci c and Northern eets
as well as the 859th Combat Training and
Aircrew Conversion Centre at Yeisk. Themajority of xed-wing aircraft gathered at
two principal bases, Kipelovo and Gromovo
(the Su-30SMs operated from Besovets),
while the helicopters and small xed-wing
transports operated from Pushkin air eld.
Kipelovo air eld situated near the city of
Volgoda hosted all the heavy aircraft – Tu-
142MKs and Tu-142MRs with the resident
aviation group assigned to the 7050th Air
Base of the Northern Fleet, together with
upgraded Il-38Ns from the Paci c Fleet
and the Yeisk Training Centre. An Il-78M
tanker of the Russian Air and Space Force,
home-based at Ryazan-Dyagilevo was also
present, ying in the parade with a Tu-
142MR simulating air-to-air refuelling.
In turn, Gromovo near St Petersburg
housed the majority of jets - MiG-29KRs,MiG-31BMs and Su-24Ms – in addition
to the Beriev Be-12 Mail maritime
patrol ying boats. The helicopter force,
comprising Ka-27s, Ka-29s, Ka-52Ks, Mi-
8MTV-5s and Mi-24VPs, was based at the
air eld outside the city of Pushkin, near St
Petersburg, together with An-72s and the
sole An-140.ASW and maritime patrol
force mix
No doubt, the rarely seen four-engine
heavyweight turboprops attracted the most
attention. Both versions of the Tu-142 Bear-F- anti-submarine warfare (ASW) con gured
Tu-142MKs and Tu-142MRs used for aerial
relay and upgraded Il-38N May aircraft were
all involved.
Alexander Mladenov and Andrey Zinchuk look at
the most interesting participants in the largest-ever
military parade staged by Russian Naval Aviation
over St Petersburg, the country’s naval capital
Naval Aviation Parade