How bad is the Russian Air Force??

Well, pretty bad from what I just read. An article in Aviation Week (March 5) paints a dismal picture of the Russian Air Force and the Russian military aviation industry. Of 2000 aircraft, only “46% or less are servicable,” according to the article. The Russians would need to eliminate 1500 aircraft to make a viable force. Russian pilots are in even worse a situation. The average fighter pilot gets 10 hrs of flying time per YEAR, while fighter-bomber pilots get 25-35 hrs a year. SU-27 and Mig-31 pilots get basically no flight time at all. Most training is instead done on low-quality simulators that are equivalent to sims used in the US during the mid ’60s. The sources used by AW&ST (they were not named) concluded that Russian pilots could not fly effective combat missions, especially air to air and that it would take 5-10 years of training to produce several regiments of combat ready pilots IF a large increase in funding occurred (not likely.) Tactics are non-existent, and fuel and spares are not readily available. Even worse, most of the aircraft are simply rusting to the ground according to the article.

Another problem is the degredation of the aircraft industry. The article stated that Russian manufacterers are now outright LYING about the capability of new aircraft and weapons at events like MAKS. They are also apparetly selling “bogus spare parts” to client states (China.)

This not only raises serious questions about the Russian Air Force’s future existence as a viable force, but puts claims made about weapons and aircraft like the R27, R77, S-37, R-37 under a microscope. How good could these products be given the state of affairs in Russia? Makes me wonder.