During a recent aviation trip to Russia, we visited the training base at Lipetsk – where we were shown a static display of all their latest machines – Su-24M, Su-25M, MiG-29, MiG-31 and a Su-27 (bort red 11) with a billboard in front of it that said ‘Cy-27CM’ (Su-27SM).
We were also treated to a magnificent flying display which included Su-27’s, Su-25’s, MiG-29’s and Su-24’s – a fabulous day at this base.
Looking at my photos now that I am home, I noticed that there were FOUR of the new, upgraded Su-27SM’s in the flying display – and I have worked out how to distinguish an -SM from a standard Su-27.
The Su-27SM has an offset IRST ball, an ECCM aerial in each leading edge slat and a dark metallic-looking patch on the outer trailing edge of the tailplanes.
These features do not appear on a standard Flanker.
The Su-27SM’s in the flying display at Lipetsk had numbers red 02, 07, 06 & 80.
The base is supposed to have had FIVE SM’s delivered – there was an example at MAKS – red 04, so I assume that this is also from Lipetsk.
After the flying display, we were met by the base commander – Alexander Karchevski – and I asked him how many Su-27SM’s they had – he grinned and said he could not tell me !!!
The Su-27 in the static display (bort 11) that we were allowed to photograph in detail has a new paint scheme (the same as the other SM’s) – but I reckon it is NOT a genuine Su-27SM – it is just painted up to look like one !!!
How can I tell ?? – well it has none of the features identified above – just the new colour scheme.
Anyway, photos of the Su-27SM’s are attached for your delectation….
The first pic is bort 04 from MAKS – suitably captioned to show the SM features.
The last photo is bort 11 – the ‘dummy’ Su-27SM
Ken
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August 27, 2005 at 10:48 pm