Surfing for information about the Trislander I came upon this:
I didn’t know that the plane was used military. Are/were the more miltary users? Any pic from the Botswana plane maybe?
Probably also the fact that Soviet/Eastern European military planners always considered their air fields to be military facilities and were not too concerned about appearance.
The words “It’s a military installation, it’s not meant to look pretty” spring to mind.
All Soviet aircraft were designed from the outset to operate from s****y conditions including rough fields if they needed to so smooth runways were never considered essential.
Most Russian airfields I have seen on the net (never in person) appear rather run down compared to UK airfields for example. The grass is seen running riot, wrecks are littered here and there and the fence is rather crude. However, IMO, this does not reflect the lack of professionalism of the crews be they pilot or mechanic.
It does reflect the way of thinking though. It does the job for Russian aircraft. When Western aircraft make a trip to them, they need to be tended to.
I have often seen footage of Americans walking the runways to clear it of foreign objects, I have yet to see Russians do this as certain features were included in their aircraft to minimize the damage down by these foreign objects on their runways.
I don’t think you will see this done with a Western jet:
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