I remember, some 10 or more years ago I had very long talk with Leonid Shekhter, head of future project department of Yakovlev OKB between 1934-1984 (!). He told me about the problems with fitting long-lens photocamera into Yak-25RV’s nose: the lens was higher than fuselage. Finally, the camera was fitted horizontally in the aircraft nose with a mirror in front (like in some flat digital photocameras today). But all this was about designing in OKB and not about operational use.
Arthur:
Last year, I was in Tambov air base and its museum and couldn’t see there any Yak-25RV.
Yak-25RV is a strange aircraft. I spent some time in Yakovlev OKB archives and with Yakovlev OKB veterans and am almost sure, no reconaissance version was in service. There were projects and, maybe, prototypes but all 155 series aircraft were piloted (RV-I) or pilotless (RV-II) targets/drones for tests of air-defence missiles and intercepting fighters. So, I guess any stories about recce flights over China, Pakistan etc are pure fantasies.
Here is nice shot: North Korean delegation investigating R-27 missiles displayed at Artem’s stand during recent Aviasvit exhibition (September 2004) in Kiev
AA-9 = R-33 designed by Vympel (= OKB-134 = Toropov) of Moscow, serially manufactured by DMZ of Dolgoprudnyi and TMZ of Moscow.
AA-10 = R-27 designed by Vympel of Moscow, manufactured by Artem, Kiev, Ukraine.
AA-11 = R-73 designed by Vympel (work started at Molniya (= OKB-4 = Bisnovat) of Moscow). Serially manufactured by Duks in Moscow and in Tbilisi, Georgia.
So, after this conference I guess there are no operational air-to-ground weapons assigned to Su-30MKI yet and the nearest future’s ones are Popeye and Brahmos.
By the way (no connection to Su-30MKI), in 2000 India bought 20 3M24E Uran missiles; in 2001: 40 combat and 18 training Urans plus 8 combat and 2 training Club missiles.
July 13, 2004 at 8:24 am
in reply to: RIAT#2669758
IAPR feature (Russian Air Power Analisys) is not re-edited book. This is not about the airplanes but about order of battle and bases. In fact, this is a small part of second volume of the book. To be immodest (sorry) – you never read such detailed Rus Orbat before.
Sign In
