MiG-29M at LII, may 2013. They still haven’t painted it yet. 🙂
http://russianplanes.net/images/to108000/107384.jpg

Reading what other peoples say MARK might be an improved Meteorit and/or hypersonic cruise missile, presumably carried by PAK-DA.

All hail Satan ! Where do i join dammit?
Oh, and something something MiG-21 :p

PS : Christ (no pun intended!) didn’t realized we switched to discussing religion here. Trust me, you really don’t want me to start on that… probably we should continue this in General.

Or you might have not learned anything at all… 🙁

I took a look at my previous pics of MiG-31BM’s, and i have found several examples i would have labeled as being DZ’s “in their previous life.” I didn’t “learn” how to spot the difference between B and DZ til fairly recently, so those BM’s with cover on the IFR, they went under my radar. For example b/n 92 is fairly well known, and that one i would have labeled as “DZM”…

Which means:

A – I am absolutely wrong and difference between B and DZ cannot be seen only by the IFR. IE, cover no cover, it is all B.
B – Or i am correct about the difference, meaning they have been using DZ’s for a while for conversion.

One there is one thing that is fairly certain tho. There are no B’s left in russia. They are all either dead or been converted to BM’s. Only true B’s remaining are those in Kazakh airforce.

It is all bloody confusing. Flanker differences is a walk in the park compared to Foxhound modifications. Two extra pictures of 32, with antenna. 😉

http://files.radioscanner.ru/uploader/2013/img-20130508-00013.jpg

http://files.radioscanner.ru/uploader/2013/img-20130508-00014.jpg

I have more of it, but not worth posting as they are mobile phones ones.

Speaking of MiG-31 subtypes, here’s an article from mr. Fomin about the perspective MiG-31 replacement. Interesting the variant production breakdown.
http://take-off.ru/news/124-news01-12-2013/777-mig-31bm-gosduma-04-2013
You might be right that they ran out of Bs, though i suspect it would not be very difficult to transform DZ into BM , as it was mostly the radar being upgraded (S-800 in DZ and S-800A in BM) as to the main difference between DZ and B, right ?

An episode of a TV show about ( among others things) the MiG-29K/KUB:
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/ndtv-special-ndtv-india/video-story/274617

Thank you to the contributors here for posting some very interesting snippet regarding actual Warpac training . May i ask for more details about this “500” series of exercises?

Imo, regardless what would be the situation inside the SSSR i would bet those VVS and PVO units facing the “imperialist pigs” would be always close to the top of training and flight hours. Also the Warpac members historically always had good quality fliers, so in don’t think that would be much different during the Cold War. What they badly lacked imo though, were upgrades for their frontline aircraft, especially MiG-21s, but others too including MiG-23. I’m thinking of things most soviet VVS aircraft had like chaff& flare dispensers and good RWRs like SPO-15, and up to date A-A missiles, as many MiG-21MFs for instance were still flying with R-3S and RS-2US missiles.

Soviet pilots had 60 hours mandatory but in practice it wasn’t uncommon for pilots to fly 20 annual. NATO pilots were four times the Soviet standard and there was a penalty – although similar in the Soviet rules yet not used – for them to not fly the mandatory number of hours. Different certs for different planes and duties, but we’re talking combat training AFAIK. Failure to fly washed them out, and having quals in the USAF is prestigious. Not very many officers reach the top of the line without the quals for flying. So in practice, NATO pilots often trained more in a month than their counterparts did in a calendar year.

Perhaps that would be the case for the post 1991 period, but 20 or even 60 hours during Soviet times? Don’t know where do you get that kind of info ( US sources i presume), but it’s absolute rubbish. Mind you when it comes to actually talking about Warpac air forces and their doctrine and flying, i’d rather listen to those in the know, ie soviet or eastern european sources, and not some biased american sources.

Appreciate the explanation, well i’ve learned something new about B and DZ, at least my spotting-fu is good enough. 😉