On Nov. 7, 2019, a ceremony has been held at Kubinka air base (Russia) to introduce four multi-purpose single seat Su-35S’ within the Russian Knights aerobatic team.
On Nov. 7, 2019, a ceremony has been held at Kubinka air base (Russia) to introduce four multi-purpose single seat Su-35S’ within the Russian Knights (Russkiye Vityazi) aerobatic team.
Initial training flights of the crews in their new Su-35S over the airfield have been shows during the event to invited journalist who also got the opportunity to install GoPro mini cameras on the aircraft.
According to Scramble Magazine, the crews also discussed technical characteristics of the new aircraft, as well as the procedure to fly the aircraft over to Kubinka airfield from its manufacturer KnAAZ, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant, located in the Khabarovsk Region in the Russian Far East, where the jets were painted.
Established on Apr. 5, 1991 from the 237th Guards Proskurov Aircraft Demonstration Center at Kubinka the Russian Knights were originally equipped with six Sukhoi Su-27s which were replaced in 2017 by the twin-seat Su-30SMs. The team showed its new mount outside Russia for the first time at the LIMA 2017 (Malaysia) air show. So, the decision to swap, once again, to another aircraft (compared to other (international) display teams) came quite quickly. And the team will be extra challenged too, since the swap will be from twin- to single-seat aircraft.
The team, besides being a great ambassador for the Russian Federation, is also a superb representative for Sukhoi in view of its international aircraft sales ambitions.
The team’s colleagues of the Swifts (Russian Strizhi) aerobatic team will replace its MiG-29s with MiG-35s.
The Su-35 is a version of the Su-27 fighter that has been deeply modernized to achieve a significant increase in its combat effectiveness against aerial, ground, and sea-surface targets. The design of the Su-35 incorporates the most successful engineering concepts that previously tested well on the Su-27/Su-30 family of airplanes.
According to Sukhoi, this airplane combines the qualities of a modern fighter (super-maneuverability, superior active and passive acquisition aids, high supersonic speed and long range, capability of managing battle group actions, etc.) and a good tactical airplane (wide range of weapons that can be carried, modern multi-channel electronic warfare system, reduced radar signature and high combat survivability).
Photo credit: Sukhoi
