Russia: Pilots of Northern Fleet Naval Aviation Practice Flights in Polar Night

Pilots of Northern Fleet (NF) naval aviation continue improving pilotage skills in extreme conditions of polar night.

Performing training flights, aircrews of ASW aircrafts Il-38, NF Naval Aviation have carried out 23 sorties; pilots practiced various tasks including bomb dropping on sea and land test ranges. It is noteworthy that they used full set of antisubmarine weapons.

In 2011, average flying hours of Il-38 aircrews of NF Air Base have increased on 35%. Ship-based helicopters improved this parameter on 15%.

Air base headed by Col. Anatoly Buryak is the largest naval aviation unit in Northern Fleet.

Basically, aviation park of the base comprises ASW aircrafts Il-38, ASW helicopters Ka-27, transport aircrafts An-12 and An-26.

[mappress]
Naval Today Staff , January 19, 2012