The Russian MoD has revealed some information on the aviation part of the Victory Day Parade that will traditionally be held on May 9 over the Red Square in Moscow. We may expect some interesting new stuff.
According to the information released by the MoD 74 aircraft will take part in the Victory Day Parade in Moscow (18 helicopters and 56 aeroplanes) and among them several novelties. The modernised A-50U early warning aircraft will have its debut over the Red Square, together with updated MiG-29 SMT fighters from Astrakhan Aviation Centre of the VKS. It is worth mentioning that during the Victory Parade in 2015 pilots from Astrakhan flew the “70” formation during the parade.
The air parade will traditionally begin with the flypast of helicopter formations representing the Army Aviation led by Mi-26 accompanied by four Mi-8 AMTSh “Terminator”. The aerobatic team “Berkut” will show its five Mi-28N attack helicopters in wedge formation. Apart from that the usual participants such as Ka-52 and Mi-24 (4 of each type) attack helicopters will appear.
The second part of the parade will consist of fixed-wing aircraft representing all Commands of the Russian Aerospace Force (VKS). The Transport Aviation Command will show A-50U early warning plane as well as three Il-76MD heavy-lifters. Surprisingly the information released by the MoD does not mention An-22 nor An-124 transports, which were shown during the recent flypasts over the Red Square. Later the skies over Moscow will be dominated by the Long-Range Aviation Command aeroplanes: 1 Tu-160 “White Swan”, 4 swing-wing Tu-22M3 bombers and 3 Tu-95MS turboprops. Additionally, a formation consisting of Il-78 and Tu-95MS will simulate the aerial refuelling.
There is no official information whether the Tu-160 will represent the standard version already in service with the Long-Range Aviation or will it be the modernised Tu-160M2 which made its maiden flight in January 2018.
The Operational-Tactical Aviation will be represented by 5 Mig-29SMT fighters from Akhtubinsk, 4 Su-24M frontline bombers, 4 Mig-31BM interceptors and 4 Su-34 bombers. Recently two Mig-31 aeroplanes were shown with Kh-47 Kindzhal hypersonic missiles. There is no official statement to attendance of aircraft in such configuration this year.
Then a composite formation of 2 Su-35S, 4 Su-30SM and 4 Su-34 will perform a flypast only to prepare the audience for the “Kubinka diamond” formed by the pilots of the Russian Knights and the Swifts aerobatic groups (5 Su-30SM and 3 Mig-29). The parade will close with a flypast of 6 Su-25 from Lipetsk who will paint the skies over Moscow with Russian tricolour. Surprisingly there is not a single Su-57 in the official roster for the air parade over the Red Square.
All flypasts, weather permitting, will be performed at altitudes ranging from 150 to 450 metres and at airspeeds from 200 to 550 km/h.
All photos © Министерство обороны Российской Федерации, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
