Aircraft obsolescence, spares shortages and procurement problems are leading to a serious downgrading of the Russian air force's combat capability, according to a senior air force official.
The air force's plight was detailed by deputy commander-in-chief Col. Gen. Mikhail Soroka at a Russian parliamentary hearing.
Soroka told the hearing that, in the last two years, the air force had cut the number of in-service aircraft by 40%. "This cannot be compensated in forthcoming years by quality growth of aircraft and weapons," he added.
According to Soroka, half of the inventory consists of outdated aircraft. By 2000-5, only about 20% of the current fleet will remain operational - the remainder will have to be retired because they will have reached the end of their lifetimes.
Ground equipment at military airbases is also deteriorating. Only 30% of 209 operational military airfields can be used at night and for bad-weather flights, while 133 need major repairs and reconstruction.
While the Russian armed forces need to procure between 250 and 300 aircraft a year to maintain their combat capability, in 1994 only 32 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters were purchased.
The air force says that it is receiving between only 30% and 35% of the necessary spares, with the result that its mission-readiness rate is between 30% and 50% in operational units.
Fuel shortages have hit flight hours hard: the average in the air force is 30-50h a year per pilot.
In 1995, for the first time, the defence-acquisition budget does not allow for the delivery of a single aircraft. Compared to the past year, the budget for military aviation has been reduced by 68%.
Leonid Shkadov, deputy head of Central Aero/Hydrodynamics Institute, has said at parliamentary hearings that many research-and-development projects have been cancelled, including Mikoyan's fifth-generation advanced fighter, "Object 1-42", although this has been denied by Analatoly Belosvet, acting head of the Mikoyan design bureau.
Object 1-42's first flight has been repeatedly delayed.
Source: Flight International
