Russian military pilots use commercial GPS receivers during their combat operations in Syria, according to Viktor Alksnis.
Nationalist politician and Soviet Air Force veteran Viktor Alksnis drew attention to recent images of Su-34 Fullback fighter-bomber aircraft in Syria, writing on Facebook that military pilots use commercial GPS receivers during their combat operations.
Recent images show the cockpit of the Russian Su-34 Fullback strike jet during combat missions in support of the Syrian Armed Forces in the north of the country. In the image, Viktor Alksnis has spotted a commercial GPS receiver that was secured with a simple clamp in the cockpit of the Su-34.
Experts later determined that the photo shows a U.S.-manufactured GPS receiver developed by the Garmin company. Russian military pilots used the GPS receiver of Garmin’s popular entry-level eTrex Legend family.
Apparently, the Russian military used an American GPS receiver to duplicate their onboard navigation systems, which reportedly often malfunctioned in real combat conditions.
Garmin says that with its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, eTrex Legend locates position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons.