The adaptive training courses of ground target strike of the Aviadarts international contest was held in Russia on Aug 2, local time.
The contest is part of the International Army Games 2016, and over 50 aircraft in 15 models from total of 48 flight crews from China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus participated in the live-fire training.
This is so far the biggest training event in terms of number of aircraft, aircraft models and scale of this year’s Aviadarts contest.
The adaptive live-fire training is divided into four groups of fighters, bombers, long-range aviation and helicopters. All teams are required to get familiar with the airport, airspace, targets in the shooting range and other competition environment, and to verify flight equipment and understand flight procedures.
According to requirements of the event, all pilots should be 35 years old or younger. Advanced Russian-made Su-34, Su-35 fighter jets and Ka-52 helicopters will all demonstrate their performance and skills in the contest.
Two JH-7 fighter-bombers of the PLA Air Force attended the training in the bomber group, each of which was loaded with one aerial bomb and eight rocket projectiles as required in the contest. The two Chinese pilots Wang Xiaojun and Luo Feng took off and flew to the designated airspace at 15:12 on August 2, Moscow time (20:12 on August 2, Beijing time).
When they entered the target range, Wang and Luo begun to search the ground visually and bombed targets within the specified time. After the bombing task, they rapidly did a combat turn, and then built attack routes. Again, they completed another attack on ground targets by pulling up, diving and launching rocket projectiles.
“Rocket projectile is a non-guided weapon and thus pilot should operate the aircraft to attack small ground targets. This is more difficult than holding a pistol to hit the targets on the move. This task aims to test pilots’s capability to control the aircraft and the targeting accuracy,” said Luo.
All Chinese pilots participating in the contest have arrived in the competition area safe and sound at Dyagilevo air base in Ryazan Oblast of Russia on July 25, local time. They passed physical fitness test and completed lessons on air situation information and flight safety rules. They also finished preparatory activities including visiting the range along with teams from other countries.
According to Igor, director of the long-range aviation flight traffic center of Russian Air Force, “Chinese pilots are well-prepared and they have excellent performance especially in actual combat and ground strikes. Since the first Aviadarts contest held in 2014, we began to feel the high training level of the Chinese Air Force. Russian pilots can feel the pressure as they compete with their Chinese peers.”
After the end of the adaptive training, Aviadarts contest will enter the official race stage. The visual reconnaissance and aerobatics competition courses will be held on the morning of August 3 in Russia, local time.
