MOSCOW, May 4. /TASS/. Crews of the Russian Aerospace Force are set to hold their first rehearsal on Friday morning flying over Moscow’s Red Square as part of the preparations for the Victory Parade on May 9, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
"Airplanes and helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Force will fly over the center of Moscow in a parade formation on May 4 at approximately 10:40 a.m. Moscow time," a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry said.
"This year’s first rehearsal flight over Red Square will help pilots to verify every second of their checkpoints among the flight route and to make sure that the air formation looks spectacular as well as in strict order and in compliance with flight security," the spokesperson added.
A pair of Russia’s cutting-edge Su-57 fighter jets will fly for the first time over Moscow’s Red Square during the Victory Parade on May 9, the Defense Ministry announced earlier.
According to the defense ministry, this year the military parade will involve 73 crews of tactical, long-range, military transport and army aviation.
Apart from the 5th-generation fighter jets, strategic Tu-160 and Tu-95MS missile-carrying aircraft, Tu-22M3 long-range bombers, Il-78 aerial refueling tankers and Il-76MD military transport planes will fly over Moscow’s Red Square on Victory Day.
The parade flight formation will include Mi-26, Mi-8, Mi-28N, Ka-52 and Mi-35 helicopters, Su-35S, Su-30SM. MiG-29 and MiG-31BM fighter jets, Su-34 and Su-24M bombers while Su-25 attack aircraft will traditionally emit the smoke in the colors of the Russian flag.
As Russia’s Defense Ministry said, all the Aerospace Force’s crews involved in the parade had redeployed from the places of their permanent basing to operational aerodromes. Combat aircraft will take off from eight airfields in the Moscow, Tver, Saratov, Kaluga, Voronezh, Lipetsk and Nizhny Novgorod Regions to fly to the Victory Parade.
Army aviation crews will fly at an altitude of 150 meters and at a speed of 200 km per hour. The crews of tactical, long-range and military transport aircraft will fly at an altitude of 300 to 500 meters at a speed of up to 600 km per hour, the defense ministry said earlier.
Su-57 fighter
The Russian fifth-generation Perspective Aviation Complex of Frontline Aviation (PAK FA) fighter jet took to the skies for the first time in 2010.
As was reported in August 2017, Russia’s PAK FA fifth-generation fighter jet received the serial index of Su-57. The cutting-edge fighter performed its first flight with a new engine on December 5, 2017.
The experimental design work on the most advanced fighter jet should be completed in 2019 and its deliveries to the troops should begin at that time. As the United Aircraft Corporation’s chief executive said, the pre-production batch will consist of 12 such planes.