Strategic aviation must be returned to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Major General A. Otroshchenko, chief of the naval aviation of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, said about this in an interview with the naval newspaper Flag of the Motherland. Answering the journalist's question, the officer noted that he would expect to see such combat vehicles as the Tu-23M3 missile carriers in the Black Sea Fleet. At the same time, experts agree that the general's statements look utopian.
According to General Oleksandr Otroshchenko, it means, first of all, combat aircraft of strike aircraft, which have a large radius of action, high-precision and powerful weapons, so that they, without entering the zones of destruction of enemy air defense, can effectively use them, not only against ground forces, but also against ships of various classes, including aircraft carriers - said the chief of aviation of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in an interview with naval journalists.
The Russian general made a clarification that the conversation was about Tu-22M3 aircraft, previously based in the Crimea. These vehicles were capable of delivering nuclear weapons. And also about the modernized Su-24M. According to him, the upgraded Su-24Ms may become part of the Black Sea Fleet in July this year. At the same time, Alexander Otroshchenko admitted that the Russian Black Sea Fleet is experiencing a serious shortage of experienced pilots, since almost all of them were released as part of the army reform. In addition, the Russian Black Sea Fleet does not have a pilot training simulator.
General draws castles in the air?
At the same time, various news agencies say that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has serious staffing problems in the issue of manning the existing aircraft, which are currently based at the Crimean airfields in Kach and Gvardeisky. And if new planes arrive, then there will simply be no one to fly on them, Russian officers say.
Along with this, experts note the groundlessness of the general's statements about the likelihood of a quick re-equipment of the fleet's aviation, and even more so - the transfer of strategic combat vehicles to the Crimean peninsula. Sergei Kulik, head of the Sevastopol analytical center "Nomos", put forward two versions of this question, but both, in his words, make it unfeasible to deploy such equipment on Ukrainian territory. He thinks that this is either an initiative of a general who dreams of simply commanding strategic aviation, or a special injection of information agreed at the top to check the reaction of the Ukrainian authorities.
Serhiy Kulik believes that the reaction of the official Kiev should be unambiguous: any transfer of aircraft that will change the military-political situation in this region of Europe is impossible, since this would lead to a violation of Ukraine's international obligations.
The expert is also confident that Russia will not risk redeploying new aircraft to its bases in Crimea, without the official "good" from Kiev, and such "good" is unlikely, especially with regard to strategic missile carriers.
Meanwhile, the press center of the Russian Black Sea Fleet does not comment in any way on the statement of the head of the naval aviation, General Alexander Otroshchenko.
