This year’s Aviadarts competition took place from 29 July to 11 August at Dyagilevo air base, situated just west of the city of Ryazan, 180 kilometres south-east of Moscow. This year’s edition was the sixth Aviadarts competition and four nations competed alongside each other in seven different categories. The first edition, in 2013, took place at Lipetsk air base further in the south of Russia, with the use of the Pogonovo range (Voronezh). The advantage of using Dyagilevo air base is that the Dubrovichi range is only 30 kilometres from the base, enabling pilots to focus on the competition elements for maximum results.
Aviadarts is part of the International Army Games. The 2018 edition, which is also referred to as the “Military Olympics”, consisted of 28 games taking place in seven countries. These “Military Olympics” included games like the tank biathlon, sea cup and Gunsmith master. A total of 33 countries from mainly Asia, the Middle East and Africa participated in the games, making it a truly international competition. Each game attracted different countries which sent in their best teams to compete for the trophies.
Competition
Aviadarts 2018 attracted participants from three foreign nations, besides the host nation Russia. A diverse selection of aircraft landed at Dyagilevo air base in the week leading up to the start of the competition. Over sixty crew from the People's Republic of China, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan and Russian Federation competed in the contest.
There were seven categories to determine the best pilots of fighter jets, bombers, assault, long-range, military transport aircraft, and army aviation. These seven categories consisted of Fighter, Assault, Bomber, Long-range aviation, Military transport aviation, Army aviation on transport helicopters and Army aviation on combat helicopters.
The pilots competed in the following test disciplines: physical training, aerial reconnaissance, piloting technique and combat employment against ground targets. In addition, fighters workedon penetration of the simulated enemy’s air defence systems and several dogfight elements. At each stage during the competition, pilots demonstrateddropping bombs, launched guided and non-guided missiles, firedaircraft guns, carried out airborne landings and also covered airborne operations in cooperation with ground troops.
Participating crews of the Aviadarts 2018 contest started off with a physical training test during the first weekend of the competition.During the first two days of the competition that followed, all the participants were given the opportunity to practice. The foreign participants were given the possibility to get familiar with the layout of the airfield and the layout of the range that was used. With the diverse selection of types of planes and helicopters, this meant that the fighter and attack planes would fly for the first time on the Tuesday, while the heavy bombers and transport planes would fly their initial missions on the Wednesday. Helicopters flew their missions during both days, providing an almost constant flow of flying activity.
In next two days, the skills of the pilots were really put to the test with competition flights starting. This followed the same way of operations, with fighters and light bombers flying on the Thursday and mainly the heavy bombers and transport planes flying on the Friday. These competition days meant a far stricter regime, with aircraft taking off exactly 15 minutes apart from each other.
Results
The competition’s main trophy, the Aviadarts Cup, went to the VVS who won four out of seven categories, while the People's Liberation Army Air Force took second place and scored most points in two categories. The final spot went to the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan, who scored most points in one category.Commander of Air Force – Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces Lieutenant General Andrey Yudin handed over the cup to the team leader Colonel VasilyYakimovich, during the closing ceremony at Dyagilevo air base on 11August.
With this year’s edition of Aviadarts attracting more aircraft from the foreign participants, it showed that the competition was seen as a valuable way to train pilots and crews. With the recent participation of Russian pilots in the Syria conflict, it was also a very good way to measure up against pilots that had real combat experience. Aviadarts is not your common exercise, like Red Flag, Maple Flag or Frisian Flag that we are used to in the West. But it is a growing competition that will surely attract more participants from countries in the East in the future.
Text and photos: Erik Bruijns
Four Su-34 Fullbacks fly in close formation while dropping their bombs on the Dubrovichi range
J10A made its debut at Aviadarts. Waiting to depart is a Belarus Yak-130 and on the flightline a Russian Mi-26
Mi-8AMTsh-1 takes off from the Dubrovichi range after dropping off military personnel
People's Liberation Army Air Force H6K taxies out for a morning mission
Mi-24V departs for another mission. The Republic of Belarus send three of these attack helicopters
J10A made its debut at Aviadarts. Waiting to depart is a Belarus Yak-130 and on the flightline a Russian Mi-26
Su-30SM about to touch down
Su-25SM taxies back after a mission. This was one of in total nine Frogfoots that participated at this year's Aviadarts
Tu-22M-3 takes off with part of the Aviadart’s flightline in the background
Mi-26 lands at the Dubrovichi range to deliver military vehicles and troops
PLAAF Y9 takes off for another mission. Being one of the newest transport planes and supposedly similar to the C-130J, the engines are pretty smoky
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan participated with their newest assets. Three brand new Su-30SM's participated in the Exercise