From The Archives: The Crumbling Russian Air Force

The cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology’s March 5, 2001 issue featured a Russian air force Tupolev Tu-95/142 Bear-H cruise missile bomber approaching a refueling drogue from an Il-78 tanker during a 1993 training flight over southern Russia. The sharp-eyed can see AWST Senior Editor Craig Covault in the dome atop the fuselage. 

Reporting years later from Moscow, Covault’s cover story detailed the “dilapidated and demoralized” state of the Russian air force at the time, when hundreds of its aircraft were rusting into the ground and thousands of pilots were receiving little or no flight time. 

Speaking on background to Aviation Week, roughly a dozen experts and close observers from seven countries confirmed to Covault that the overall situation in the Russian air force was generally worse than acknowledged by Moscow. 

Photo by Katsuhiko Tokunaga, from the Il-78 tanker.

See the cover and read the full issue dated March 5, 2001

Read the cover story Russian Air Force Facing Deepening Crisis on page 60.