u/Looselipssinkships93

in 2004 India and Israel signed a 1.1 billion dollar deal for 3 Phalcon systems, a year prior they had signed a deal with Ilyushin for 3 Il-76TDs, in 2005 the 3 airframes were delivered from Uzbekistan's Tashkent Mechanical Plant to Beriev for conversion to the A-50 standard, after the necessary equipment and newer PS-90A-76 engines were installed they were flown to Israel in 2008 to have the radar dome and other systems installed, a year later they were flown back to India, they're all assigned to No. 50 squadron at Agra Air Force Station

they along with China's KJ-2000 are considered more advanced then Russia's A-50 and modernized A-50M/U

first flew in 2003 and formerly operated by the defunct Dalavia Airlines and Airstars Cargo Airlines, bought by Tupolev in 2014 for conversion to a flying laboratory at the Kazan plant

though the the radar provided 360-degree coverage it was limited to detecting high altitude targets and struggled to detect small, low-flying targets due to it's limited look-down capability, it was effective over water, it had poor thermal and sound insulation, the contra-rotating props compromised the performance of the radar and the vibrations caused discomfort to the crew, the radar equipment emitted a loud humming sound and sleeping in the rest compartment was impossible due to it being located behind the wing where all the noisy control valves for cabin pressurization was located, after extended missions, especially those missions that required mid-air refueling, the radar and electronics operators would leave the airplane looking almost "half dead”, poor metal plating of the aircraft's structure led to a gradual buildup of static electricity which after 3 hours of flight made some parts impossible to grasp and caused electric shocks, it lacked a APU which made life much more difficult on board, especially in the winter, due to poor shielding the radar antenna's strong radiation posed a health hazard to everyone on board, it was also planned to help guide Tu-128 interceptors to their targets but the system was not fully developed during it's service, despite it's problems it was accessed by western intelligence to have powerful jamming equipment, unlike the Tu-95 and Tu-142 it lacked any defensive armament though some aircraft were fitted with the SPS-100 Rezeda ECM system and automatic chaff ejectors in the rear, by 1984 the A-50 entered service and they were retired and placed in storage until 1990 where they were all scrapped except for the first one built which at the time was being used as a flying laboratory at taganrog, it was transferred there in 1977, it was used to test the A-50's shmel radar and later tested a mockup of the shmel-m radar for the A-50M, it was retired in 1990 and was last seen in an abandoned state at the Gromov Flight Research Institute's radio testing range at the Zhukovsky Airfield graveyard between 1992 to 1995 where it was later scrapped

it's named in honor of Colonel Vladimir Dubinsky, the first commander of the 76th Independent Anti-submarine Aviation Regiment (OSAP) of the Northern Fleet

to see a VVS plane in eggplant today would be super rare as most got repainted after coming out of overhaul, crashed or lost next door, the navy continues to use it on the Su-30SMs and MiG-29KR/KUBR

the Helio AU-24 Stallion is a STOL aircraft purchased by the USAF for the credible chase program during the vietnam war, it was fitted with a 20mm M193 rotary cannon (Cobra chin gun) mounted on the left side cargo door and 5 hardpoints under the wings and fuselage, it was intended to be used as a light gunship, COIN duties and transport, the USAF never flew them for combat operations and mostly tested them in Thailand or the US, of the 20 built, 18 were purchased by the USAF with the intention of giving them to the South Vietnamese Air Force but was found to be unsuitable for combat operations and instead sold to the Khmer Air Force in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge shot down 3 stallions, 1 crashed in the Gulf of Tonkin while trying to escape from the country as it was being taken over by communist forces and another 3 escaped to Thailand where they were later sold on the civilian market, the rest were captured and put into service with the new Kampuchea govt, poor maintenance and a chronic shortage of spare parts left the fleet down to 1 airworthy airframe, it survived the 1979 vietnamese invasion of cambodia which toppled the genocidal khmer rouge, it was taken into service with the air force of the kampuchean people's revolutionary armed forces which was later renamed the cambodian people's armed forces when the country was renamed cambodia in 1989 and finally retired in 1993, that same year the monarchy was restored and the armed forces was absorbed into the newly re-established royal cambodian armed forces

full name is 31st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, unit was disbanded in 2009 and all personnel and aircraft transferred to Millerovo Air Base, in 2014 the new 31st Fighter Aviation Regiment is formed but without it's Guards designation, awards and banner of the original unit, therefore it's not considered the regiment's successor, currently they fly the Su-30SM, also stationed at the base is a Su-25 unit

full name is the 120th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment

the Huey which is either a B or C model is fitted with the M16 armament subsystem consisting of 4 M60C machine guns (2 mounted on each side) and two 2.75-inch rocket pods, later replaced by the improved XM21/M21 system which mounted 2 miniguns

the Su-27s were retired in 2016 and replaced by the Su-30SM and Su-35S

was used as a test bed for the Saturn AL-41F1 engines that power the Su-35S, T-50 prototypes and the Su-57, it also powers the S-70 drone and the Su-30SM2 and powered the prototype Su-35, the original AL-41 was used on the prototype MiG 1.44, 710 was the last Su-27M that was still active and flying, it's most likely been retired