MOSCOW, December 25 (RIA Novosti) – Five multi-role Su-34 bombers will be delivered for a second squadron of the Baltimore air base in Voronezh, southwest Russia, on Tuesday.
“Today five Sukhoi Su-34 multi-role frontline bombers have flown from the Novosibirsk aircraft factory’s air field. The jets will make a non-stop flight from Novosibirsk to Voronezh, a distance of over 3,000 kilometers,” said Western Military District (WMD) spokesman Col. Andrei Bobrun.
Bobrun said earlier that that the Novosibirsk aircraft factory planned to deliver ten Su-34 bombers to Voronezh in the near future.
The air force established its first Su-34 squadron at the end of 2011. A two-seat strike-dedicated derivative of the Su-27 fighter, the Su-34 can carry a payload of up to eight tons of guided weapons over 4,000 kilometers.
Russia launched full-scale production of Su-34s in 2008 at a Novosibirsk-based aircraft-manufacturing plant, a subsidiary of the Sukhoi Aircraft Holding.