On May 10, 1995 the State Unitary Aviation Enterprise EMERCOM of Russia was established by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 457. This date is officially considered the day of the establishment of the aviation of our department.

Today, there are five aviation rescue centers of the EMERCOM of Russia: Khabarovsk (Khabarovsk), Krasnoyarsk complex (Krasnoyarsk), Zhukovsky (Zhukovsky), North-West (St. Petersburg) and Yuzhny (Rostov-on-Don). Separately based divisions of the Centers operate in 24 constituent entities of the country, the agency's aviation rescue company is located on the territory of the Ramenskoye airfield near Moscow.

The use of aviation significantly reduces the time to provide assistance. The flights are aimed at preventing and eliminating the consequences of emergencies and evacuating victims, including emergency medical air evacuation of citizens, performing humanitarian operations, including in foreign countries.

For example, over the past 2019, the aviation of the Russian Emergencies Ministry performed 3.4 thousand flights to eliminate emergencies. In total, for 4 thousand hours in the sky, the pilots of the department transported more than 900 tons of various cargo and almost 9 thousand people. In addition, 43 flights were sent to carry out humanitarian operations to deliver more than 360 tons of cargo. Already in 2020, the aviation of the Russian Emergencies Ministry took part in the delivery of humanitarian cargo to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the People's Republic of China and the evacuation of Russians from Japan.

Also in 2019, when extinguishing fires, more than 25 thousand tons of extinguishing liquid were drained and about 500 km of the edge of the fires were extinguished. Air assistance has already been actively provided to a number of regions this year. The flight personnel of the EMERCOM of Russia aviation are prepared, in particular, for the discharge of extinguishing fluid at night, and for the use of a forced avalanche descent system.

For a quarter of a century, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's aviation has been widely involved in solving the problems of ensuring the international activities of our country, delivering humanitarian aid to regions affected by natural and man-made disasters, helping foreign countries in eliminating wildfires and their consequences.

For example, the Southern Aviation Rescue Center of the EMERCOM of Russia performs the tasks of ensuring the operational activities of the EMERCOM of Russia in the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts of our country. The aviation group is based on airfields in Rostov-on-Don, Adler, Gelendzhik, Simferopol, Minvody and Makhachkala. In service - Be-200ES amphibious aircraft, Mi-26, Mi-8 Ka-32 helicopters and others.

These aircraft are designed to deliver emergency response teams to emergency sites, extinguish fires, evacuate casualties, reconnaissance and other work. The center also includes a parachute rescue service and a group of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Aircraft crews are capable of rescuing people in any conditions, including landing on unfamiliar unequipped sites in mountainous areas, evacuating people from sea areas, and working at any time of the day. They are on duty around the clock and are ready to leave immediately for the emergency area. Southern ASC successfully performs tasks during rescue and humanitarian actions not only in the region, but also beyond its borders.

In Tatarstan, its own aviation EMERCOM of Russia appeared on November 15, 2007. On this day, the first EMERCOM aviation base in the Volga region began its work at the Kazan International Airport. The crew of the Mi-8MTV helicopter took up combat duty to provide air support for various operations - the search for people and objects, rescue on ice and water, extinguishing forest fires.

Today, the Kazan Emergency Situations Ministry aviators are armed with the Mi-8MTV1 helicopter - this is a universal vehicle (one of the best in its class in terms of flight performance) equipped with all the necessary equipment for carrying out rescue operations. The carrying capacity of the helicopter is 13 tons. It can accommodate 10-12 people with rescue equipment or two medical modules for transporting bedridden victims (patients).

The main task is to provide aviation support for the activities of rescuers and firefighters of Tatarstan in the event of large-scale accidents, natural disasters and natural disasters, delivery of rescuers and doctors to the emergency site, as well as transportation of victims by sanitary flights. Also, with the help of the aviation of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, aerial reconnaissance is carried out in the emergency zone and the guidance of search and rescue teams to search targets, as well as the landing of rescuers and the evacuation of victims from disaster areas. Aviation EMERCOM of Russia, in addition, performs work directly related to the elimination of the consequences of emergencies. First of all, this is extinguishing fires from the air.

Some statistics: since 2007, the flight time of the Tatarstan air link has amounted to more than 2100 hours, of which 1200 hours on extinguishing forest and man-made fires from the air. To extinguish forest fires, they repeatedly flew to the regions of the Volga region - Bashkortostan, Mari El, Nizhny Novgorod and Orenburg regions, Perm Territory, as well as Gelendzhik and Novorossiysk. In August 2008, they took part in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the city of Tskhinval in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian armed conflict. In addition, the Tatarstan aviators of the Ministry of Emergency Situations carried out a sanitary evacuation of more than 210 victims (wounded and seriously ill) from the scene of the accident to medical institutions.

EMERCOM of Russia notes the importance of using unmanned aerial vehicles in aviation support of measures to prevent emergency situations and eliminate their consequences.

So, in 2019, the unmanned aircraft of the Russian Emergencies Ministry performed more than 7.7 thousand flights. For 2.1 thousand hours of flights from the air, almost 12 thousand km2 were examined, more than 90 fires with an area of ​​over 2 thousand km2 were identified, 270 objects were examined.

During search operations using unmanned aerial vehicles, 37 people were found lost in forests and hard-to-reach areas, including 16 people in the Volga River delta.

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the EMERCOM of Russia began in 2009 on the basis of the "Centrospas" detachment in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.

Over the past period, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) of the EMERCOM of Russia have been used in the course of aviation support of measures to prevent emergencies and eliminate their consequences associated with the occurrence of large forest, peat, landscape fires, fires, floods and flooding, man-made accidents, when performing searches - rescue, rescue and other urgent work.

At present, the structure of unmanned aviation of the EMERCOM of Russia is represented by 80 organizational-controlling units and 170 units operating UAS included in it. The staff number of specialists is more than 800 people. The departmental fleet includes about 400 UAS units.

Today, the Ministry has taken a course towards a quantitative and qualitative renewal of the UAS fleet until 2025 with the equipping of unmanned aviation units with modern multifunctional UAS, structurally located on the basis of mobile control points - all-terrain vehicles of various modifications that ensure their mobility and autonomy.

For example, in June 2020, new equipment entered service with the EMERCOM of Russia aviation. New unmanned aircraft systems of aircraft and multi-rotor types are installed on the basis of a Ford-transit off-road vehicle. One of the systems will go into service in the capital department of the department. The aircraft-type complex will be sent to the departmental Academy of Civil Protection for training personnel, as well as using it directly in emergency situations.

Since 2009, our department has been using unmanned aircraft to assess the situation at the scene of an emergency, as well as in the search for lost people in hard-to-reach areas.

The new equipment was designed by a Russian manufacturer according to the technical assignment of the Russian Emergencies Ministry and taking into account the requirements of rescuers.

By the end of this year, the Ministry will receive another 10 cross-country vehicles. Of these, three are based on a KAMAZ vehicle with long-range aviation unmanned systems up to 500 km, others are based on a Ford-transit with an action of up to 100 km and 4 hours of continuous flight.

Unmanned aerial vehicles of aircraft, helicopter and combined types included in the UAS with unified replaceable and mixed target loads, various ranges and flight durations, the ability to use in various climatic conditions allow the EMERCOM of Russia aviation to perform the entire range of reconnaissance, special and transport tasks, including aerial photography of the area for the subsequent creation of orthophotomaps and 3D models of the terrain.

This approach will make it possible to provide reliable cover for the territories of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, transport highways, potentially dangerous and important infrastructure facilities, timely effective aviation support for measures to prevent emergency situations and eliminate their consequences, including large-scale ones.

For the effective use of UAS in the interests of the Ministry, a control system for unmanned aviation units and a UAS application system have been developed, which ensure the solution of the entire range of tasks assigned to the unmanned aviation of the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

A system for training qualified unmanned aviation specialists has been created and continues to be improved, including professional retraining at the AGZ EMERCOM of Russia in the specialty "Operation of UAS", retraining of specialists for regular UAS, professional training in subdivisions and advanced training.

Published in the «AviaSoyuz» journal