The opening ceremony took place on August 23 with Vladimir Putin in attendance. The Russian President arrived in a style, aboard a helicopter belonging to the air detachment serving government members. The Mil Mi-8AMT made a smooth touch down at the helipad inside the Patriot military patriotic park in Kubinka to the west of Moscow. Thousands of servicemen and defence industry employees representing over a hundred nations had been waiting for him for nearly two hours at the square before the Congress Centre. Putin made a speech in which he the forum and the games as “meetings of a high scale and importance… that unite representatives of the Russian armed forces and their counterparts in many other countries, as well as leaders of the defence industry, scientific schools and engineering teams… as they demonstrate the most recent achievements of the military science and industry”.

Over 28 thousand pieces of modern weaponry and equipment were exhibited at the Army’2021, “most of those performed well in a real combat, demonstrating their high reliability and lethality”, according to the Russian President.

Putin specially mentioned the Kinzhal (Dagger) aviation complex (makes use of a MiG-31 interceptor and hypersonic anti-ship missiles) and the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik (Hunter) long-range unmanned combat aerial vehicle. The Russian leader attributed them to the most modern weaponry with a level of performance that does not have analogues elsewhere... “and will not have for quite a while”.  

The President of Russia also said that the share of modern systems in the national nuclear deterrent force exceeds 80%, well above the respective figures for other world superpowers. “While it is clear that not all [participants in the Army’2021 and Army Games 2021] may have an interest in this, but for us it is very important as this figure gives some apprehension to what kind of power our Armed Forces possess, and also the level of achievements for our science and technology”.

As though to illustrate that point, the RosAtom state corporation demonstrated full scale mock ups of the first Soviet atomic bomb, the RDS-1, and the first bomb with thermal nuclear boost, the RDS-6S. These were designed for use by the Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bomber. This type is still in service with the Russian Air and Space Force. Among other aircraft on display at the Kubinka air force base there were a Tu-95MSM (featuring under wing pylons for modern long-range cruise missiles), a Tu-22M3 “Eurostrategic” bomber and a Tu-160 long-range bomber, the latter two equipped with variable geometry wings and able to fly supersonically.

Aviadarts

The share of aircraft in the total of all exhibits at the Army’2021 military technical forum exceeds that in the grand total of all pieces of weapon systems and military equipment involved in the Army Games 2021. There is an explanation to that. Of 34 military sport competitions, there is only one for air crews, in the form of Aviadarts. In 2021, this popular contest took place on August 22-28, with the national teams from Russia, Belarus and China in the running. Flights were made from the Dyagilevo air force base, involving firing at targets on the Dubrovichi firing range. Both Dyagilevo and Dubrovichi are located in the Ryazan region.

Over half a hundred airplanes and helicopters flew in frame of the Aviadarts’2021 competition. This number is somewhat below the grand total of operable aircraft on display at the Army’2021 forum. However, all fifty took to the air every day, sometimes making several flights each, while most of the aircraft at Kubinka were demonstrated statically (as were all those on display at the square before the Congress Centre and Patriot Expo exhibition halls).

The Aviadarts competition differs from all other Army Games contests in the fact that all national teams use aircraft of their own. The Chinese pilots flew the J-10B lightweight and J-16 heavyweight fighters (the latter type making its first appearance outside China), and the H-6 bombers. Besides, for the logistics and competition the team made use of the Y-9 turboprops (Chinese clone of the Antonov An-12) and the newest Y-20 jets (their outward appearance seems like a combination of the wing and engines from the Ilyushin Il-76 and the fuselage and empennage from C-17 Globemaster).

The most spectacular show in frame of the Aviadards took place on August 28, under its own name of Aviamix. National crews demonstrated flight performance and combat capabilities of their aircraft, involving firing at targets on the firing range. As part of the competitions, the pilots performed formation and solo, and executed some aerobatics.

The Russians won in the nominations “Attack Aircraft”, “Bombers” and “Rotorcraft”, whereas the Chinese were the best in “Fighters” and “Airlifters”.   

Colonel Anatoly Ulianov, a senior referee at Aviadarts’2021, commented on this to journalists. “By sending their best aircraft, Belarus and China added much heat to the competition, while their hand-picked pilots and technicians proved tough competitors, able to challenge to the Russian hosts in every field”, he said.

Colonel Andrei Ostreiko from Belarus also mentioned the tendency for “more heat” in many of the “Military Olympics” sports, especially in such prestigious contests as the Aviadarts. Winning “gold” is the most honourable deed for servicemen of any country which send a national team to the Games. “Year after year, the healthy competition rises, and so it becomes harder for our servicemen to win medals”, Ostreiko said.

Apart from Aviadarts, the Dubrovichi firing range also provides the base for other competitions such as the Airborne Platoon. It started on August 22 and finished on September 2, involving 18 national teams. Every participating country sent in 40-44 paratroopers for this contest. Among the tasks set before the servicemen was to demonstrate high landing accuracy when jumping from an airplane or a helicopter. Chinese paratroopers relied on national parachute systems.

Clear Sky

As a rule, servicemen try harder when the competition is held in the territory of their home country. In that case thousands of country mates watch the he sportsmen perform. Out of 34 contests, 16 are held in Russia. Ten co-organizer countries run the rest. Among three contests in China there is “Clear Sky” competition between groups of soldiers armed with portable surface to air missiles. They compete in how fast they can reach an assigned position and in the accuracy of firing.

Both Russia and China are prominent arms exporters. Naturally, they share an interest in popularization of their wares round the globe. Here “War Olympics” serve many purposes, including field demonstration and sharing national army’s expertize in handling these weapons systems with those who may be potentially interested in buying a quantity. According to the Army Games terms, the host party provides all teams with equipment and all types of support, including repair, maintenance and refuelling. Besides, it supplies the necessary amount of ammunition for training and completion stages. Furthermore, the host party takes care of accommodation, food, and medical support for the personnel, taking into account implementation of all sanitary and anti-epidemic measures to counteract coronavirus infection.

Pursuant to the provisions on the Army Games, crews are able to operate vehicles which are in service with their national armed forces. In some contests, a number of teams can use their own vehicles and ammunition. To ensure this, the host side helps organize transportation of that hardware by rail, road or air.

Teams from Belarus, Venezuela, Egypt and Uzbekistan, which arrived in China for the Clear Sky, agreed to use the weapons from the arsenal of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), while the Russians brought the Igla and Typhoon-PVO systems with them.

By the way, another competition held in China was “Suvorov’s Assault” at the Korla firing range, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It saw all competing teams running Type 86A infantry fighting vehicles from PLA stock apart for the Russians on BMP-3s of their own. Likewise, the Tank Biathlon in the Alabino firing range near Moscow saw 18 national teams using the Russian T-72s save the Chinese on the Type 96 main battle tank.

Over 800 PLA officers and soldiers took part in the Army Games 2021, competing in 21 contests. This is somewhat less than Russia (34), Belarus (27) and Uzbekistan (24). Speaking to journalists in Kubinka, Chief Colonel Gu Qingzen (China’s representative in the chief panel of referees at Army Games 2021) stated that the event serves an excellent platform for the servicemen to show their skills, better train in the equipment and share experience with other armies.

“The games give a good chance for our team to excel in the competitions, as well as to demonstrate the performance of the homemade equipment. We take part in 12 contests in Russia and 6 in other countries, and host three in Korla: Suvorov’s Assault (IFV crews), Clean Sky (portable SAM operators) and Safe Environment (nuclear, chemical and biological protection specialists). Competing for cups, our soldiers and officers foster the military morale, improve their skills and learn new ones. National crews have been improving their team work and spirit, and achieving higher scores. Our crews will continue to compete justly and with dignity, to uphold the PLA image on the world stage. We express desire to take part in more competitions in the future, and to broaden interaction with other armed forces during the army games”. In conclusion, Gu Qingzen gave thanks to the Russian defence ministry for organising the event and expressed hope that “under Russian leadership” the Army Games will expand in scope and number of competitions.

Dynamic performance at Alabino

It has become a tradition and an essential part of the Army international military technical forums, to conduct so-called “dynamic performance” of selected weapons systems at the Alabino firing range. Held on a daily basis, the event involves over 230 pieces of equipment, mostly from the Russian army stock, and some owned by the local industry.

The dynamic performance is run under a single tactical policy in application to manoeuvres of a multiservice tactical group. Spectators are offered sixteen tactical episodes. These require an extensive use of the firing range’s capacity and facilities to give the crews enough space to manoeuvre and hit targets as they appear.

The dynamic performance covers three elements of the natural environment: the air, the ground and the water. In 2021, the combat aviation was represented by a Kamov Ka-52 and Mil Mi-28 attack helicopters. In two tactical episodes (instead of one at the previous forums), the pair fired at targets with 80-mm S-8 unguided rockets and 30-mm cannon shells.

Besides, a pair of the Mil Mi-8MTV rotorcraft delivered a platoon of commandos to the battlefield. The crack troops used ropes to make their way from the hovering helicopters to the ground surface.

An Ilyushin Il-76MD airlifter and a Mi-26 heavy helicopter sprinkled water as necessary to dump the grass surface and extinguish fires that flamed after targets were hit.

The S-300V and Thor-M2 self-propelled launchers of surface to air missiles represented the Antiaircraft component of the Russian Ground Forces. Besides, the Tunguska-M1 and Pantsyr-S1 self-propelled missile-and-cannon systems, on a tracked and wheeled chassis, respectively, fired at targets with their 30-mm guns.

Only once during the forum, a mixed force composed of the Tunguska-M1, Pantsyr-S1 and Kornet combat vehicles demonstrated how they can act together to suppress various pop-up targets with their missiles and guns. Another addition to the dynamic performance this year was simultaneous firing conducted by several combat machines at “the enemy helicopter” which was emulated by illuminating rockets.

The dynamic performance was conducted on all days of the Army’2021 forum. Generally speaking, it was all the same with few alternations. On August 23, the dynamic performance had an extension in the form of “exclusive demonstration of certain weapons systems” for the top brass. On August 24 and 25, at the request of foreign delegations, the focus was placed on weapons systems intended for export. After the doors were open to the general public on August 26, the dynamic performance added a few additional elements, mostly of the game nature, to make it more spectacular for ordinary people.

Flights from Kubinka

Flight demonstration program over the Kubinka air force base took place every day except for August 26. It turned the most spectacular on August 23, through participation of the Sukhoi Su-57 fight generation fighter which took off from (and, subsequently, landed at) the Ramenskoye aerodrome.

Those who adore piston airplanes, were unset by the Yakovlev Yak-152, which was on the flight demonstration program’s timetable but never turned up. This airplane, however, had always been present during the previous events in Kubinka. This year, its “slot” in the flight demo program was used by the Yak-130 twinjet.

Not on the program, and yet flying from time to time, was the MiG-35D lightweight fighter. Perhaps, this aircraft was called upon urgently to make up for the absence of the Strizhy (Swifts) air display team on the MiG-29. On the eve of the show, a MiG-29 crashed in Southern Russia. This led to temporary grounding of the whole MiG-29 fleet until such time the investigators draw their conclusion.

Those who attended the show in Kubinka had a chance to see a MiG-29 in the static, though. A single MiG-29SMT was exhibited in a light easy-erectable metal hangar. There, it stayed among a few pieces of ground equipment related to the theme of technical support and servicing of the air force assets at a temporary airfield.

The most spectacular part of the show in Kubinka was the performance by six Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighters from the Russian Knights air display team of the Russian Air and Space Force. The pilots got airborne in two groups, three aircraft each. The focus was on handling skills in formation flying, with the pilots regrouping several times to alter the formation. They flew so close to each other that sometimes it seemed there was no separation between the aircraft.

After that, the six broke up into pairs. The pilots performed a few aerial tricks including “mirror”, fast head-on approach, synchronous “bell” (tail slide), “hook” (3D pitch-up) and “recovery” (from deep spin using thrust vectoring).

The Su-35 has been operational for about ten years, but the Russian Knights received such planes only recently. Today, the group’s fleet is a mixture of the Su-35 single- and Su-30SM twin – seat fighters. Sadly, the tandem-cockpit airplanes did not take part in the flight demonstration program this year. And yet photographers did have a chance to depict two types in the air at one time. For that purpose, the pair composed of a Su-35 and a Su-30SM circled around the aerodrome after the official program was over.  

The Berkuts (Golden Eagles) of the Russian Air and Space Force on the Mi-28 helicopters showed their skills in formation (four machines) and solo flying. A single Ka-52 flew solo.

Public days (August 26 -28) saw an extended flight program with more sorties performed by both military and industry pilots. Further increase in flight intensity came from air clubs and sportsmen on the Yak-52, Extra and Piper Cub piston airplanes. The Air Force Aero Club flew a MiG-15 UTI twin seat lead-in fighter trainer, a historic aircraft restored to an air worthy condition. Besides, this same club entertained the public by conducting a simulated dogfight between the Yak-52 and Piper Cub.

Static line

The Russian Defence Ministry’s department for information and mass communications issued a press release stating that the exhibition part of the aviation cluster at the Kubinka aerodrome has been “considerably renewed”. Staring from 2021, this air force base offers “a wide collection of flying machines and other equipment, from retro [historic] aeroplanes to state-of-the-art aviation weapon systems”.

On display for the first time in 2021 there were the PD-14, TV7-117ST and TV7-117V aero engines, the Altius-RU, Inokhodets-RU and Forpost-R unmanned combat aerial vehicles.

For those visitors who are interested in specifics, the defence ministry prepared expositions “Mobile field repair”, “Aviation equipment and servicing means for the Arctic region”, “Long Range Aviation” and “Military Transport Aviation”. Besides, in one of the Patriot Expo halls, there is a stand devoted to the history of the Russian Navy Air Arm.   

Among interesting exhibits in the Kubinka aerodrome static line there were the Mi-38T (“T” points at the customized version of the baseline helicopter for the Russian Air and Space Force), the Ansat Aurus (a VVIP variant of the basic rotorcraft type), the BAS-200 unmanned helicopter, the BOR-4S and BOR-6 experimental space vehicles (from a museum collection).

UTS-800

New ammunition on display included the Item 305 air to surface missile and the S-13B unguided rocket for the antitank helicopters. Decision on extension of the Mi-28 and Ka-52 arsenals was taken basing on the Syrian war experience. Both rotorcraft types undergo modernization with altering some avionics and adding new blocks. Improved examples went on display together with the new types of ammunition.

For instance, the Ka-52M features the Rezets active phase array. It replaces the older Kopyo radar with a parabolic antenna and mechanical beam steering. The Ka-52M also features the GOES-451М optical system and the AS-BLA control pod (the latter for interaction with the new missiles and aerial unmanned vehicles). The Mi-28MN side number 721 differs from serial examples (such as those of the Berkuts team) in having a mast-mounted radar and a shortened nose (lacking radio equipment to guide outdated Shturm and Ataka antitank missiles).

Making its show debut was the UTS-800 lightweight training airplane. It features a tandem cockpit and a turboprop engine, the Klimov VK-800S. The Urals Plant of Civil Aviation (local acronym UZGA) assembled first prototype in time to be demonstrated statically at Army’2021. This prototype is to make its maiden flight later this year. Defence minister Sergei Shoigu took a chance to inspect the UTS-800 during the forum. According to him, the ministry will soon initiate a competition for a lightweight trainer that would have low acquisition and operational costs. “We want to take some burden from the shoulders of [the heavier] Yak-130” twin jet, Shoigu said.

Meantime, the Yak-130 is going to have a new version. A large scale model of that aircraft was on display at a MOD stand in one of the Patriot Expo pavilions. It carried a 23-mm twin barrel cannon in a gun pod under the central fuselage. On the wing pylons the aircraft carried two blocks for 80-mm unguided rockets, four Vympel R-74 (RVV-MD) short-range and two R-77 (RVV-AE) medium-range air-to-air missiles. Since the latter employ radar guidance technology, the launching aircraft should come with an board radar, but current production Yak-130s lack one. So, the expected new version would have an extended arsenal of air launched munitions only if it comes with radar. 

The open space between the halls of the Patriot Expo centre was full of various exhibits, some of which relating to aviation. Few of those were operable, such as a Ka-52M and a Mi-28MN (in addition to similar exhibits on display at the Kubinka air force base). Here, the visitors had a chance see the Ka-27, Ka-29 and Ka-50 helicopters, the Su-39 attack aircraft, the MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters, - but these were no longer flight capable. There was plenty of air defence systems on display at the Patriot Expo (this year, no SAMs were exhibited at the Kubinka aerodrome) including the newest Antei 400 (further development of the S-300V) and the Sosna short-range system on the wheeled chassis of the BTR-82A armoured personnel carrier, as well as the artic variants of the aforementioned Thor and Pantsyr.

Also plentiful was the exposition of unmanned aerial vehicles. They came in different shapes and function. The largest part of that exposition was taken by the aerial vehicles from the Kronstadt company. The Orion-E of the MALE type (gross weight is 1150 kg) is already in quantity production and on offer to foreign customers. New types from the manufacturer were the Sirius (2 ton), the Helios (3.5 ton) featuring a large radar antenna under the fuselage, and the Grom (Thunder, 7 ton) that differs from all others in having jet propulsion instead of propellers. There was also the VT450 unmanned helicopter.

Event of a global scale

Since the Army’2021 forum opened simultaneously with the Army Games, but closed earlier (August 28), the attention naturally moved to the War Olympics. When the games, too, came to a close, the President of Russia spoke again. “Starting in 2015, the Army Games have strengthened their traditions, and become an event of a global scale. Year after year, these games unite more servicemen from Russia and other countries, by giving them a unique chance to demonstrate their skills and crafts, teamwork, the ability to solve various tasks quickly and efficiently. It is my pleasure to say that the Army Games 2021 were very well organized. Their “geography” has expanded, with more national teams taking part. At the same time, the Army forum program has been enriched with interesting and eventful competitions in more military disciplines”. According to Putin, over five thousand servicemen from 44 countries took place in the Army Games 2021.

The experience of simultaneous running the Army international military technical forum and Army Games needs to be carefully analysed. Is it wise to run in parallel the two events very different in their nature? Surely, the organizers want the derive more from both and each. In future, they will act so as to be most efficient.

author's photos