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Aviation History
1987
1987 - 0012.PDF
DEFENCE $2 ... |yfl ^B :,,,:,:•.,-•,: ... ^H f Left The 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier Leonid Brezhnev is currently being fitted-out at Nikolayev and a second of the class is being built. Right The SA-X-12B Giant complements the SA-12A Gladiator Sam. The Giant is a WOkm-range, low-to-high altitude missile remain primarily a land-based force. The 65,000-tonne conventional-layout aircraft carrier Leonid Brezhnev was launched in December 1985 from Nikolayev on the Black Sea, and is still fitting out. The flight-deck configuration of this 300m-long carrier has yet to be confirmed, and aircraft for its air wing are under development at Saki AB, also near the Black Sea. At Saki a 295m flight-deck outline has been laid out, complete with arresting gear and crash barricades and two catapults, one being tested and one under development. Two ski-jump ramps are also in use and several aircraft, including Flanker and Fulcrum (and Flight under stands, Flogger and Frogfoot) have been operated from the dummy deck. All of these aircraft might be converted for carrier use, and it is possible that a new dedicated naval fighter might be built as a result of experience gained from the trials. The carrier's aircraft complement will probably include at least 45 advanced Stovl aircraft. The land-based Naval Aviation has become the first service to operate the Tu-26 Backfire C (with wedge-type air intakes similar to those of the MiG-25 Foxbat), with a new Regiment attached to the Black Sea Fleet. In early 1986 this force also received a squadron of Su-24 Fencer E, marking the initial deployment of Fencer in Naval Aviation. The latest model, Fencer E, is a maritime recce/strike variant, and the Baltic deployment brings the total number of Fencers now in service to more than 800 aircraft. The Soviet Union is also spending about $1 billion a year on laser weapons research. Most of this takes place at Sary-Shagan Missile Test Centre, where anti- ballistic missile (ABM) test ing is also conducted. The Soviet work is exploring three types of laser; gas dynamic, electric discharge, and chemical, all of which have achieved "impressive" power output, says the DoD. The USSR may also be exploring the potential of visible and very-short-wave length lasers, and investigat ing excimer, free-electron, and x-ray lasers. It has been developing argon-ion lasers. The DoD estimates that the USSR could not field an operational ground-based ABM laser until the late 1990s and, if their R&D is success ful, an operational space- based laser until early the next century, but high- energy air defence lasers are likely to be deployed on the ground in the early 1990s and at sea in the mid-1990s. A prototype space-based particle-beam weapon capable of disrupting the electronics of satellites might be tested in the 1990s. Below Sovremennyy-class destroyers have recently used laser-rangers to irradiate maritime patrol aircraft taking close-up pictures like this one, taken off Japan. The laser sight used is the small grey box mounted just forward of the bridge. Even relatively low-power laser rangefinders can cause serious eye damage and temporary or permanent blindness 10 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 4 April 1987
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