"Russia basing additional advanced combat aircraft in Crimea" Topic

"Russian news reports from mid-October state that a brand-new Su-30SM with the tail number 43 and series production number 10MK5 1317 has been deployed to the Russian naval aviation unit based in Saki, about 60 km north of Sevastopol. The aircraft was reportedly flown directly to Crimea from the production line at the Irkutsk plant after making a refuelling stop in Novosibirsk.

This Su-30SM completed assembly this year and its first test acceptance flight took place on 20 July. It is the first Su-30SM to be delivered this year to the 43rd Naval Aviation Surface Strike Unit assigned to the Sevastopol-based Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the city of Saki…"
From here
link

Amicalement
Armand

One whole SU-30 deployed?! Scary thought.

28mm Fanatik, No doubt more are going to be introduced.

I suspect a whole regiment of about 22-24 to be exact to replace existing Su-24 Fencers. And that doesn't include upgraded Russian Air Force units based there already which includes up to 24 Su-30SM's assigned to 31st Guards Fighter Regiment, 36-ish Su-34s assigned to 959 Frontal Bomber Regiment, 12 Su-27SM3 assigned to 3rd Composite Guards Aviation Regiment as well as numerous upgraded Su-24/-25s and some older Su-27 and MiG-29s.

The key here is the symbolism. The Russians are stating their intent to keep and defend Crimea down to the point where they're even deploying brand new aircraft to the region as opposed to redeploying older ones from other units.

To this you can also add the deployment of brand new frigates, corvettes and submarines to the Black Sea Fleet.

All this is especially symbolic as usually the pick of new aircraft and ships goes to Western facing units including the Northern and Baltic Fleets.

Black Sea used to be a bit of a dumping ground for older equipment.

Well, one must have aircover to protect those mobile, nuclear missile launchers, I suspect.

I thought the majority of the T90's and BMP 3's were facing China?