A Flying Air Force

As a general note, there are many official and spotter reports of increased flying activity on Russian airbases. Three examples:

On 09/14/2007, the Ministry of Defense (Russian link) reported on the full flying schedule at the Dzemgi airbase, home of the upgraded Su-27SMs.

"All Su-27SM upgraded airframes are in the air, each one numerous times for each flight rotation, of which there are four per week."

In an earlier report, on 09/04/2007, the MoD (Russian link) reported on the inspection of the 67th attack regiment, flying Su-24Ms out of Siverskiy-2 airbase in the Leningrad district.

"During the inspection, the regiment was brought up on alarm, about 20 armed Su-24 aircraft flew to one of the target ranges of the Voronezh district, conducted strikes against ground targets and landed at a divert airbase in the Voronezh district, where the pilots were given a new assignment.

Personnel prepared, refueled and rearmed the aircraft for the new mission and conducted a flight to another range in the Voronezh district for another successful strike against ground targets and a return to the home base in the Leningrad district."

Realeconomy.ru (Russian link), citing Interfax, reported on 09/13/07 on the first in-service flights of Su-34s at the Lipetsk flight training center.

"During the first training flights on the Su-34, pilots practiced take-off and landing, simple and advanced maneuvering and combat employment on the center's combat range with use of the targeting systems and gun cameras against ground and airborne targets."

Note, despite the use of "combat employment," the above implies that pilots were training with use of the targeting systems, not actually employing any weapons.