Russian anti-submarine aircraft make first flight to the US
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Northern Fleet's anti-submarine aircraft for the first time in a long time made a flight to the US coast over the Arctic, Zvezda TV channel reported.
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| Tu-142 long-range anti-submarine aircraft. Photo: Sputnik |
"Flights to the North American continent via the Arctic were carried out for the first time since Soviet times," General Shoigu said at the meeting, during which the Northern Fleet's operational plan and the issue of rearmament of some of its units were discussed.
The head of the Ministry of Defense did not specifically inform: when, in what composition and how many times Russian military aircraft flew over the Arctic to North America.
The first transpolar flights were made in 1937 by crews under the leadership of Valery Chkalov (June 18-20) and Mikhail Gromov (July 12-14). Both flights were carried out on single-engine ANT-25 aircraft with long wingspans and with a flight duration of more than 60 hours.
