Russian Su-30SMs and S-400 systems moved to Belarus
On 8 September 2021, Su-30SM fighter aircraft of the Russian Federation - Aerospace Forces (RF VKS) arrived in Belarus as part of the creation of a joint combat training centre with the Republic of Belarus Air Force.
A group of Su-30SM fighters aircraft arrived at Baranovichi air base in the Brest region and according to the press release of the Belarusian Ministry of Defence (MoD), besides a training role, their tasks also includes joint combat missions and patrolling the air borders of what they describe as 'the Union State'.
The official announcement comes two days before the start of Zapad-2021 (West-2021) joint military exercise which will take place in both Belarus and Russia. Already back in June 2019, four Sukhoi Su-30SMs operated by 14 GvIAP were seen at Baranovichi air base and it seemed that the aircraft were permanently deployed there since. However, their presence has always been denied by Belarus.
The decision to create joint combat training centres for the armed forces of Belarus and Russia is not entirely new, it was already announced back in March 2021 in Moscow during negotiations between the heads of the defence departments. Three joint combat training centres will be formed, two in the region of the Russian Federation (Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad) and one in Belarus (Grodno region). The establishment of the Grodno training centre has already started, with S-400 Triumph Air Defence System units of the anti-aircraft missile troops of the Russian Federation having been transferred by train for permanent deployment at Grodno on 28 August 2021.
The move is a big shift in relations between the two countries. Thus far there only have been two Russian military facilities in the country. The first one is the Gantsevichi Radar Station in Kletsk-2, operated by the 474th independent Radio-Technical Unit, with the 70M6 Volga-type UHF early warning AESA radar designed to identify launches of ballistic missiles from Western Europe and track artificial satellites. The other one is the 43rd Communications Centre of the Russian Navy situated west of the town of Vileyka, a facility for transmitting orders to Russian nuclear-powered submarines across the globe.
The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, was until recently quite reluctant to extend the number of Russian installations in the country, but after the turmoil of last year’s mass protests of the Belarus opposition this has obviously changed.
Today, 9 September 2021, he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, among other topics to discuss the delivery of further military hardware to Belarus, including S-400 Air Defence Systems, UAVs and 'dozens' of additional Su-30SM and Yak-130 aircraft, as well as Mi-35M and Mi-8MTV-5 helicopters.
Photo by Oleg Pavlov via RussianPlanes.net