Updated 16th June 2020

POBEDA is Russian For Victory and on May 9th each year there is a massive celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The reason we celebrate VE Day on May 8th and Russia is May 9th is due to the time difference between Moscow and the UK.

It is a massive show of Russia’s military might with normally thousands of troops, tanks, mobile missile launchers (quarantine stopped that this year) and one aircraft for each year since 1945, so this year was 75 aircraft and 2019 was 74.

It starts from the Kubinka air base west of Moscow and approaches Sheremetyevo before turning south down Leningradsky prospect, flying over Dynamo Stadium towards Tverskaya then over Red Square at about 500 to 1000ft before dispersing and heading west back to Kubinka. All flights from Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo are stopped for a period to allow safe passage for this massive fleet of aircraft.

It starts with the a Mi-26 (Russians call it the flying cow) and 4 Mi8AMT’s which have to fly ahead of the following jets which catch up near Red Square. The tail of this flypast is six Su25 aircraft painting the sky with the red white and blue of the Russian flag.

There are two practice runs prior to the celebration usually the 4th and 7th of May, but this year there was only one on the 4th, however generally the aircraft are the same with possibly a couple of changes on the smaller types. The line-up order today was as follows;

Mil Mi-26 Halo, 05 yellow/RF-93527
Mil Mi-8AMT Hip, 52 red
Mil Mi-8AMT Hip, ?? red
Mil Mi-8AMT Hip, ?? red
Mil Mi-8AMT Hip, ?? red

Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 05 yellow/RF-95315
Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 08 yellow/RF-95320
Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 11 yellow/RF-95325
Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 51 yellow
Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 52 yellow/RF-13492

Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? red
Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? red
Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? red
Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? yellow
Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? yellow

Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, ?? red
Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, ?? red
Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, ?? red
Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, ?? red
Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, ?? red

Beriev A-50 Mainstay, 42 red/RF-50610 (c/n 00934 84538), 2457 DRLO (Ivanovo)

Ilyushin IL-76MD Candid, RF-78805, 196th VTAP
Ilyushin IL-76 Candid, RF-78809
Ilyushin IL-76 Candid

Ilyushin IL-78 Midas, 78 blue/RF-94281 (c/n 00834 89678), 203rd APSZ (Ryazan)
Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack, 15 red/RF-94108

Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack, ?? red
Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, ?? red
Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, ?? red
Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, ?? red
Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, ?? red

Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H, ?? red
Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H, ?? red
Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H, ?? red

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29SMT Fulcrum-D, 24 blue/RF-90857
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29SMT Fulcrum-D, 34 blue/RF-92313
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29SMT Fulcrum-D, 35 blue/RF-92314
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, 59 blue/RF-92114

Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, 051 blue
Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, 055 blue
Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, 057 blue
Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, 058 blue

Sukhoi Su-24SM Fencer, 44 red
Sukhoi Su-24SM Fencer, 47 red
Sukhoi Su-24SM Fencer, 48 red
Sukhoi Su-24SM Fencer, 49 red

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31K Foxhound, 90 red/RF-95215
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31K Foxhound, 92 red/RF-95217
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31K Foxhound, 93 red/RF-92454
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31K Foxhound, 98 red/RF-92457

Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback, 11 red
Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback, 16 red/RF-95846
Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback, 25 red/RF-81877
Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback, 27 red
Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 56 red/RF-81744
Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 57 red/RF-81768
Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 58 red/RF-81769
Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 59 red/RF-81770
Sukhoi Su-27SM Flanker-B, ?? red
Sukhoi Su-27SM Flanker-B, ?? red

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H,, Russian Knights, RF-81704/33 blue
Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Russian Knights
Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Russian Knights
Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Russian Knights
Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Russian Knights
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, Strizi (Swifts), 02 blue/RF-91946
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, Strizi (Swifts), 12 blue/RF-91945
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, Strizi (Swifts), 15 blue/RF-92283
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, Strizi (Swifts), 16 blue/RF-92113

Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, 81 red, RF-95155
Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, ?? red
Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, ?? red
Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, ?? red
Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, ?? red
Sukhoi Su-25UB Frogfoot, ?? red

Photo credits: Gavin Maxwell

 

Best regards,

Gavin Maxwell