According to Russian news agencies Avia.Pro, the Russian military announced that a VKS Su-27SM3 fighter crashed, which happened within a month of previous crash. The crashed was attributed to an explosion of onboard ammunition, Russian Air Force identified the aircraft as the Su-27SM3 modification, –only 12 examples were built for this variant.
On May 15, the Russian air command in Crimea announced that, due to the continuing maritime situation in Crimea, the Russian military refused to retire the Su-27 fighter. On March 25, during a mission, the Su 27SM3 fighter of the Russian Air Force crashed in the Crimea, and the fighter fell into the sea 50 km west of the Crimea.
The crashed Su-27 fighter at that time was following the NATO fleet. This NATO fleet conducted exercises in the waters near the Crimea. During this period, it emitted waves of electronic interference to Russian fighters, although there was no evidence that the Su-27 crashed due to NATO actions.
However, since the sea conditions in the Black Sea did not improve, Russia could not successfully find the wreckage of the Su-27. To avoid lengthy searches and possible information leakage, the Russian military decided to detonate a deep-sea bomb to destroy the Su-27SM.
Russian defense ministry did not disclose further information about the crash however the search for the crashed Su-27 is being carried out by the VKS.
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